Do you live in the suburbs? In the suburb I grew up in dogs (and people) were incredibly rude. Dogs would leave their yard to chase and nip at us while we ran by, people's dogs on leashes would lunge and growl at us, guys would throw bottles and insults at us out of their trucks as they passed. I think the dogs' poor behavior was mostly due to bad owners who didn't train them, lack of socialization, and territorial instincts reinforced by being left out in the yard all day.
On the other hand, in the two cities I've spent a significant of time in (Pittsburgh and berlin) dogs where way better behaved. I would see maybe a half dozen off leash dogs a morning while running in frick park and can't remember any of them even going out of their way to sniff me. Leashed dogs would occasionally bark or growl, but none seemed overly aggressive and owners where usually apologetic and at least never blamed me for the issue. In the 6 years I lived in these two cities I can only recall one time a dog chased me, and that was when a young pup pulled away from it's owner suddenly and the owner seemed very apologetic.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that suburbs suck.