There's a whole complex history behind it. When cars started to be a thing there were large numbers of pedestrian casualties because, obviously, streets are for pedestrians, trolleys, and horse carriages. Trolleys are easy to avoid and horses did cause a lot of accidents but, well, they walk at like 5-6mph. Cars were new and caused a great deal of disruption and no little amount of death.
Well, in typical American style car companies and drivers associations decided to shift the blame from the car drivers to the dead pedestrians. They lobbied for laws making it illegal to walk in the street and set off the whole process of car culture taking over American cities.
There's a whole complex history behind it. When cars started to be a thing there were large numbers of pedestrian casualties because, obviously, streets are for pedestrians, trolleys, and horse carriages. Trolleys are easy to avoid and horses did cause a lot of accidents but, well, they walk at like 5-6mph. Cars were new and caused a great deal of disruption and no little amount of death.
Well, in typical American style car companies and drivers associations decided to shift the blame from the car drivers to the dead pedestrians. They lobbied for laws making it illegal to walk in the street and set off the whole process of car culture taking over American cities.