Glad it didn't end in anyone getting hurt.

I know I've made dumb choices cutting across parking lots or going the wrong direction, but usually they're still calculated choices, in that going the "right" way through an area ends up being more dangerous than the wrong way plus common sense.

For instance, the (fucking) intersection of C and 7th, coming home:

In their infinite wisdom, the traffic designers put traffic calming sidewalks (read: the sidewalks jut into the bike lane, causing an obstruction for bikers) on a street that has a speed limit of 45, forcing bikers to bike out into traffic with cars coming behind them at speeds at least 30mph faster than they're going. I can try to jump the curb, but the light pole makes it difficult, and usually there's a lot of foot traffic waiting to cross. Taking the red path, I'm most likely to get hit by a car.

If I take the yellow path, cross further back and try to maintain the sidewalk until I'm out of downtown, I run across the large bus stop that always has people in the sidewalk leaning out to see if their bus is coming. I'm not sure what the deal is, but bus riders are the worst pedestrians to deal with. Hence the frowny face.

The blue path is through a pretty desolate parking lot, with no discernible "one-way-ness" about it, and provides a windy, but usually unpopulated path around the bus stop. The only bad part about it is a blind corner (the arrow and the question mark), which thankfully only surprises me with people or bikers, and not cars. I take it slow around this every time.

There are probably 3 or 4 of these types of things going to and from work. I make the best of them by listening to cars and whether their tires are accelerating or decelerating (decelerating means somebody is probably going to make a right turn into you), and wearing my goddamn helmet. Wearing headphones is idiotic, and doing so without a helmet is asking for brain damage.

Maybe the lady was trying out a new route. Hopefully, she'll learn to watch out for cars coming from your direction next time.