It is worth noting that streets were dangerous even before cars. For instance, Pierre Curie (Nobel prize and husband of Marie Curie) was killed by a horse-powered truck in the streets of Paris in 1906. He was 46. But pedestrians at that time had the freedom to walk in the middle of the street at any time. You can clearly see it in this fascinating video of Paris in late 1890s: [this video]
Footage showing pedestrians walking freely in 1890s Paris streets
There's a video at the bottom of the article apparently shot by Thomas Edison in August 1900. YouTube has a couple more of them [link] Here's also an AI-upscaled/-colorized video which contains a bit of the boardwalk. [this video]
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![Frame from [60 fps] A Trip Through Paris, France in late 1890s / Un voyage à travers Paris, 1890](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/fo_eZuOTBNc/hq2.jpg)
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