it's funny because as kids the first thing they teach us is to look around before crossing the streets and make sure that vehicles on the streets saw us and stopped.

Adults are so pendatic about it that we develop muscle memory for it.

The reason is simple: don't assume other people won't make mistakes just because they were supposed to be careful and protect the weakest.

The safer option is to actually be proactive about safety, at the point that we would never think about crossing streets without looking first.

It is considered a severe distraction.

I noticed that bikers (not only them, but especially them) reasoning is kinda reversed.

I'm not a biker myself, I used to ride when I was younger, but I prefer to walk now.

As a walker I've had arguments with biker friends about the unsafety that their behaviour sometimes poses on pedestrians like going at high speed where there are other people around, arriving from behind when in a noisy city it's almost impossible to hear them and making simply suddenly dodging a puddle a life threatening hazard, riding on sidewalks, disobeying traffic laws etc. etc.

There is of course a majority of responsible bikers who are very careful, but what really baffles me is that talking about their own safety is a kind of taboo for a majority of them. Most of our arguments end up with them justifying with "cars are more dangerous, they should be more careful" and when I take them seriously and reply "so if cars are dangerous, why you never wear an helmet or other kind of protections except maybe a flashing light when on the streets?", the answer I get is usually "because it's their responsibility to not kill us".

It's really nonsense to me. I really don't understand the position.