Pedestrians v traffic

To the relief  of everyone who regularly visits Romsey’s town centre, the approach to the Market Place via the town’s Church Street is open again.
It certainly has a fresh new appearance after the local authority invested something like £500,000 in revamping the road itself and closed it for  traffic for 14 weeks through the summer while contractors carried out the work. But I still have an open mind on the wisdom of the scheme which mixes pedestrians and traffic in the same space.
The authority has made a big play on rebuilding the road to make it “pedestrian friendly” with a shared surface of pavement and roadway with little more than yellow lines to separate the two which are both on the same level.
But the very idea of mixing pedestrians and cars worries me. I suspect I am not alone in having concerns about the safety of shoppers and visitors when two-way traffic also uses the roadway.
Its appearance is now very much of a pedestrianised area . . . but it is not and with traffic still using the street in both directions you need be wide awake when walking or driving, and remember that there are cars and people likely to be on the same bit of road.
Yet the improvements are intended to be the first phase of a multi-million pound scheme to similarly enhance three town centre streets.

It may be that I am being pessimistic having reservations about the wisdom of mixing traffic and pedestrians, but if not, the first accident or incident of a pedestrian being hurt will put highway chiefs at Hampshire County Council and Test Valley Borough Council under fire.