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I grew up living in a very big, busy city. It was common understanding that if you don't stop and look both ways before crossing a street, you will probably get hit by a car, and it will be a toss up if they stop or not. This fostered an understanding between drivers and pedestrians where drivers always have the right of way and would always just drive, unless at a red light or a cross walk where the crossing lights are indicated. Pedestrians were always cautious of drivers, only walked on sidewalks, and crossed only at intersections when it was a red, or when it was completely clear of cars (if there were no lights).
Then I moved for a few years to a city about half the size. It was still a decent size city, but nowhere near what I was used to. There, the relationship was completely different. Cars ALWAYS stopped for pedestrians, even in the middle of the street if there was no cross walk. If a pedestrian was waiting beside the road to cross, anywhere, cars would stop for them to cross. This also meant pedestrians expected it, and would blindly walk in to the street without looking both ways all the time. This lead to a lot of confusion between both drivers and pedestrians. And for a population of less than half the size, I heard a LOT more about pedestrians being hit by cars in my time living there than I ever did before. It was not good.
I had a very difficult time getting used to this culture, and it was a very large part of why I disliked living in that city so much. I eventually moved back, for a large host of reasons, but the driver/pedestrian relationship was definitely up there.
EDIT: I looked up pedestrian accident statistics between the two cities after writing this post. In the massive city where I grew up, they had a record high of just under 40 pedestrian-related accidents in 2013. Alternatively, in a city less than half it's size, had 460 pedestrian accidents in 2009.
According to the site,
Did a quick number crunch. That's about 16,000 kids a year. In a nation of 370 million residents, that comes out to 0.004% chance in one year. Unsure how to turn that into a '1-in-x' percentage to compare it with other health threats, but it looks pretty small.
Anyway, not judging the site's message. Always a good idea to keep eyes on cars when crossing the street.