Unfortunately if you ride on the road, sooner or later you are going to meet Chris L's "motoring primate." Although I've never been crowded off the road, I have been flipped off, cursed at, Had one guy yell "hey man, your supposed to be a car"!! Yeah, I lost it on that one,liked to died laughing!! This spring had my first hey look its a cyclist lets throw our beer bottle at him experience. Caught me on the left thigh, so can only assume they were going for a wheel. They missed thankfully. Left me with a nice 6" bruise though.
I never give the response they're looking for. I give'em a thumbs up and go down the road. I have become quite adept at reading license plates though.
In eight years of cycling I've had four bad encounters with autos. So, the bad ones really are few and far between.
Pete, I can't agree with you more, about life teaching us all.