Cars are loud to pedestrians. Cars can be dangerous to pedestrians. Therefore, if you hear a car, you could be in danger. That was the line of thinking that needs to become outdated or less significant in my opinion. If cars were never loud, we wouldn't be reliant on that sense. Similarly, if cars had a distinctive smell in front of them, we'd use that sense (and then have trouble when a new car doesn't smell
).
Look right, look left, look right again... Just like in kindergarten
Personally, I keep looking until I cross. I don't fall asleep while operating this body
As already said, don't assume the other guy knows what he or she is doing - then, be predictable in case the other guy does know what he or she is doing.
I don't know all the circumstances of this situation - but the fact that the car was silent AND therefore nearly hit a pedestrian could very well be a fallacy.
How many pedestrians are hit by noisy cars? I wonder if there's a statistic of pedestrians hit per 100 million vehicle miles by car type - I'm willing to bet their on par with each other.
The car just made a right turn, meaning the driver was probably ONLY looking left for oncoming traffic - I'm put in this situation all the time on my bike, and have had my fair share of close {slapping on the side of the car} calls. And I'll admit I've had a couple instances of a lack of concentration, and never looked right for pedestrians or bikes - luckily, never when those two were around.
I see no reason why we are unable to adapt to this change in environment. At the same time, I don't have any problem with automakers adding a pinging device.