Riding to the store on a 3 lane divided highway this morning, I'm in the left lane doing 50, light traffic, and preparing for a left turn about 1/2 a mile up. A cager enters the road from my right crossing all lanes of traffic and heads straight towards where I'm going to be in 3 seconds or less.
The human brain is unsurpassed at calculating life and death situations, light years faster than any computer. I was presented immediately with 3 resolutions to the situation. 1) There isn't enough room to manouver, we're going to hit. 2) Jump on the brakes, I'll slow a little bit, but we're still going to hit. 3) from his angle of approach into the lane, if I can increase speed and tightrope the space between him and the wall, there might be enough room to squeak through. All of this information comes in a millisecond rush. I hit the gas and aim for an inch from the wall. I clear the car by about 3 inches. I thank my guardian angel and my own good judgment in choosing a 1200cc super standard as my ride of the day. I'm hoping the clown in the car has to change his pants after that one, but I'm sure he thinks I'm one of those lunatic biker types and he will never realize or admit that he was the cause of that one.
My conclusion to this episode is that man's brain is probably much better engineered than we give it credit, and that all cagers are asshats.