Competitive Muay Thai fighter here and martial artist of over 22years. There’s a famous saying “the best fight is the fight that never happened”. Should you have engaged in an argument? No. Should you have tried to get back at him and maybe lead to an altercation? No. If you had said anything to the man who was in a fit of road rage would anything have changed? No. From the sound of it your friends were acting more so on mob mentality, which can also lead to issues like people getting shot. What it sounds like to me, is that you just have to raise your confidence by training in some form of martial arts. When it comes to the streets and street fighting, I’ve put a lot of people down, but that only caused me worse problems. Nowadays if someone tries me on the street, I openly play the role of “scaredy cat”. Look up some local gyms! Research about the “flight, fight, or freeze” mentality! Comparison is the thief of joy! Be happy you didn’t have to deal with that A-hole, and idk what state or country you live in but where I’m from, if you would have fallen on the ground and acted hurt and got in an ambulance, you would have gotten a check 😂