Cat waits for green light to cross road

[Catherine]

I think individual city cats have learned to watch for traffic. Natural selection takes place over a long period of time and traffic is a relatively new thing. So it is unlikely to be direct natural selection for traffic safety. Also there haven't been thousands of cats killed by cars, unless you are talking about the whole world over many years. A cat killed in Canada would have no effect on the traffic safety smarts of a cat in England.

Natural selection over many generations has favoured animals that learn quickly to avoid the dangers in their environment.
Those that learn to avoid dangers are more likely to have kittens and pass on skills and genetic material.