Public spaces in London and Paris

The kind of changes unimaginable not a few years ago:
London – from the BBC:

Oxford Street will be pedestrianised by 2020, the mayor of London’s office has said.
All traffic including buses and taxis will be banned from the shopping street – one of the most famous in the world – as part of Sadiq Khan’s plans to tackle air pollution.
More than four million people visit Oxford Street each week.
City Hall said the project would be rolled out in two stages to reduce disruption on the 1.2-mile street.

 
Paris – from CityLab:

Last year, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo promised to makeover seven major Parisian squares. This March, following a public consultation, Paris City Hall came up with the goods, providing detailed plans that will transform these famous, beautiful spaces in the period between now and 2020.
Looking at the details, it seems the city’s ambitions haven’t so far been diluted. Each square will be semi-pedestrianized—literally so, as a mandatory 50 percent of each square’s surface area will be given over to pedestrians. This means slicing away large sections of space currently allotted to cars, abolishing some lanes and slowing traffic in others. In each square, road vehicles will be restricted to lanes with a maximum width of 12 meters (39 feet), with the rest ceded to pedestrians and cyclists.