Pedestrians are being encouraged to walk out in front of cars and traffic lights have been removed in a unique experiment on Britain’s roads.

Drivers no longer have the right of way on the ring road in Ashford, Kent, and have to negotiate their way across junctions, with no signs or lines to guide them. All road users, whether travelling on foot, by bicycle, car or bus, have equal priority and must use eye contact to decide who goes first.

The town is embracing the concept of “shared space”, which was invented in the Netherlands and is based on the principle that creating uncertainty on the roads makes them safer.

Parts of the concept have already been adopted on a handful of roads in Britain, such as Kensington High Street in West London, where railings have been removed.

But Ashford is the first place to introduce the purest form of shared space, under which traffic lights are considered not only unnecessary but a potential cause of collisions.

The theory is that lights lull people into a false sense of security, meaning that they pay less attention on a green light and fail to notice someone stepping off the pavement.

Four sets of lights have been removed from Ashford’s ring road. The road surface has been relaid with red and grey bricks in a herringbone pattern to remind drivers that they are not on a conventional street. Pedestrians can cross the road wherever and whenever they choose, without waiting for a gap in the traffic.

The speed limit has been reduced to 20mph but there is no plan to enforce it and there are no road humps or chicanes to compel drivers to slow down. Instead, the designers claim will obey the limit because the road width has been reduced to leave vehicles only just enough room to squeeze past each other. Kerbs have also been lowered and the distinction between road and pavement deliberately blurred.

Kent County Council has spent more than £13 million turning a three-lane fast-moving one-way system into a two-way road where the pavement is almost twice as wide as the carriageway. Richard Stubbings, the project manager, said: “We needed to remove the concrete collar which was choking Ashford. We accept it will take a bit of getting used to but we believe that ending segregation between cars and pedestrians will make roads safer and more civilised.” Paul Watters, head of roads policy at the AA, said removing traffic lights would create danger and congestion. “Those streets will be reverting to the law of the jungle. There will be road rage, collisions and chaos because no one knows who has priority,” he said.

The fiercest opponent of shared space is the charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind. It argues that a scheme that relies on pedestrians and drivers establishing eye contact places blind people at a disadvantage.