"Americans rarely stop fully and look out for pedestrians"
Rarely is being heavily abused in this statement. It's just not true. Otherwise pedestrian fatalities would be vastly higher than they are. Additionally, regional driving habits differ drastically. People in Colorado and California drive far more aggressively than they do in Iowa or even more densely populated areas on the east coast, where policing is far more rigorous.
I live in suburbia where there are few pedestrians. When I am out running, I would guesstimate that only about 20% of drivers actually stop before turning right on red. About 90% of drivers, even the ones that stopped, also never even glance in the direction they are turning, looking only for traffic coming from the left. By the time they have starting looking right, they have already crossed through the crosswalk.
The only reason there aren't more injuries to pedestrians is that there aren't very many to begin with and those that are on foot operate on the assumption that every driver is out to kill them.
Rarely is being heavily abused in this statement. It's just not true. Otherwise pedestrian fatalities would be vastly higher than they are. Additionally, regional driving habits differ drastically. People in Colorado and California drive far more aggressively than they do in Iowa or even more densely populated areas on the east coast, where policing is far more rigorous.