Nancy Young wrote:

> > The idea behind initiating aggression is you need to be
> > able to follow through.
> >
> > So I assume you're talking only to those who can't.
>
> Oh, no, you just reminded me of a pedestrian aggression
> incident in my past. Hey, the guy almost hit me. Then
> he tried to intimidate me for calling him a jerk! Oh, well,
> he couldn't have known.
>

There are all sorts of jerks in the world who have no problems
screwing other people around and inconveniencing others and who
get away with it all the time. They are jerks, and they are
pretty well guaranteed to act even more the jerk when called on
their behaviour, but it may make them think the next time they
try it again. It has been suggested here that pedestrians should
be careful in their reactions to a jerk drivers because the
driver may become violent. By the same token, the drivers
should be learning that pedestrians may do the same.

Sorry, but I got fed up with bobbing and weaving to avoid
running into people in crowds. I stopped jumping out of their
way. I discovered that most of them are a lot more aware of
their surroundings than they let on. They are not completely
oblivious to your presence, just ignoring you so that they can
walk in front of you and know that you won't walk right into
them.

The other day when I had that encounter with the litterbug I
continued on my ride and I ran into four different groups of
cyclists coming the other way. In each one of those groups there
was at least one person riding alongside another cyclist. The
trail isn't wide enough for three. I watched each pair coming on
and the one on my side of the trail was always acting as if
totally unaware of our collision course. The first time I moved
over and said something, but the next three times I tried a
different approach. I moved to the middle and made it clear that
I was not yielding to them until the one on my side went back
into single file and then I moved over to the right.