This is an update of a post I did way back in April on a new diagonal Japanese style pedestrian crossing at Oxford Circus.  This area is held close to the hearts of HOK Londoners as we were resident in the the floor above Topshop, just above Oxford Circus tube state, for a wonderful ten years (my bank balance is now thanking me that we have moved, as I did have a good daily routine of taking the ’short cut’ through Topshop to ‘browse’ on my way home…).

Oxford Circus, with HOK's old home centre in the photo, courtesy of Architect's Journal

So back to the topic – the pedestrian crossing. This may seem a topic as dry as good peanuts to you, but it is caused a small sensation over here.

A big part of this crossing revamp involved removing the metal barriers and concrete which formerly restricted pedestrian’s crossing the street and causing an incredible amount of congestion (it used to take a good 10 mins to walk from the old HOK office door to the steps of the  tube – which was roughly 10 meters – and that’s only a tiny exaggeration). So removing these restrictions has boosted the available space in one of Europe’s most clogged pedestrian zones (have you ever been there at Christmas??) and according to the theory behind the new crossing, if you give people more freedom they will take greater responsibility for their own actions. Therefore pedestrians will be more careful about traffic and vice versa.

Boris Johnson, our esteemed Mayor opened the junction, based on a design in Shibuya, Tokyo, by striking a gong. He said: “This is a triumph for British engineering, Japanese innovation and old-fashioned common sense. We’ve brought one of the world’s greatest crossroads into the 21st century.” He also commented these little gems:

“It’s a crossing with the X factor!”

“This a triumph of diagonal thinking!”

“X marks the spot!”

Our Boris (pinched from Wikipedia, thank you)

Striking the gong (courtesy of the Daily Mail)

And interestingly, the Mirror (tabloid) newspaper travel editor Nigel Thompson added: “I’ve used the Shibuya crossing several times. Like most Japanese inventions it’s simple – and works. Oxford Street shoppers will love it.” See the full Mirror article here.

The Guardian reviewed the pedestrian crossing with an eye to the cyclists (The Guardian pursue a strong green agenda and really walk their talk, as HOK Advance Strategies found out when we supported the Guardian’s recent move to Kings Place, as I reported nearly a year ago now). Anyway, The Guardian Bike Blog journalist’s worry was “what’s to stop an absent-minded pedestrian, particularly a visitor used to looking the other way at junctions, from stepping out right into my path at the wrong moment?” But they were reassured by Boris who  said: “It’s obviously a factor, but all the evidence from other European capitals about shared space is that it brings a greater sense of awareness between pedestrians and cyclists. People have got to learn to look out for each other and trust each other.”

This is an interesting concept and we’ll see how it works. One thing I hope is that the new synchronising of the traffic lights speeds up the buses coming down Oxford Street on these cold winter days….