"Shared spaces"

According to the linked article "shared spaces" are " spaces where the council has removed the distinction between footpath and road. "

Auckland has them.

Obviously there was an unhappy outcome for the pedestrian in the article. But that could be because of driver error.

Anyone with experience of " 'shared spaces" know how well they generally work ?

http://tinyurl.com/paghgsp

Link does not work for me.

However there are quite a few around Christchurch, have been there for a few years. They seem to work just fine.

The Federal Street zone was a through road with very narrow footpaths on each side, there was a need to maintain access for vehicles, but pedestrian volumes were too high for the size of the footpaths, so the concept of a shared zone was trialed. It worked satisfactorily and was made permanent.

The times I have been there there were no real issues, with cars just inching along at a pedestrian place. One driver who was a bit impatient blasted his horn, and was rewarded with a telling off from a very cranky lady in her 80's waving a very lethal looking umbrella , with a few cheers from onlookers. :)

It was a link to the NZ Herald.

The webpage for the NZ Herald seems to be down now. Should the link not work once the site gets back up I will post another.

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Edited to say the NZHerald is now up and my link to the story on it working.