By not causing panic with aggressive use of an airhorn; by riding sensibly in a congested area with pedestrians, who are predictably unpredictable (like a lot of cyclists).
When I look back at near misses I've had personally, near misses I've complained about in this forum feeling the avgrieved and been taken to task for because another persons eyes on the situation will see things differently...I've often changed my mind and accepted I was partly to blame, I failed to modify my course, failed to expect the unexpected etc etc...I concede its hard to look at yourself and criticise yourself but it sometimes needs doing, it makes you a safer,better cyclist.
TBF I feel for the cyclist, it's a no win situation but sounding an airhorn is more likely to cause an accident by distraction than simply slowing down (to a stop if neccessary) to allow the zombie pedestrian to go about their zombie way. That's what he should have done. 15 mph is still a fair lick considering he was approaching people still on the road, whether they had right of way or not.
Itd be interesting to see any footage of the actual incident, which of course we never will so we can only imagine the scenario. 50/50, I'd accept my part, then try to counterclaim.
