London’s city planners are borrowing a very simple principle of Japanese pedestrian management – the “scramble” – to try and replicate Tokyo’s Shibuya Crossing in the West End. It will be a sociological as well as logistical innovation for the European city.

London has started consultations on a major regeneration of Oxford Circus, the juncture of Oxford St. and Regent St., according to the Evening Standard. The scheme would stop all traffic at the crossing for 30 seconds at a time to allow pedestrians to cross diagonally as well as perpendicularly, cutting in front of each other in all directions.

In Shibuya, the phenomenon of thousands of people intersecting uninterrupted by traffic is a major tourist attraction in its own right. It’s one of dozens of such diagonal pedestrian crossings in Tokyo and other major cites that streamline consumer paths between key retail areas and transport links. Thousand gather at these intersections as they wait to cross, providing marketers with a captive audience for advertising hoardings and outdoor TVs replaying commercials.

“The parallels between Shibuya and the West End are stark: [both are] important fashion and entertainment areas,” said Danny Chalkley, Westminster Council’s cabinet member for environment and transport.

However, the new crossing will also be a sociological test of citizens’ expectations of personal space. It remains to be seen how frayed Londoners will cope with the multi-directional onslaught of barging pedestrians, something tolerant Tokyoites are well used to.

If approved, work will be complete by spring 2011, in time for the 2012 Olympics.

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