The Northeast doesn't really seem to have any "right of way" for pedestrians; cars might slow down for pedestrians, but pedestrians better hurry up and cross. That seems to be the unwritten rule here. I think part of the reason is that a moving car can easily kill a person, and "right of way" will not bring you back from the grave. As a pedestrian, I always just try to be polite and let the car go so they don't have to stop.

The West Coast is different. I have actually been in a car that happened to stop a little in the cross walk. A pedestrian came up to it and started banging on it. This would not have been wise on the east coast; the west coast doesn't seem to have "fighting words". The pedestrians put a lot of faith in the probabilty of the car actually stopping.