Charles Begley Executive Director Westminster Property Association - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Welcome and introductions:

Charles Begley Executive Director Westminster Property Association

the independent integrated agency

Oxford Street Transformation:

Sam Monck Head of Oxford Street Transformation at Transport for London and Westminster City Council

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Oxford Street Transformation

WPA/NWEC seminar 30 /11/17

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Contents

1. Overview of proposals and the approach taken 2. The first consultation and key concerns 3. Work done to date 4. Oxford St West proposals in more detail 5. Key impacts:

• Traffic reassignment
• Air Quality
• Buses and accessibility

6. The Management Plan, Activation and Public Art 7. Overnight access – issues to consider (servicing, space for walking, design of space and anti social behaviour) 8. Next steps and key issues 9. Summary

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Overview of Current Proposals - Phasing

The proposals set out above and within this briefing are subject to further public consultation with consideration of issues raised given before determining final respective preferred designs.

Transformation stage one will remove traffic and introduce a temporary scheme, stage two requires support from government funding

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Approach taken

• Take a whole district approach
• Address known issues around safety, crowding, poor air quality etc.
• Protect and enhance quality of life for residents, as well as a thriving business

district

• Get ready for the pedestrian growth that comes from the Elizabeth Line
• Dramatically improve the quality of the space
• Enhance the safety of a thriving and busy West End
• Use a partnership approach to develop and deliver

STAGE WEST EAST DATE 1 Overall Vision and Outline Proposals Overall Vision Apr – Jun 17 2 Detailed Proposals Outline Proposals Nov 17 – Dec 17 3

• Detailed Proposals

May – Jul 18

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• April-June 2017: Consultation on outline vision

for whole Oxford Street District

• Overall response was supportive, but local

results within WCC expressed strong concerns

0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

The first consultation...

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...and the key issues raised

Concerns (not ranked) What we are doing...

Displacement of Traffic to local roads

Detailed traffic modelling and mitigation measures to reduce impact of proposals.

Air Quality and noise impacts

Detailed air quality modelling and monitoring measures.

Cycle Routes

Development of detailed cycling strategy and proposals to be delivered as part of Oxford Street East consultation.

Accessibility

Accessibility consultant appointed to advise on design and develop alternative mobility options. Iterative EqIA undertaken

Servicing and freight

Freight Management and Servicing plan to form key part of proposals.

Use of open spaces and activity

Detailed public realm proposals and “Experiential” strategy currently in development.

Buses – routes, stops and stands

Detailed plan for bus changes, stops and stands developed in conjunction with both councils for consultation

Road Safety

All designs to be fully safety audited and on-going monitoring of safety indicators.

Security and

Counter terrorism approach being developed with implementation of HVM

10 Work Done to Date

Highway Design Public Realm Design Environmental Accessibility Freight and Kerbside Security and CT Bus Routings and Stands

Range of options have been

• considered. Taking into account

consultation and stakeholder feedback in development of final proposals for consultation. Public realm designs and strategy for the whole district being

• developed. Transition designs for

OSW are in the consultation Consultant appointed to assess Air and Noise Quality changes associated with project & advise on potential environmental improvements. 40% reduction in buses on OSW from June 2017. (30% now done) Two routes to move to alternate route, with others curtailed or

• removed. Options for some

“turnarounds” still under discussion Consultant appointed to advise on accessibility issues. Impacts of OSW are relatively modest, but a mobility service is still being looked at for all

• f OS lengths. No decisions taken.

Freight and kerbside management plans developed to ensure servicing and taxis are served sufficiently in new arrangements Advice taken from relevant authorities to ensure security is fully

• addressed. Has impacts on options

for access

Management, Maintenance, Activation & Funding

This workstream is developing a plan around ongoing service requirements addressing issues around larger number of visitors and any impacts of the OS District

• project. Activation and public arts is

a key element

Walking and Cycling

Looking at proposals to improve walking and cycling across the district, improving safety and

• accessibility. A “Healthy Streets”

approach is being used.

11 Oxford Street West proposals - overview

• All traffic removed from large sections of Oxford

Street, for 24 hours a day but still open question about “out of hours” access.

• Two bus routes (139 & 390) rerouted onto Henrietta

Place and Wigmore Street.

• Cycles removed from Oxford St. As part of the separate Oxford

Street East proposals, high quality alternative routes would look to be delivered .

• Pedestrian improvements across whole district.
• Four key north-south traffic movements retained.

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Traffic impacts: PM Peak OSW Future Base compared to with OSW

Net flow change, all directions

• Some streets other than OSW see reduced traffic, others see

a rise.

• Because of simpler junctions on OSW, delays across the area

are relatively low impact

(more information on both these items is on the website)

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Air Quality Impacts: changes due to OSW Scheme

NO2 Level of Change

• No. of

sites Large beneficial change 7 Medium beneficial change 6 Low/very low beneficial change 28 Imperceptible change 8 Low/very low adverse change 27 Medium adverse change 2 Large adverse change

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Noise impacts: changes with OSW scheme, 2019

Significance of change in road traffic noise levels at selected receptors with Oxford Street West Scheme Noise level of change

• No. of

sites Large beneficial 7 Medium beneficial 3 Small beneficial 12 Imperceptible/none 42 Small adverse 13 Medium adverse Large adverse

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Air Quality impacts: summary

• All sites are better in 2019 than in 2016, largely

thanks to ULEZ

• None are improved enough on NO2
• OSW project then makes some sites even better, and

some sites slightly worse, but all sites are still better than 2016

• More sites are improved than adversely impacted (but

numbers of sites alone is only a partial picture)

• Predicted PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations are lower

than baseline situation and remain well below the relevant limit values at all sites.

• Monitoring is now in place in addition to the modelling

– 100 sites for diffusion tubes

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OSW: Bus proposals (local impacts)

Route Weekday

0700 – 0930 0930 – 1600 1600 - 1830 1830 - 0000 0000 - 0700

139 7.5 bph 7.5 bph 7.5 bph 5 bph 2 bph 390 10 bph 10 bph 10 bph 6 bph 2 bph

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OSW: Bus proposals (routes)

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OSW: Accessibility improvements to the District

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19 OSW impacts: Accessibility

• Removing buses from Oxford Street reduces accessibility

to the area – bus stops are further away from key destinations.

• We are therefore investigating options for an additional

(environmentally friendly) service that could improve accessibility for people with reduced mobility.

• Any mobility service would need to work with HVM

measures and not conflict with the very high number pedestrians in the area

• Mobility service is not funded within TfL’s business plan

and would represent long term operational cost.

• Potential sponsorship and revenue opportunities will be

explored as part of ongoing investigation

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A District Management Plan

• In addition to the physical design of the District, and the activation of

space, work is ongoing developing a future District Management Plan, identifying the pressures and issues that arise in such an intensively used area, and the level of service that will be required.

• This includes maintenance, cleansing and waste management,

enforcement, access management, management against anti-social behaviour and a range of services operated by WCC

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21 Activation Strategy and Public Art curation

• As retail changes, high quality public realm

is needed to encourage people into the district

• Activation of space will provide a potential

revenue income to sustain or invest further into Oxford Street, but will carry costs also

• We will commission a creative agency to

understand look at best practice elsewhere, trends and what London can offer

• The strategy will work closely with the

public realm, public art and management proposals to recommend interventions for transition, and is expected to evolve over time

Images clockwise from top left: Black Maria temporary theatre by GRUPPE (Kings X), Temple of Agate by Morag Myerscough (South Bank), The Shed temporary theatre by Hayworth Tompkins (South Bank), Teatro del Mondo travelling theatre by Aldo Rossi (Venice), London Festival of Architecture (Trafalgar Sq), Serpentine Pavilion by Rem Koolhaas

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Funding the ongoing management plan

• The future District Management and Activation will need a new

level of funding to retain the world class standard of the place we are creating. This will need to be funded from a variety of sources including:

• WCC
• Private sector
• Income - eg limited street trading and advertising
• Future costs, potential new income streams, required powers and

ways of working are being identified and will require an open conversation with stakeholders.

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Overnight access – key issues

• If there is access then who, how, where and

when?

• Emergency service access retained
• Limited maintenance access can be retained
• Freight access – what is needed and

desirable?

• Taxi access?
• Buses (not desirable for passengers or street

clutter to shift bus routes)

• Hostile Vehicle Mitigation – limitations and

management of access

• Impact on the design of space and how it is

used

• Concerns around Anti Social Behaviour
• Displaced traffic
• Impacts on Management and Activation Plan

100 200 300 400 500 600 Cars & PHVs Freight Taxis

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Hostile Vehicle Mitigation

• We are working closely with national agencies

to build HVM measures into the designs.

• We are investigating options to provide the

best possible level of security on Oxford Street, while ensuring pedestrians can move comfortably through the area.

• Designs will aim to be attractive and positive

for the public realm at this location whilst meeting HVM specifications,

• The installation of HVM may affect the level of

any alternative mobility service that could be provided

• Any access requires active management

Examples only: Kings Cross (above) and the Supreme Court (below) use a mixture of place-specific seating and planter elements and bollards

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Freight access

• Lots of background work, and ongoing engagement
• Little legal loading on OSW and few freight movements along OS.
• In total there are 425 freight vehicles per weekday of these only 135

were observed servicing

• Of these 63 occurred during the day and 71 at night. If service loops

were provided this would equate to approximately 5 vehicles per hour with a peak of 13 between 11pm – midnight

Time period Average weekday Saturda y Sunday 00:00 - 07:00 (veh/hr) 21 9 7 07:00 - 10:00 (veh/hr) 27 14 46 10:00 - 16:00 (veh/hr) 19 9 13 16:00 - 19:00 (veh/hr) 9 7 9 19:00 - 00:00 (veh/hr) 11 7 9 24 hour total (veh) 425 210 334

• Very few shops being serviced

via Oxford Street now

• Recent counts show there are

2070 servicing movements per day on the side streets north and south of OS and along

• OS. 93% of these

movements currently occur

• n the side streets.
• We can get loading facilities

within 50m of almost all OSW properties

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Public realm: space for pedestrians

Surveys: May/June 2015

• Weekday flows at all sites

exceeded 1,000 people per hour between 07:00 and midnight.

• Activity is also at significant

levels late into the evening and

• nly dips below 2,000

pedestrians per hour after around23:00.

• Saturday pedestrian flows

exceeded 1,000 people per hour from 0800 until midnight.

• This is all before the predicted

uplift from the Elizabeth Line

• Impacts on decisions around

timing of any access

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What does Oxford St feel like ? Pedestrian Comfort Levels

The PCL’s are based on the pedestrian peak hour (17:45-1845) for a Saturday For a typical High Street / tourist attraction the following PCLs are recommended: Acceptable = B At Risk = B - Comfortable = B+ Unacceptable /Uncomfortable = C+ Minimal space gain for pedestrians Saturday 2021 Maximum space gain for pedestrians Saturday 2021

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Anti Social Behaviour

• A challenge around the value of any “natural surveillance” benefit of

permitted traffic

• We have found no quantified studies to date on this yet
• Feedback to date from community safety and police colleagues suggests

there is limited value from passing traffic, with most value from active pedestrian presence

• We recognise that night time management of space is part of the

management plan that we are putting together now.

• Design is taking into account potential for ASB and minimising

management need.

• Pedestrian flows are strong until c11pm to Midnight already and Bond St

remains an attractor until c 1am (and later with night tube)

• Evening bus passengers now on alternate routes and stops will also need

to be kept under review

• So again, feeds into decisions about what access, and when

29 Design of space

Selfridges Section – Looking East Existing

Pai Painted d Carria iage geway Tempora rary ry Pl Plan anters an and d Ligh ightin ing P Pos

• sts

Ca Caten enary ligh lightin ing

• Maintaining end to end access overnight would prevent

the radical re-design of new spaces

• Limited access is probably possible, but designs will

require compromise

30 OSW Public Realm “Transition” Scheme

View from John Lewis Existing

Ca Caten enary ligh lightin ing

31 OSW “Transition” Scheme – side streets and district

Old Cavendish St Wigmore St

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Next steps and key issues

The consultation:

• The current consultation has a huge

array of information

• As well as the overall decisions on

the project, many decisions remain to be made – eg access

• We want everyone to feed in their

views – these will then feed into decisions Funding:

• Discussions are ongoing about funding

the transformation (phase 2)

• Need to finalise costs and sources of

funding for enhanced model of Management and Activation

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Summary

• A fantastic opportunity with very strong partnership development – an

alignment of the Mayor, Westminster City Council, TfL and LB Camden working together with NWEC and the private sector

• The potential is to transform public spaces on Oxford St, but this will

involve compromise between issues

• This brings substantial investment across the wider area (25 new

crossings)

• Traffic impacts across the wider area are mixed – some benefits and some

adverse impacts, but the network still operates well

• Air Quality impacts from ULEZ mean all sites improve from now, and OSW

makes many sites even better

• Necessary access on OSW can be maintained, but part time end-to-end

access would preclude major urban realm benefits

• As with all projects, it is contested and we need broad input to the

consultation

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S am Monck

Head of Oxford Street Email: sammonck@tfl.gov.uk Tel: 0207 126 2098

the independent integrated agency

Panel discussion: Damian Wild, Editor, EG (Chair) Jace Tyrrell, Chief Executive, New West End Company Cllr Robert Davis MBE DL, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Business, Culture & Heritage, Westminster City Council Val Shawcross CBE, Deputy Mayor for Transport, GLA Craig McWilliam, Vice-Chair, WPA & West End Partnership; Chief Executive, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland

the independent integrated agency

Thanks and conclusion of the seminar:

Damian Wild Editor, EG

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