Anecdotal, but I've been in some cities where pedestrians don't even look, they just walk right into the road. Yes, I would be at fault if I hit them (in many cases) but I'm also not perfect, and also don't expect them to charge right in front of me.)
Living in Boston 30-something years ago, I found this was required as a pedestrian, because drivers would try to intimidate you from entering a crosswalk by accelerating at you. So... you had to explicitly look away and still be aware of their presence.
(Not just Boston, I've seen this in some other cities since.)
One of the reasons to force slower speeds in city streets, more time for reacting to adverse events, less damage in case you hit a pedestrian at 30km/h than 60km/h.
