London Mayor Sadiq Khan wants to pedestrianise Oxford Street, but is that a good idea?
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00:00I think from a shopping point of view and creating a sense of enjoyment of being in the centre of London, that's a great idea.
00:07Obviously, the main problem is, what knock-on effect will it have on traffic? Where will it send the traffic instead?
00:13So it does have to be thought through.
00:15I just feel that it will take away the atmosphere of shopping, people crossing the road and, you know, I fully disagree with that.
00:26So you'd rather have cars going up and down rather than just people walking?
00:29Well, having the buses, yeah. It's a good thing you actually jump on and off buses, it's a great thing.
00:36And that's one of the reasons why I came to London, because of that. It actually caught my eye.
00:43I thought it was a good way to interact with people.
00:48I think it would be a very good idea. Obviously, if I was a driver, being diverted a long way round, I wouldn't be so keen.
00:56But safety-wise, when people are shopping, they're not concentrating on crossing the road, I think it'd be a good thing.
01:02Do you think it would add to the experience, maybe, if you're shopping?
01:05Yeah, I would think so. I'm not a great shopper myself, but yeah, I'm sure it would make it better.
01:11Sadiq Khan mentioned that he's thinking of using Times Square as the model for that.
01:18Would you like to see Oxford Street turn into a kind of Times Square place, or would that be too much?
01:23Well, the last time I was in Times Square, it wasn't entirely pedestrianised, so that doesn't quite fit.
01:29Oxford Street is one long, narrow street, so there isn't the extra space for an area of pedestrianisation that you have in Times Square next to the road.
01:37So how is that going to work? I don't know.
01:40Would there be any concern that it would cause more traffic around the area?
01:44The way traffic is at the moment, it's bad anyway, isn't it?
01:49Yeah, and I think with more and more electric cars, and I think also alternative fuels like hydrogen will be coming out soon, so yeah, I think it'd be fine.