"John Rowland" wrote in message
...
On 28th July 2004, Mike Hughes wrote ...

Private Hire cars are *not* allowed through Oxford
Street during the restricted hours [1]. This is for buses
and TAXIS only. However, no one seems to enforce the rule.

[1] There are a number of legal entry points to Oxford
Street (Poland Street, Binney Street) which private cars
*can* use but they do not permit you to travel the whole
length of Oxford Street.

Has the situation changed since Mike wrote this? I haven't been able
to
catch Oxford St open to cars at any time of the evening or on Sunday
either.
Is it ever open to cars?

When it is open, where can you turn into it? Most or all of the roads
crossing it have "straight-ahead only" signs which seem to be
permanent and
to apply to taxis as well as everyone else, so it looks as if the only
potential entry points would be from Marble Arch or by a left turn
from
Charing Cross Road. I think even the left turn from Orchard St is
permanently banned. It seems incredible that someone boarding a taxi
near
the middle of Oxford St and asking to be taken to some shop in Oxford
St
would have to be taken all the way to Marble Arch and back again.

I suspect that's because of the large pedestrian flows across Oxford
Street. If you allowed any traffic to turn into Oxford Street from the
side roads, you'd have to have a dedicated pedestrian phase on the
lights, which would delay all the traffic. Perhaps it causes less
congestion to send them down to Marble Arch instead.

Aren't taxis allowed to turn from Regent Street northbound to Oxford
Street westbound? Buses certainly are, e.g. the 94.
--
Richard J.
(to e-mail me, swap uk and yon in address)