Work to re-structure the pedestrian crossings at Oxford Circus to include a diagonal option starts this week as part of the Oxford Regent Bond Street (ORB) Action Plan. To redress the pedestrian/ vehicular balance, pavement area is being increased by 63 per cent. With the extra space created by de-cluttering, this represents an overall increase of 69 per cent.
For the video clip, and the full story, click on: http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/5200359.article
Even as our city planners want to give priority for vehicular traffic by making junctions signal-free, sending pedestrians into claustrophobic underground caverns, etc, cities like London are re-designing themselves to become more and more pedestrian friendly.
Muralidhar Rao
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The English Circus
The architectural design of the cities of England is very interesting.
We in India have a totally different perspective. Pedestrians are common people where as people in the Vehicle are different species. Pitting vehicles against people does not seem to be a point at all. After all it is People who use the vehicles.
The reality is waiting on the roads is exasperating for people both the pedestrians and those in the vehicles. The real “optimization problem” is to reduce the waiting time for both categories of people including Pedestrian people and Vehicle people, taken together. So let us not bother to pit one against the other. There is no need.
The point to observe is Oxford Street has a diagonal because it is a simple right angle crossing. The Architectural aspects are note worthy. It caters for shoppers liberally by providing liberal space for them as it is the main retail district of London. The Vehicles are also taken into account by the simple traffic lights which alternate between the two categories of traffic that is both Pedestrians as well as Vehicles.
The Connaught Place is perhaps a good design by Leutens the architect who designed New Delhi. The situation in Bangalore KR Circle is not a simple rectangular one for example. It is slightly more similar to Connaught Place in New Delhi perhaps.
PSA