There’s a traffic light controlled junction near me which consists of a busy single carriageway crossing a dual carriageway. Every morning it is backed up a couple of hundred yards in each direction. I was surprised one morning when I approached the junction at the usual busy time and there was virtually no traffic waiting. The traffic lights had failed and instead of this resulting in chaos people were simply being careful and sensible resulting in the junction being free of traffic and no one waiting.
Most people will do the right and sensible thing in these situations, unfortunately we have to legislate for the idiotic and thoughtless minority who feel that the road belongs to them and this results in a proliferation of control which impacts on everyone.
It would be nice to think that we could introduce these shared spaces, but (as well as the thoughtless minority) many people are now so used to being managed on the roads that they can’t think for themselves and get very confused when called upon to make a decision, so we would need years of re-education to be able to achieve this.