Does "Mommy told me to look for cars, or bad things happen" and "if I don't look before I cross, Mommy will punish me" count as weighing the benefits versus the dangers?

Perhaps these things are done differently in different cultures. This is how it is done in the U.K. Notice the emphasis throughout on looking to see if it is safe, not on rules to obey because someone says so and punishment, which figures not at all.

The earlier "Kerb Drill" mentioned in that article was a set of rules: look right, look left, look right again, and if clear, cross. That is why it was superceded.