I think they still do, but they at least used to have this in the SF Financial District, it was always fun walking out to lunch with hordes of people all crossing the street whichever way they wanted, including diagonally through the intersection.
In big eastern US cities, there's been much more of a "whatever won't get you run down" approach to intersections than was historically the case out west. At least a couple decades ago, western cities had a reputation for ticketing pedestrians for crossing against lights that would have been laughable in e.g. NYC.
9 years ago when I worked in Downtown Seattle, crossing against the light could get you a ticket, even at 630 in the morning. Nobody was driving, and they still insisted that you wait.
ghaff|3 years ago
borbulon|3 years ago
jlmorton|3 years ago