Pedestrians shouldn't be assumed the right of way.

Idk if this has been posted before, but I feel like pedestrians shouldn't be assumed the right of way just for not being in a car.

I see way too many people just "assuming" the car is going to stop, whether due to inattentiveness or stupidity.

One of the most common places pedestrians get hit at are those right turn lane crosswalks (they're a stupid design I know). This is because pedestrians assume they have the right of way and just start walking, while the incoming driver is looking at the oncoming traffic so they can turn right on red, often even speeding up, to beat the traffic. I've personally seen nasty outcomes of this poor design.

Then we get to parking lots. I can't tell you how many times I see someone with their head down staring at their phone while they walk into target, Walmart, etc just assuming they are safe because the driver is "required" to yield. In contrast I have also seen countless drivers with their phone in their face while they're driving thru the parking lot. Also maybe if we just redesigned parking lots that could help as well where pedestrians don't have to cross oncoming traffic to enter the store.

Then I saw a video of a delivery driver killing a woman because she assumed she had the right of way crossing the sidewalk (which she did) but she didn't make eye contact with the driver, thus causing her death due to the driver not seeing her.

The thing is, when we have little children, we stop them before they cross the road, even if they're "in the right of way" because we know that drivers are often stupid and don't always stop and the kids have little awareness of cars. But for some reason when it comes to us as adults we just "assume" the driver will stop because "we have the right of way". We even get mad when a driver doesn't stop at a crosswalk, so much so we see videos of petty people online yelling at someone causing fights because they didn't yield to pedestrians.

I know that in an ideal world, we reduce our reliance on cars, but here in America, especially place like Texas, it's just not possible for now.

If we just made it where all pedestrian loses their automatic "right of way status" it would in turn (hopefully) make people more aware I believe. We've been drilled into our minds that we as pedestrians are more entitled than vehicles. And while there is some truth to that, it makes pedestrians lazy and inattentive and often willing to step in front of a car against better judgement because "They have the right of way and the car is legally required to stop."