Makes total sense. A few years ago, we had a power outage. No traffic lights operated in this area. Yet there were no accidents. People were considerate to one another at intersections.

On the mark - treat people like adults etc :-)

Shared Space schemes are now developing rapidly across many European countries, with encouraging results for safety, traffic flows and quality of space. More background articles and photos on my website www.hamilton-baillie.co.uk

Shared space initiatives take no account of people who are blind, partially sighted or have dual sensory loss. The whole concept is based upon drivers and the car rather than everyones safety.
If you can't see, how do you know where the safe environment (pavement) ends and the dangerous environment (road) starts? If you do not have this information, how can you problem solve!

Interesting point Peter, I don't know how Shared Space road initiatives take account of those with sensory loss. I'd be surprised if this has not been thought through but I'm not an expert.

There's a wider point for anyone advocating change in any system: which is the need to remain highly sensitive to unintended consequences of even the most apparently wise changes.

Citizens club Haren for elderly and children is very much against the shared space in our village Haren. The results during last elections prove this by a unknown shift in elections results. So, beware!
As father of two small kids and for my elderly parrent i'm just afraid because of many, many small unregistred accidents of people bumping into each other. We fully disagree with the public statement that we should let our kids run in front off cars to slow down traffic! Just mad and our webcampain won't stop.