Oxford Street Goes Car-Free: Shoppers Cheer, Taxi Drivers Pay the Price

Nearly one kilometre of Oxford Street — roughly half of its 1.9-mile length — went traffic-free on Monday, banishing buses, taxis, bikes, e-scooters and private cars from Oxford Circus to Marble Arch in time for the Christmas shopping rush.

London's mayor, Sadiq Khan, called it a "momentous day". The closure caps decades of discussion, but the full transformation is still two years away: a £150 million project adding trees, seating and level "plazas" for events will only start taking shape from spring 2027. What opened this week is a temporary arrangement, with bollards and a green welcome banner rolled along the tarmac.

What do shoppers think?

The pedestrians the Guardian spoke to backed the change, mainly because pavements no longer feel like a crush. Daniel Te, a former city planner who moved to London from the US in July, sketched the scene on the spot. "I'm trying to capture the sheer mass of people going down the street," he said.

"It's an entirely new place now, isn't it?" Te said. "To see the whole street become kind of like the scramble crossing is really exciting." He normally avoided Oxford Street because it was "too busy"; now, he said, "there's more space to walk around, I'm more inclined to come." He conceded bus rerouting might inconvenience some journeys, but called it "a small price to pay".

Raquel Cox, visiting from Ireland, came specifically after seeing the news. "We said, 'We have to go there and experience it first-hand'." She accepted surrounding streets would get busier, but as a shopper "it's a better experience". That trade-off — comfort inside the zone, congestion around it — is the deal's central untested assumption.

Abbas Shigival, who runs a souvenir kiosk at the start of the pedestrianised section, said the morning felt slightly busier than usual. "It's a more pleasant environment," he said. "People are happier because they can walk around." He noted it will take time to judge the real effect on his takings.

Who loses out?

Not everyone welcomes the scheme. Taxi driver Ben McMullan said traffic was "definitely worse on the surrounding streets, and accessibility is a huge problem". He had already dropped off customers who could no longer reach the street by car — including a mother with a pram and a woman with walking difficulties. "I could only get her so far and she was really disappointed," he said.

His business concern is concrete: "Once people realise they can't get to where they need to go, I think automatically that just shuts them off from getting in the cab."

Cyclists are banned too, and enforcement is already being tested. Jack — not his real name — was stopped by security guards riding home from a construction job. "I'm not going to listen to no one. I'm going to ride down this road, whether they like it or not," he said, adding that an alternative route would lengthen his commute. He opposes pedestrianisation on principle: "It makes it harder for people to actually have vehicles."

Will the buses cope?

Many of London's double-decker buses will be diverted into neighbouring roads. Claire Mann, chief operating officer at Transport for London, insisted there would be "plenty of capacity for passengers" and no hit to reliability. "We'll be monitoring to see if it does have an impact on ridership — but Bond Street and the Elizabeth Line does give you a way to arrive in style," she said. Her pledge of monitoring is a promise, not yet evidence.

Khan, whose first jobs were in retail on the street, told an audience at John Lewis: "We've seen over the last couple of decades this street in decline … Pedestrianising the street with great public transport links, more greenery, more seating, will link to a better experience all round."

The permanent design depends on feedback from this first phase, and Khan said London "would be closely monitoring these changes to make sure they are working for everyone".

His framing makes the bet explicit: "I want this to be a proof of concept — that investing in people rather than traffic leads to better footfall and spend." Whether footfall and spend actually rise — and whether shoppers arriving by car, cab or bike forgive the friction — will decide if the £150 million rebuild ever breaks ground.