Unlike now when a juggernaught driver can "lose it" and run into a shop
front squashing a pavement full of women and children on the way.

Which is why motorways don't have any pedestrians, and one of the reasons
why many shopping streets have been pedestrianised, where it has been
practicable to provide an alternative route for vehicles.

Pedestrianisation has more to do with the fact that cars make public spaces
unpleasant to the majority of people.

Injury accidents were always low per pedestrian as traffic speeds tended to
be very low due to all the pedestrians crossing (or 'running out in front of
cars' as drivers prefer to say).