The world is full of streets where people who are not local or do not look like they are local are likely to be mugged, chased by gangs who regard it as their 'territory', regarded as suspicious on account of their ethnicity or crowded with extremely persistent vendors or beggars. It is sensible to avoid them.

Yes, it is also possible for 'locals' to be upset by unreasonable behaviour like loutish drunkenness or reasonable behaviour like wearing a rainbow T-shirt, but it's a bit rich to accuse others of being deliberately obtuse when you're bringing up dangerous driving as an example of why an OP's concerns about walking through certain areas of the city is likely to be his own fault.