The new law permits pedestrians to cross a roadway at any point, including outside of a crosswalk. It also allows for crossing against traffic signals and specifically states that doing so is no longer a violation of the city’s administrative code. But the new law also warns that pedestrians crossing outside of a crosswalk do not have the right of way and that they should yield to other traffic that has the right of way.
There will always be edge cases. The trick is that your scenario ought to be an edge case rather than the most common case.
Some one is free to search actual numbers but in the US something like
For sure different transit or walking options are better for different scenarios but most people, including in the US, are in places where buses or trains can be useful