00:00One week ago I stood right here in the middle of Oxford Street to see what London's most famous
00:04shopping strip looked like without its buses and black cabs. Initially it felt less like a
00:09pedestrian paradise and more like a bog-standard stretch of emergency roadworks that I admitted
00:14felt a little bit underwhelming. Now seven days in, has the capital actually warmed up to a
00:19pedestrianised Oxford Street? The answer is sort of. Last week I noticed that despite London's
00:24busiest shopping streets suddenly being traffic-free, most people I saw are actually just
00:28sticking to the pavements. Seven days on it does seem like people are still just not wanting to
00:33venture beyond the kerb, making the most of the newly available space. I mean we have a few people
00:37meandering down the road, spreading out more, stopping for selfies right where the buses and
00:41cabs used to stand. That said, it's still very far from the bustling piazza we were expecting.
00:47Without the permanent benches, greenery or outdoor seating, it still feels like a bit of an enormous
00:53strip of tarmac waiting for something to happen. But that's exactly what it is. The transformation
00:58was never meant to happen overnight. The first stage which began last Monday the 26th October
01:03is mainly just about restricting the access of cars, buses, taxis, scooters and bikes from this
01:08one kilometre stretch and some initial construction. TfL say they want to keep disruption to a minimum
01:13over the busy Christmas season so all the trees and seats aren't due to come into play until spring
01:18next year anyway. Though on day one it wasn't the actual transformation that people had strong
01:22opinions on, it was the cyclists and to my surprise that is still very much the talk of the town.
01:27So
01:27there are signs clearly stating that this stretch is off limits to bikes but that memo clearly hasn't
01:32landed with everyone. I have seen people told to dismount. There are significantly less cyclists
01:37but there are still some kind of slipping through the cracks continuing to pedal down this road. In fact
01:42on Friday, hundreds of cyclists flooded up to the streets in defiance of the traffic ban. And speaking of,
01:47the e-bike dilemma has only got more interesting. There are definitely less of them coming down
01:51but over the past week operators like Lime and Forest introduced strict no-go red zones for the area
01:58on their apps and it's not yet clear whether that geofencing is actually slowing e-bikes down or stopping
02:04them altogether. According to TfL, people ignoring the no cycling rule could be fined up to £160
02:09but we're not aware of anyone that's actually been fined and it does seem like there are a fair few
02:15bikes still just breezing through. So my verdict, one week in. It's good to see Londoners gradually
02:20claiming the space but again, taking away the traffic is very clearly just step one. So it'll
02:25be interesting to see if there's more of a buzz when we get the street furniture and the trees that
02:30we
02:30were promised and if the ban on bikes is actually effective in stopping cyclists from zooming down.
02:35Until then, I think it's too early to say whether this is an excellent idea that will bring London's
02:40busiest high street back to life or a waste of £150 million. But for now, I think I am still
02:46optimistic
02:47for Oxford Street's future.
