I usually don't like it when they do this. It often forces me to cross even though I haven't checked the other lane or the bicycle paths. I much prefer waiting when I have to wait, it makes everything more predictable and lowers the chance of accidents.
I guess it depends on where you live. In my town its just assumed the cars are going to stop anyways and so pedestrians are dangerously dismissive of the existence of cars on crossways, sometimes people don't even look before crossing.
Drivers have learned this and are always super careful near crossways and new arrived pedestrians get used to it quickly and keep the pattern going.
I mean this is how it should be, pedestrian cross are for pedestrian, cars are entering pedestrian zone on them not opposite, the infrastructure should be changed to make it more obvious like they do in Netherlands