Pedestrians need to be assertive, similar to cyclists. Car drivers expect us to give way to them, to recognise their greater mass and to cower at the side of the road waiting for them to pass. I'm sitting at the computer in an upstairs window which overlooks the road, watching the children going to school. In the same way that primary position can help cyclists on the roads, I have just seen how groups of teenage boys quite happily wander slowly across the road with cars approaching, forcing them to slow down. They weren't at all worried, nor did they speed up. I guess at this time of day if you are on this road, you know there will be lots of kids ambling across, or even walking on my side of the road which doesn't have a footpath (despite there being a footpath on the opposite side).
I am not suggesting that pedestrians should wander all over the roads but that some cars aren't going to stop at a zebra crossing unless you do that assertive first step out into the road. You need to be both agile and a good judge of speed and the direction of travel though (which I think I am, of course I could be wrong). I step out because I wouldn't expect an old lady to do so, I expect I also did it with the kids in the buggy too - I can't remember back that far. But if someone doesn't assert that right then it will be lost over time.
