Traffic lights are for organizing cars, that's the whole point of the article. Pedestrians and bycyclists are just bystanders that suffers greatly from them.
As opposed to being able to just freely walk around as you please? You could say that, why not.
And if one insists on moving a 2 ton metal cage through a city going 30 mph or more, I think having to wait now and then is a reasonable trade-off. The natural habitat of the car is the highway and that's where it should stay.
I love cars, but they can not handle intersections at all.
For me personally it's a great injustice that cars are so valued that I am supposed to breath one of the worst kinds of air pollutions every other morning for 180 seconds while waiting for red light at just one intersection.
The fact that you're not prioritizing the car doesn't mean you can leave pedestrians and cars to self-organize