When I moved to the US, I was struck by the fact that cars never stop at crosswalks... even if lights are blazing. In contrast, where I lived in Canada, cars always stopped. The reason is that they gets tickets when they don't. Peds assume they have the rights of way too. They'll step out and force the driver to stop. Once I saw a ped throw something at a car (it hit the car...) that did not stop at a crosswalk.

What it all boils down to is that peds need to start complaining loud and clear... get the police treating this as a serious issue. There's no reason that car sshould have the right of way at pedestrian crosswalks... that's crazy!