LONDON (Kyodo) Oxford Circus, one of the busiest traffic junctions in London's central business and shopping zone, looks set to undergo a dramatic remodeling based on the intersections in Tokyo's Shibuya district, council planners announced Thursday at the launch of a nine-week public consultation on the plan.
The £4 million (about $7.9 million) Japanese-inspired makeover will, for the first time, allow shoppers, office workers and tourists alike to cross the busy intersection diagonally at a "scramble crossing," instead of crossing in stages around a square.
The proposed new layout, part of a £40 million investment program for the capital's three most famous shopping streets — Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street — would see all of the existing barriers and street clutter ripped out to allow pedestrians to cross quickly and easily as vehicles from all four directions are held simultaneously at traffic lights.