One Less Cycling-Hostile Force on the Road?

As I was waiting at the end of the driveway of my office building, waiting to turn onto the main road while it was drizzling and threatening to thunderstorm, a couple in a BMW X3 SUV pulled up, flagged me over and asked for help.

They said they were lost and needed help finding a road. I gave them directions and in thanking me, they said something along the lines of:

"We take back every bad thing we've ever said about cyclists, and will never threaten a cyclist again."

My immediate reaction was that I was glad that they've had a change of heart and will indeed not threaten cyclists again. But then the thought that these seemingly normal people, if not joking about threatening cyclists, were actually thoughtful in their actions of threatening cyclists in the past.

I guess I don't know which is worse, or at least more dangerous, threatening behavior due to obliviousness or that which is due to active thought. I suppose thoughtful threats kept in check and not carried to fruitition are probably less likely to cause physical harm, but are equally disturbing.

I have to wonder what would have happened if I had left work 30 seconds earlier and actually been on the road with these people who were frustrated at being lost at the time they would be passing me on the road.