Tom Anderson wrote:
On Sun, 13 Aug 2006, Dave Arquati wrote:

if the decision is taken to relocate the Arch into Hyde Park;

This seems like a dreadful idea to me - the epitome of the planning
mentality that puts roads above people.


Yes, there needs to be walking access to the arch from the park, but the
solution is not to move the arch, it's to get rid of the absurd gyratory
system around it; drop the roads down a few metres and put it in an
underpass, either as a gyratory, or as a straightforward pair of forks.

Dropping roads down into underpasses is fraught with difficulty, because
there are so many underground services (not to mention Underground
services) in the way.

I certainly favour rearranging the gyratory, but practicality is
required. I reckon that most of the northern and eastern sides of the
gyratory could be closed to cars (a la Trafalgar Square), and coupled
with the movement of the Arch into the park, frees up an ideal spot for
a (well-designed) bus station. The plans for the Arch were to move it
next to Speakers' Corner. Placing surface pedestrian crossings from here
across into the bus station and from the bus station to Oxford Street,
Edgware Road etc (across the now bus-only segments of the gyratory)
would provide a much better (and faster) walking environment than the
subways. There would also be a high-quality public transport interchange
to match.

One of the irritations of the current layout is that interchange between
buses is awkward, as you can only get the full set of services on each
arm by crossing the whole gyratory. Putting the roads into underpasses
wouldn't necessarily help; obviously there still need to be roads on the
surface for buses, and the Arch itself prevents a reasonable layout from
being achieved that minimises interchange walks.

I favour the latter - it would make navigation by car more awkward, and
so reduce traffic. Hey presto, people can now walk from Oxford Street,
through the arch, into Hyde Park!

No, i don't know where i'd put the tube station booking hall. Details!

tom



--
Dave Arquati
Imperial College, SW7
www.alwaystouchout.com - Transport projects in London