If you live in a culture where disobeying traffic signals is common (especially non-drivers...say in China...), you observe that people become much more cautious about light transitions. I always cringe driving back in the states and just going as soon as a light turns green.

A kid rushing after a ball into a crowded street in the US is probably dead meat. In China, they have a much better chance of surviving because drivers are used to that crap (likewise for pedestrians and crazy drivers). Though I would venture that the fatality rate is still much higher China (I've personally seen people get hit and killed).