Integrated Street Design in High-volume Junctions: the Case Study of London’s Oxford Circus

While traditional street design relied upon segregating vehicles and pedestrians in urban areas to ensure smooth traffic flow, urban planners and traffic engineers are gradually moving away from it. Instead, under the more modern concept of integrated street design, more space and freedom of action is provided to pedestrians, the needs of whom were previously omitted. An example space to have undergone redevelopment to a more pedestrian-oriented design is London’s Oxford Circus junction. Comparing with the results of a study pre-redevelopment, the present study aims at identifying the shift in the perceptions of the pedestrians when using the space post-implementation of the new design at Oxford Circus, but also at drawing generic conclusions on the perceptions of the pedestrians towards such schemes. A questionnaire is developed and data is collected through onstreet interviews with pedestrians at Oxford Circus. The results show that integrated street design offers improved way-finding, better perceived safety and more pleasant environments for pedestrians.