In 2022, cars killed 7,508 pedestrians, the equivalent of 18 fully-loaded Boeing 747s crashing with zero survivors. That means a pedestrian died roughly every 70 minutes, with no breaks in the tide of fatalities for weekends or holidays. This flood of death is recent: American roads were demonstrably safer to walk on just a decade ago, with thousands fewer pedestrian deaths.
Experts are unanimous in their assessment of the situation: this is a disaster.
For Motor1.com: Pedestrian deaths are an emergency. We need to start acting like it.
Edit: actually i am going to amend this because of an extremely valid observation that car culture and potential for violence aren't gonna be the same everywhere (and also additionally i can probably get away with more than someone from a persecuted minority would be able to)
i walk 8km a day across at least a few busy intersections
if they look like they're gonna try to muscle in on you while you're crossing so they can make a right turn 0.273 seconds faster, THREATEN THEIR CAR
if they're honking at the guy who actually stopped for you because idk they're so impatient they just want them to fucking kill you, THREATEN THEIR CAR
a car isn't a person, you can commit any act of violence1 you want against it with zero ethical considerations. You can just punch someone's hood and they'll be aghast, but nothing actionable has actually happened.
My favourite is blasting them directly in the face with 2000+ lumens of unnecessarily bright flashlight.
although like try not to actually cause damage for real because that could get legal
This advice is fine when people don't carry guns in their car, but don't do this in America, you are fairly likely to get shot eventually.