I bike a lot. Behind locked gates on public hunting/fishing land. It's all ebike now but I pedaled when I had an intact spine. I also walk a lot. To be honest, I wish I could walk everywhere I needed to go but that's not realistic or viable where I currently live.
I have no problem with any groups of people - that's just asinine - trying to apply some trait or another to a group just because they look a certain way. People are all individuals and there's good and bad ones in any group. People screwing with their phones are far and away more dangerous than any others currently.
Luckily, the people who approve road design here require bike lanes in town and graded shoulders in the rural areas where the bike idiots (those who share the same space with motor vehicles) can bail off the pavement when the soccer mom idiots with a texting habit and an 8 thousand pound suburban decides to kill everything in her path. The state I moved from last was the absolute pits about that - no room to even walk on the shoulder of most roads, let alone fit a bike doing 30 with a badly spooked pilot.
I'm glad you don't ride with traffic - I'm sad the walking idiots are trying to injure you. You need a really loud horn. Give 'em a little beep, if no response, lay down on it and spook the piss out of them. Just be ready to calmly explain why you had to do so if you speak to them. If calmly doesn't work - be prepared to defend yourself.
