Everyone agrees that the West End is suffering from congestion and pollution. When asked to describe Oxford Street by the Living Streets campaign in December, the most frequent words chosen by visitors were ‘busy’, ‘congested/crowded’ and ‘dangerous’.
Ironically, most of this congestion is caused by buses. Twenty-four bus routes pass down Oxford Street, but most of these buses sit empty because passengers get out and walk once they grind to halt in the traffic.
The state of the West End is a problem that Greens are working hard to sort out. Green Assembly Member, Jenny Jones, has gained funding for a feasibility study into creating a pedestrian-only zone through central London, linking up all the major parks and squares.
The Green Assembly Members and candidate for Mayor, Siân Berry, have put together a three-stage plan for how they will open up the West End.
Stage one: make every Sunday a car-free day, not just one weekend before Christmas.
Stage two: replace all the bus routes on Oxford Street with one frequent and efficient shuttle bus. Breaking the routes at either end of town is possible under Siân’s plan because she would also create a new ‘one pound, one hour’ bus ticket to reduce the cost of changing buses.
Stage three: replace the shuttle bus with a new tram service down Oxford Street, linked to the new cross-river tram.
Siân Berry, Green Mayor of London candidate, says:
"We would get the traffic off Oxford Street much more quickly than the other parties. We shouldn’t have to wait for a tram before we sort out the pollution and congestion in the West End.
"Replacing the buses with one shuttle service is an organisational task and nothing more. With one-hour ticketing, there is no reason why this couldn’t happen very quickly. I want to create a better quality central London now – and make it an area that people will visit, not just to shop, but to spend time and enjoy themselves."
Plans to pedestrianise London’s main shopping streets are backed by the New West End Company, which represents retailers in the area, and Living Streets, whose research on the car-free day before Christmas showed that 68% of visitors to the West End want traffic permanently removed from Oxford Street.