Oxford Street is set to ban vehicles within four years, the Deputy Mayor of London for Transport Val Shawcross has said.

She told the London Assembly that three quarters of the popular retail thoroughfare between Tottenham Court Road and Marble Arch is to be given over to pedestrians before 2020. A short stretch of the road at the western end of the street is likely to see vehicles removed early into the next decade after the Mayoral election.

Efforts are also being taken forward, she added, to reduce bus movements along Oxford Street prior to the road being pedestrianised.

Consultations on rerouting buses away from Oxford Street are set to begin later this year and consultations around pedestrianising the road will start next year.

Transport for London has said that over 520,000 people walk along Oxford Street every day and that 270 buses travel along the road every hour. Every day 15,000 taxis pick up or set down people in Oxford Street.

Pedestrian safety is a concern along the route, with 10 of TfL’s 24 pedestrian collision hotspots in the capital being along Oxford Street.

“Let’s make Oxford Street a world beating, globally famous shopping location,” Val Shawcross told the London Assembly. “It has been sadly neglected as a piece of public realm for too long.”

She added that she is a fan of buses but went on to say that bus movements need to reduce ahead of the opening of Crossrail stations along the road in 2018, due to likely increases in pedestrian numbers.

♦ Diesel cars should be banned from London’s roads over the next decade, an influential think tank has suggested. The Institute for Public Policy Research said on Monday that such a move would not be easy to achieve in such a short space of time – but is not impossible.

“London's air is both lethal and illegal,” said Harry Quilter-Pinner from the IPPR. “This is a public health crisis and it should be ignored no longer.” The new Mayor, he added, will ultimately need to completely phase out diesel cars and buses in order to reach legal compliance over air quality. “However, he cannot achieve this alone. National Government has so far shirked its duty on this issue. They must now pitch in to help save lives.”

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