A LEADING street designer has made suggestions on how St Giles could be improved for pedestrians.

Ben Hamilton-Baillie gave a talk on Tuesday night to a special joint meeting of cycling society Cyclox and Oxford Pedestrians’ Association (OXPA) about the potential pedestrianisation of St Giles.

The “urban design and movement” expert was previously commissioned by Oxford University in 2007 to draw up plans to show how the Parks Road-South Parks Road junction by the natural history museum could be opened up as a shared space for pedestrians, cyclists and cars, although the designs were never taken forward.

He specialises in European-style shared road space schemes, which involves the removal of road signs which “treat drivers like idiots”.

Instead, different coloured road surfaces and visual cues such as brickwork are used to encourage drivers to slow down, making roads less dangerous.

They can then be used by cars, cyclists and pedestrians at the same time. He suggested a number of possible ways that St Giles could be improved.

At the meeting in Oxford Town Hall, Mr Hamilton-Baillie said: “St Giles is an unusually wide street, historically used to drive cattle into town.

“At the moment, it is uncomfortable, the ways traffic use the space and the rather inconsequential median strip.”

He said that if he was redesigning it, he would consider using the boulevard style of widened pavements that give pedestrians more space.

In an hour-long talk to members of the two groups, Mr Hamilton-Baillie talked about the changing use of streets over time from traditional trading spaces.

He explained how in the internet age people no longer need to go into towns to shop so attracting visitors is as much about the visual appeal of a space.

In an Oxford Mail survey in November, 85 per cent of vehicles were clocked breaking the 20mph speed limit on St Giles.

Cyclox member Sue Rowe, of Iffley Road, moved to Oxford because she liked the cycling culture, but said she feels intimidated cycling along St Giles.

“We would like to get good ideas of how Oxford can be made friendlier,” she said.

“I have only just moved to Oxford but I had to struggle to find out where to go while cycling on St Giles.

“I think it would probably be better to narrow the road area and widen the pedestrian area.”

The meeting was chaired by OXPA chairwoman Sushila Dhall.

She said: “We are trying to take forward the idea of widening the pedestrian bit of St Giles, which we think is one of Oxford’s most beautiful squares.

“What we all want to have is an improved city experience.”

Mr Hamilton-Baillie concluded his talk with a warning that “any scheme is uncomfortable in its first six months.”

He also told the meeting: “You have to have a politician with vision [to take the scheme forward].”