Hi, I have a legitimate question about pedestrian/driver courtesy culture here. Something I've noticed since I moved here a few years ago is that a lot of people tend to just...ignore sidewalks and travel out in the middle of the road, even when it's a busy street. Is this just the normal culture here? Do people not think it's dangerous to be walking around in the middle of the road here? And I don't mean crossing the street, which is a different conversation altogether. I mean just walking in the road parallel to traffic.

I ask because I've noticed people walking down the street in the road even when sidewalks are present. I really don't understand this. I was always taught that, while pedestrians usually always have the right of way, you can have the right of way and still be dead, so I have always tried to use sidewalks when they're available, which is usually whenever I'm a pedestrian these days.