About 50 years ago, Dutch local authorities and city planners were beginning to realise that many city streets were unsuitable for unbridled expansion of the motor car and - assisted by public pressure - the principle of ‘woonerf’ (literally ‘living yard’) was born: shared space between pedestrians, cyclists and cars, but with pedestrians having priority. By 2000, there were 6000 of these schemes in The Netherlands. Because of the proliferation of street signs and other street furniture,…