Here's something you won't be able to do in a couple of weeks time.
Ride a bus down Oxford Street.
Pedestrianisation begins on Monday 26th October, with buses removed forever on the evening of Sunday 25th.
So I've been out to do it now, before I never can again.
Importantly it's not the whole of Oxford Street, only the middle half from Selfridges to Great Portland Street, but that is the key shopping bit and includes both sides of Oxford Circus. n.b. I did a full analysis of the changes in November so won't repeat myself but you can read more detail there, or see the consultation here.
You can get a preview of the upcoming Mayoral tubthumping campaign by looking at the posters plastered over the corner of Oxford Circus station.
» One says Oxford Street. But Better.
» One says More Street. Less Road.
» One says Good News Speed Walkers.
» One says The Crowds Are Staying. The Traffic Isn't.
» And one says "Busy ol' street isn't it? Bag-laden shoppers flowing past stores with a dizzying choice of trainers. Caffeine-deficient commuters making beelines to chains that sound French but aren't. Tourists suddenly stopping to eye tiny souvenir models of Big Ben. Ever thought it'd be better with... more space? Space to stroll. Space to saunter, even. Space to avoid even the most stubborn of pigeons. Great idea! Let's do that. A new pedestrianised Oxford Street is on the way. Less traffic. More space. Still busy, just better." Sheesh.
It should be great for pedestrians and for businesses seeking better footfall, all arriving just in time for Christmas. But it won't be good for taxis, bicycles or buses, all of which will be prohibited from passing through and forced to find an alternative route.
I'm particularly interested in how bus timings are going to be affected.
And to measure that properly you need data from before the change as well as data after.
I have thus been out with a stopwatch to see how long buses currently take to drive down the affected stretch.
And I'll go back afterwards to see if it's a bit worse or a lot worse.
At present routes 7, 94, 98, 139 and 390 use central Oxford Stret, stopping outside John Lewis and Selfridges.
In future two routes are being cut back to Marble Arch to get them out of the way, and three will need to be diverted.
The diversions will go via five different streets rather than one, so you'd expect slower journeys in future.
What I did
• I went to Oxford Street late on a weekday morning.
• I rode the 94, 98, 139 and 390 in both directions, eight journeys in total.
• I rode from the stop before the closure to the stop after.
• I timed the journey and counted how many times a red light stopped us.
98
east
Marble Arch → M&S
1.3km
7m 40s
(5 red lights)
390
east
Marble Arch → M&S
1.3km
7m 00s
(5 red lights)
98
west
M&S → Marble Arch
1.2km
10m 10s
(8 red lights)
390
west
M&S → Marble Arch
1.4km
9m 50s
(8 red lights)
These are the buses that stay on Oxford Street, not Regent Street.
On average it took 7 minutes to go east and 10 minutes to go west.
The difference is almost entirely explained by the queue to get through the traffic lights at Oxford Circus. Westbound traffic only gets 10 seconds to slip through, significantly less than other directions, then it's 1½ minutes before the lights go green again. On my journeys it took three attempts to get through these lights, then the experience was much the same in both directions. Without this snarl-up it would have been 7-8 minutes both ways.
94
east
Marble Arch → Hamleys
1.1km
8m 10s
(5 red lights)
139
east
Portman Sq → Hamleys
1.3km
8m 30s
(7 red lights)
94
west
Hamleys → Marble Arch
1.1km
8m 10s
(8 red lights)
139
west
Hamleys → Portman Sq
1.9km
12m 20s
(10 red lights)
These are the buses that turn into Regent Street at Oxford Circus.
On average, if we ignore the outlier, it took 8 minutes to make these journeys.
The outlier is the 139 heading west because its bus stops are stupid. For some reason the 139 doesn't stop by Oxford Circus, only halfway down Regent Street, so the stop before the imminent closure is a long way away. I suspect this made sense before TfL rationalised the bus stops on Oxford Street because you could get off just round the corner. Now you can't, and it's definitely annoying for passengers who ding the bell by the Apple Store but are unable to get off. It's going to be even more annoying when Oxford Street closes because there'll then be a 900m gap from Regent Street to Henrietta Place, and if that doesn't really piss off thousands of future tourists I'll be amazed.
I'm aware that this is not especially reliable data. It's all down to traffic conditions and passenger numbers, also the luck of the draw with a dozen traffic lights. For example one of my journeys was delayed by a passing fire engine, several by taxis picking up passengers and two had the wheelchair ramp deployed. That said one of the wheelchair rides was the shortest journey of the lot, so anomalies don't always muddy the timings. Also I only made eight journeys and for really reliable data you'd want to do a lot more, but I spent two hours of my life on this and quite frankly eight journeys was enough. Also I did end up with some relatively consistent results so I'm happy I did enough.
My conclusion then is that in decent traffic conditions it currently takes about 7-8 minutes to ride this part of Oxford Street. I can now use this fact later in the month to compare with timings after the closure and see what's happened, even if that means riding lots more buses on tortuous routes several more times.
Before then TfL have further roadworks to undertake, not to beautify the pedestrianised strip but just to make sure the traffic changes work. They have four new bus stops to add to replace the four being de-bussed. They have extra bus stands to add up several side streets. They have new signs to fix, roads to block and taxi ranks to shift, and the follow-up may take some time. Their Oxford Street works webpage says "disruption will be kept to a minimum, with limited works during the Christmas period", so don't expect to see the final results until well into next year.
But if you want to ride a bus to see the Christmas lights sorry, the road will be closing before they're switched on, so the best you can see is some dangling stars and you've only got two more weeks for the experience.
