People don’t pay attention at crossings where you’re not allowed to make a right on red, either. The problem isn’t the rule; it’s people not actually looking where they are moving.
Drivers don’t even stop until they’ve completely crossed the crosswalk. Banning right on red only works if steel barriers emerge from the ground to protect crossers because that will actually make cars stop at the stop line.
What’s the fatality rate for right-on-green? That scenario always seems more dangerous to me than right-on-red unless you have a light where pedestrians get a cycle to themselves. You have the same danger with not seeing a pedestrian, but now you aren’t even supposed to stop first, just make the check and decision while moving.
At least in the UK, the pedestrian/cyclist green light turns green before the motor’s. So by the time the cars reach the crossroad, there’s already a stream of pedestrians to prevent the cars to go. So they are forced to wait until that stream is over.
That being said, if you’re not within the first stream, it’s still pretty dangerous.
In the UK pedestrians will never have a green light while cars have a green light and the timings wait until pedestrians will have finished crossing before allowing cars. There might be some slow walkers or people who crossed without green (it’s dangerous but not illegal) but everything is done to ensure neither pedestrians nor cars are told to go while the other isn’t told to stop.
