Being attacked while riding

Before I moved here 3 weeks ago, I heard stories about how young males will try to pull bicyclists off while the bicyclists are moving --- sometimes for mugging, and sometimes just to mess with them --- and it took my breath away. Having almost lost my life or mobility in a high school bike accident, I've never heard of one person trying to do that to another.

That is partly why I chose to live in the suburbs, in Pikesville. I've never in my life lived in a suburb, but it seemed like this was the only place where I wouldn't feel as constrained by all the invisible boundaries in the city proper.

Today at 5 pm in the full light of afternoon, I was biking down a steep hill on Fallstaff right before Park Heights near Northwestern High School going about 18 mph, and a young male who was biking slowly back and forth in the middle of the street perpendicular to me suddenly biked directly into my path, lunged towards me and screamed. I swerved and screamed "Watch it!" and the guy and his friend on the side of the street laughed. Given the hill and my speed, I could have been killed or paralyzed if our relative positions had differed by a few feet.

Unbelievable. I was so scared that I started crying on the rest of my way home.

I've heard stories of people being messed with near that high school, so I suppose I will avoid the area in the future, but adding yet another invisible boundary doesn't address the problem. There's nothing illegal about his actions as long as I didn't get hurt, so it's not like I could report that. This is in a solidly middle class neighborhood --- the other neighborhoods where I've heard of people on bikes being messed with were in East Baltimore.

Any thoughts?

Other than moving away, which 1/2 an hour after all this happened looks like a really good option.