Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => On The Road => Topic started by: Speshact on 04 March, 2010, 11:57:23 pm
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Looks promising at first glance (though not a cyclist in sight.....yet where have all the buses, taxis, minicabs and cars gone?)
BBC News - Piccadilly Circus gets £14m pedestrian-friendly revamp (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8548670.stm)
Piccadilly Circus will be made pedestrian-friendly as part of a £14m revamp, which will rid the busy central London junction of guard railings.
Westminster Council approved the plan that will see the area go back to what it looked like in 1963, as more than one kilometre of railings are uprooted.
A central island will be built along Piccadilly and Pall Mall and two-way traffic will be reintroduced.
Work will begin in November and is expected to end by December 2011.
As part of the revamp the pelican crossing in Pall Mall by St James's Square will be replaced with a zebra crossing and reintroduction of two-way streets from Piccadilly Circus along Piccadilly, St James's Street and Pall Mall is expected to reduce congestion in the area.
The revamp will also open up the roads leading to St James's Park, Horse Guards Parade and Pall Mall.
Westminster City Council -
Press release
(http://www.westminster.gov.uk/press-releases/2009-06/%C2%A310m-revamp-to-piccadilly-circus-to-end-traffic-j/)
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Great! I hate pedestrian barriers.
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Me too.
I've ridden round Piccadilly Circus naked.
HTH :)
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Great. It's pretty crappy at the moment.
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I would love to see this happen...
...but I have an awful feeling that it won't. I think this may b a 'vision' that will not be realised.
To be perfectly honest, they should ban cars and cabs from that area anyway. It should be pedestrian, bus and bike only.
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From the report, the decision to do it has been made and work is scheduled to start.
Somewhere on my hard drive is a superb report from TfL about pedestrianism in London. One of the chapters is about the efficacy of coralling peds for their own safety. Their studies show that it doesn't work and that it works least well for those least physically able - the report includes pics of Really Old People who, to shorten their walk, chose to walk on the road for quite a distance rather than follow the longer "correct" route as the more able bodied and less prone to tiredness are more likely to do.
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From the report, the decision to do it has been made and work is scheduled to start.
'Scheduled' to start in November... a lot will be happening between now and then.
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Haven't they already done the same sort of thing to Oxford Circus? I didn't think there was any doubt it was going ahead.
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Haven't they already done the same sort of thing to Oxford Circus? I didn't think there was any doubt it was going ahead.
The change wasn't as radical at Oxford Circus.
There have been numerous announcements about work on Piccadilly Circus over recent years - none of them have come to anything. Part of the problems is that it is an area heavily used by cabs and they won't want to have any impact on their trade. The LTDA is a powerful lobbying force - and has significant clout in Westminster.