These anecdotal stories of bad cyclists, which lets face it, most of us have, does not really take away from the fact that any injury and death to pedestrians is far likely to come from motor vehicles.
Given that around 90% of miles travelled are travelled by car, that's hardly surprising. It would be 90%, even if cars were no more dangerous than other forms of transport. And just because the vehicle doing the damage is a car, that doesn't mean that the damage is the driver's fault.
In most instances, motorists are accountable for their bad behaviour though. They can be prosecuted, imprisoned, banned from driving, etc and people can be compensated financially if they are injured by one (which I know isn't everything, but it helps). Hit and runs are pretty rare. When the same applies to cyclists, I'll have no issues with them mixing with pedestrians, children, buggies and dogs.
I would welcome harsher penalties for driving offences, especially drink/drug driving, speeding and using mobiles, because of the risk it involves. I also think drivers should have to undergo a bit of refresher training every now and then. I did a "safer driving" course through work (because I was always kicking off about ridiculous safety policies when driving was the most dangerous part of our job) and I found it improved my driving no end (and reduced my fuel consumption by 10%, so double result).
For most drivers, accidents are a very rare thing (2 minors, both without any injury, in 43 years for me, none in 38 years of driving AND motorcycling for DP). The only people I can think of from among friends, colleagues and family who've had a lot of accidents is my late father, who was a complete liability when driving and should never have been allowed on the roads, and one of his brothers who was a complete bloody maniac but somehow only ever managed to hurt himself.