Once upon a time I never heard this silly idea that the idea that you shouldn't blunder out into the street is a conspiracy by automakers. Then it was an article on HN and now I hear it all the time.

Separating pedestrians from vehicles just makes sense.

Streets before 1900 still had sections for horses and sections for people. And you didn't need to tell people not to stroll down the horsey sections, they were covered in horseshit.