Another interesting issue is that it is hard to do effective cyclist/pedestrian education in a hardcore car culture. In such an environment it is not really possible to include information about common driver errors such as right and left hooks. I remember the particuarly unhelpful things I learned in school. It came down to looking both ways before crossing the street and riding in a straight line. That is pretty wrongheaded in an environment where 80% of the collisions are caused by driver error.
I'm just suggesting better education is probably a useful avenue to improve the situation.