I agree that the citation does sound cold and coercitive, but actually this is already kind of how streets and urban developments are designed. Human drivers are limited, so if you allow cars to go fast, you restrict or remove the right to be walking close to the road (highways). Conversely, if you want to give more room to pedestrians, you decrease the speed limit, reduce lane width, etc. such that they are able to react accordingly. Nothing wrong with that in principle.

Now, this does not say anything about the Waymo incident. In that case, the car performed an illegal maneuver, which cannot be blamed on other street users.