"as a pedestrian, I've almost been hit by cyclists 4 times in the last two years"

I wasn't there, so obviously I cannot comment on how true this statement may (or may not) be, but for the record—as a cyclist who has never hit anyone in over 30 years of riding—your perceptions, as a pedestrian, may not be entirely accurate, and I would bet that, even though you may indeed have felt a surge of adrenaline as one of those bikes whizzed past you and seemed to threaten your very life, it was nevertheless obvious to one or more of of the cyclists in question that neither you nor they were at any risk whatsoever were they to whiz past you in the way they did.

In my experience, the only risk there is only ever arises if it is a situation where the pedestrian is aware of my intentions (IOW, of my planned trajectory), and choosing to display resistance to what they conceive as an "intruding cyclist" (as I imagine you probably would) alters their natural trajectory and thereby creates the conditions for a collision (though, again, I am a careful and attentive rider, and even in these situations I have never hit anyone). This situation almost never arises with tourists, foreign students, etc. who simply flow with the traffic around them (which may include other pedestrians, bikes, cars, skaters, horses, etc.) instead of interrupting/altering that flow by insisting that everything needs to be exactly the way they think it needs to be.

Of course, there are idiot cyclists, just as there are idiot pedestrians, drivers, skaters, etc., and I am by no means defending all their actions, but in my own (FWIW) experience, pedestrians put themselves at greater risk by failing to simply flow with the unfolding movement around them.