Pedestrianization of major streets isn't without difficulties, though the main one with this stretch of Oxford St. is about diverting buses, but generally once places are fully pedestrianized, it is quickly difficult to imagine they were otherwise before.
Much of Britain’s most famous shopping street will be closed to traffic from Monday as the long-awaited pedestrianisation of London’s Oxford Street begins.
About half of the 1.2 mile street will initially be vehicle-free, after decades of planning and dispute over how to best use the street, an important transport thoroughfare and the home for flagship stores for big shopping chains.
London's odd, for Britain, in that most British cities have long had large pedestrianized chunks in the core and London barely does.
Not that everywhere is a car free utopia, but places for pedestrians aren't alien.