Cyclists barred from Oxford Street

As part of the diagonal pedestrian crossing scheme at Oxford Circus, cyclists have been barred from Oxford Street.

According to signs attached to traffic signals,

• Cyclists approaching Oxford Circus from Regent Street (north or south) have to continue straight ahead and cannot turn into Oxford Street.
• Cyclists approaching Oxford Circus from Oxford Street (east or west) have to turn left into Regent Street and cannot continue along Oxford Street.
• Cyclists in Harewood Place have to continue straight ahead into Holles Street and cannot turn into Oxford Street.

This cyclist is making a prohibited manoeuvre!

These restrictions came completely out of the blue: they were not included in the original proposals. We have not found them either in the traffic management order covering the Oxford Circus scheme. So we have asked Westminster's Director of Transportation for a copy of the relevant order. The LCC have also told him that it would be most regrettable if this pioneering and welcome scheme were to be undermined by being cycle un-friendly. And the council member responsible for cycling is raising the matter with him.

Westminster's Unitary Development Plan has a policy to "normally allow cyclists to turn at junctions and enter streets where certain movements by motor vehicles are banned as part of a traffic management or environmental scheme, where safety issues permit." But the council sometimes ignores this policy, for example in the recent exclusion of cyclists from Lisle Street and their forthcoming exclusion from the south end of Wardour Street.