Same in Germany. The problem is that many car drivers don't know this. I have been honked at and showered with profanities more than once. And I am not a slow walker.
My experience in Germany was, as a ped, that people re rigid about crosswalks (only during green and within the marked crosswalk), else you risk getting looked askance. I learned to obey the crosswalk signals (rather than take them more as suggested indicators as in the US).
It's weird that so many people report that. I'm a German who never waits for the green light at crosswalks and I never get any funny looks or comments.
Even within the US crosswalk behavior varies. Living in Boston, I cross wherever it's clear. In Seattle and its suburbs I've seen people get tickets for crossing a completely empty street.
Most drivers (as a generalization) have distain for pedestrians and expect them to get out of their way all the time because they are in an automobile, thus much more important. I've been cursed at and honked at many, many times for entering an intersection at the very beginning of the "walk" symbol because the driver wished to make a right hand turn. More than once! There's actually some intersections where it's actually very dangerous to cross at the "walk" symbol for that reason.
Then there's the drivers who believe they are more important than even other cars, they believe stop signs (and red lights to an extent) don't apply to them and just ignore them and go when they feel like it and expect other people to stop for them. I was hit by a car as a child pedestrian by a driver who didn't even slow down for a red light. Luckily they didn't do any damage as they slammed on the brakes last minute and only knocked me down. Just the other day I had a near miss, as a driver, with another car who ran a red light. That driver flipped me off because I was in their way and they believe themselves to be much more important than me. Last time I drove with my dad he yelled at me for not illegally cutting off the driver who had the right of way but was a little slow entering the intersection. My dad is a huge asshole in practically every other way possible.
It's gotten so much more hostile in the last decade. This is why self driving cars can't come soon enough.
