At least in Canada, people were literally cycling before automobiles came to our streets. Streetcars/trams were originally just falled "cars" before the automobile industry appropriated it.
It is a very dense urban city with a robust transit system where drivers are almost always wealthier. There are also a lot of drivers coming from New Jersey who are using but not paying for the roads. In addition to reducing car traffic, the congestion pricing is also funding transit improvements/expansions and has significantly reduced the number of car crashes already.
Your point may hold for a sprawling suburb where everybody is forced to own a car. However, in New York a car is a luxury that the majority of people do not own.
Blaming road violence on behaviour and asking all road users to be perfect has been tried for over a century at this point.
Humans make mistakes and have behavioural problems. The proven solution is to build safer infrastructure to prevent road deaths and injuries by design.
At least in Canada, people were literally cycling before automobiles came to our streets. Streetcars/trams were originally just falled "cars" before the automobile industry appropriated it.