Being very irritated is not the same thing as being enraged, you know. If you started screaming at the miscreant, or even attacked him, then you where enraged. If you only thought "what a jerk", and moved on, then there was no rage involved. Road rage, for example, involves actual criminal assault. I'm afraid that "sidewalk rage" is just some catchphrase invented by the author, or others, for literary effect. The normal tension that one feels walking on a crowded sidewalk in the big city is very far from rage.
Do we need legislation for this new problem now?
Oh, I've yelled at them plenty. But never got to the point where I would consider hitting them. I generally like people. I just wish they would use their heads more often, assuming (perhaps foolishly) that it would make a difference if they did. Liberals, for example, do the dumbest things imaginable when they use their heads.