LONDON: A stretch of London`s iconic Oxford Street was made traffic-free `forever` from Monday, as pedestrians took over the country`s most famous shopping street, absent of the capital`s red doubledecker buses and black cabs.

Shoppers walking along the street said this was a `good idea`, but drivers of L ondon`s famous black taxi cabs rejected the move as `crazy`.

`This is a momentous day for Oxford Street, but also for London,` Mayor Sadiq Khan told reporters on the thoroughfare, one of the busiest shopping zones in Europe.

`I want to be supporting our shops in Oxford Street and have a kilometre worth of this street almost half of this street traffic-free forever,` Khan said, adding the pedestrianisation would increase the number of shoppers. Thosewalking in the area on a rainy Monday said they backed the move.

`Overall, I think it`s a very good idea.

It should have been done before,` said John Oxford, an 83-year-old professor of virology. `It gives people more of a chance to actually explore the shops, explore the iconic Oxford Street,` said Madaki Kanya, a 19-year-old visiting from Manchester in northwest England.

`It`s a lot more comfortable walking around, not dodging the cars and the traffic,` agreed Paul Facer, 62, from Weymouth in the southwest, who was visiting with his wife.

The street brings in some $4.1 billion spending annually, but has faced challenges, including shops shuttering during the Covid-19 pandemic and a loss of footfall due to a shift to online shopping.-AFP