Ten million other ticket holders also took the risk but lost their stake. They had some fun and only a tiny few would have lost more than a trifling. The risk was small compared to the potential gain.

Driving through the city the other day, along Broadway, outside Central railway station, I saw another risk taker, a pedestrian who was standing in the middle of the road. I narrowly missed hitting him.

There isn't a median strip on this part of Broadway and the man was standing on the double yellow lines, in just 20cm of neutral space as cars and trucks rushed past his frozen body, a handspan away from revealing the man's mortality to all that were about.

The man had taken a risk. His all was at stake. But the potential for gain was small, perhaps a few seconds of extra time in his day compared to others who had chosen to cross Broadway safely.

About 60 pedestrians die each year in New South Wales, which is about one death for every 115,000 people. Your chances of winning Lotto are about one in 8 million.

There are two main groups of pedestrians who die crossing the road. One group are young males affected by alcohol. The other are older people. Like those who have had too much to drink, older people have declining vision, less ability to judge speed and distances, poor balance control, and they walk slower.

In other words, pedestrians who get killed are usually those with a diminished capacity to judge risk.

If you stand for a moment and look at Broadway -- or any major intersection or roadway for that matter -- you see many things in the landscape that diminish the risk of crossing the road: pedestrian crossings with pedestrian lights; an underground walkway; and very well designed train stations and bus stops that take you away from contact with cars and trucks completely.

Playing Lotto with your life isn't worth the risk of not using these excellent facilities is it?

Phillip O'Neill

Professor and Director

Urban Research Centre

The University of Western Sydney