Originally Posted by base2

All of the above. (I think)
I ran over an unleashed dog once that launched from the ditch & succeeded in chomping my front tire as I rolled over it's head twisting it's neck in a gruesome manner that then flattened it's ribcage as I was sent flying over the handle bars. I damaged a shifter & got 20 mph worth of road rash on 5/8 minus crush, a broken helmet, and a royal reaming from an irate & negligent dog owner yelling "Shared use path, shared use path!" I yelled back: "If you are on the left, your unleased dog is on the right, then charges up the middle, that's not sharing!" I then told her to leash her dog, called her an expletive & rode my bleeding self away.

I now have no problem telling a negligent owner to "leash your dog" & freely tell them "I killed a dog once, I'd like to not have that happen again." Most people are surprised. On ocassion 1 is dismissive.

One lady almost got her disabled child ran over by yours truly. I was doing about 5-7mph (just faster than a walking pace, slower than a run; ) The kid was off the path & randomly decided to dart in front of me to go to mommy. She had never heard of "all users keep right" and did not appreciate being told it was her parental duty to teach her son the rules of society for his own safety & my own. She made a bunch of excuses for him & I admonished her for selling him short. The kids level headed dad saw reason & things defused & we bid good day. I'm sure there is a video on the Youtube somewhere...It was very crowded.

I got charged by a bulldog today on a residential street. I stopped hard enough my back wheel was off the ground. The owner with the 30 foot unlocked leash was very apologetic. I saved the speech we weren't on the path & he knew he screwed up. I only mention it to illustrate attention to riding & inattention of others is everywhere.

Yesterday I had a lady try to step in my way to confront me about I don't know what. She had 3 or 4 small children scattered about. I ducked around her, but stopped for the one 3 year old a hundred feet (33 meeter) down that was at risk.

A year ago I had a guy throw a potato crisps can of roofing nails in my path. I was puzzled until he tried to get in my face. I was coasting down an underpass.

A few times the jogger scenario has happened. Never a collision. I just ducked to the right &/or was ready with the brakes.

Never been to court.
Car insurance/house insurance ought to cover the bulk of any damages.

The thing is to relax, back off, chill, coast, when things get tight. 20-25mph (32-40kph) as a steady cruising speed is pretty reasonable, but that is not a lot of time to brake for crossings, side traffic, & definitely too fast for crowded or busy conditions. You can slow your speed to plan less congested passing with oncoming traffic. It's ok. The path will be there tomorrow. I think we would all be served to be attentive to conditions and err on the side of caution.

Most pedestrians don't see a 30-40mph closing speed with oncoming traffic. So they really do not have a sense of scale the distance or amount of time cyclists are planning their path. They just see the after effect of a maneuver & assume it was done in a reckless manner. To them, rightly it would seem so, but that is a reflection of the size of their awareness bubble.

"CAREFUL!" Usually snaps their attention before they do something blind & stupid.

20,000 miles. One collision. Dog owner negligence. No court, no police, no nuthin' but a lot of pictures of my scraped up body & a whole mess of stuff avoided.