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@tynan
I think his reaction is entirely natural, visceral, instinctual even, we can no easier be injured by a thoughtless pedestrian and then be thankful in any way whatsoever than we can cut off a finger and remain free of pain.
What you are watching when you see a cyclist dragging his bike from under a cab and calling the driver every name under the Sun - is not a thought through stream of invective towards the cab driver, it is a reaction, it is your autonomous nervous system telling you to shout as loud as you can, it is the flight or fight response flooding your muscles with blood and your blood with adrenalin and then instructing you to punch any fucker that comes near you, you cannot simply switch this off, dust yourself down and 'keep going'. Some may control this instinct better than others, but instinct it is.
When someone risks their own and my safety through thoughtlessness I give them both barrels, fuck it, they don't even have to make contact with me, a close call is enough to get called a cunt.
'why abuse her in the first place' - Again pretty basic stuff, abuse, physical or otherwise is a warning not to repeat. The abuse serves a purpose, the person who walks into the road without looking, causes a cyclist to come off and receives a 3 minute stream of obscenities as you dust yourself down and stem your bleeding is less likely to be so carefree about walking out into the road in the future.
It is an investment.
What you do not want to do is 'find out she's ok, and keep going' - you want to make the experience of blindly wondering into the road as unpleasant as possible for her so this person is reminded never to do that again.