Used to engage, but stopped when a motorist and his tire iron stopped to have a conversation. Unless they seriously nearly kill me, I NEVER touch their precious cars. When a moron who has not taken the time to have someone read the vehicle code to him suggests I "Use the sidewalk, Buddy" I used to explain (if we were stopped) that in California, bicycles are defined as vehicles with all the rights and responsibilities that acrue, and that it makes just as much sense for him to drive on the sidewalk. And I am not, nor will I ever be, his "Buddy".

Now, I just smile and feign incomprehension. That really seems to grind their gears. Invariably, these encounters involve male drivers. Once stopped at a light, on the line between a right-turn-only and the through lane, so as not to impede turners. A guy in a battered red pickup in the right turn lane, face flushed in rage, shouted in my ear, "get off the f*****g road!" The baffling smile he got in reply created a priceless reaction. I wonder what kind of day he'd been having?

Females are distracted and dangerous as often as males, but the confrontations are male only, in my experience.