Visitors to the Oxford Street can expect even more excitement after the heart of the thoroughfare was remodelled on Tokyo’s famous ‘scramble crossing’.
The £5m scheme to ease congestion at Oxford Circus is based on one in a busy crossing in Shibuya, the Japanese capital's equivalent of London's West End. which stops vehicles in all directions. The pedestrians can cross the entire junction on all directions. The idea is that shoppers can cross the busy intersection diagonally as well as in straight lines.
The London Mayor Boris Johnson launched the new scheme, aimed at cutting crowd congestion and the lengthy traipse round the interchange.
"This project is a triumph for British engineering, Japanese innovation and good old-fashioned common sense," Mayor Johnson said.
"The head-scratching frustration caused by the previous design is over and we've brought one of the world's greatest crossroads into the 21st century.
"Being able to cross in an oblique rather than a perpendicular fashion will make Oxford Circus incredibly more efficient for the millions of pedestrians and road users that use the crossing every year."
The changes cost five million pounds (8.2, million dollars, 5.5 million euros) and took six months to complete. According to Mayor’s office it would be Europe's busiest diagonal crossing.
In homage to the crossing's Japanese origins, Johnson struck a two-metre (yard) gong as Japanese musicians played taiko drums.
"Taking our inspiration from the Far East makes perfect sense as the Japanese have perfected the art of managing large numbers of people through good design and engineering," said Westminster City Council leader Colin Barrow.
At peak periods, up to 32,000 pedestrians per hour pass through Oxford Circus, the intersection of Regent Street and Oxford Street.
-Agencies
