Very interesting; thanks for posting this. It's an excellent analysis by the engineer on the subject of people interacting with each other that could be transposed onto many urban problems where big brother/big rules/impersonal/agency-type solutions are the norm. There might also be a spillover effect in that by forcing people to interact, you increase their capacity to do so and thus breed a more civil society.
It is, however, as Saf notes, a system that is dependent on there being a common behavioural norm to start with. I have a friend in Toronto who is fond of noting the differences in how immigrants from various places navigate lineups at bus and streetcar stops. (She's not so fond of some of the navigation techniques!) Bullies who are willing to resort to behaviours outside the norm are able to get ahead, and they aren't bullied in turn by the rest of the crowd because the rest are bound by the same norm that leads them to line up politely to be polite to the bully.
I see from the longer of the two articles that only about 80% of signs and lights have been removed, and that it is noted that it is more workable in smaller centres.
Vancouver has increasingly, or maybe totally, gone to stop signs or even roundabouts on residential intersections; a real shame. People have gotten noticeably stupider both in and out of their cars in the interim. Not sure there's a linear relationship, but a correlation worth noting.
