Just rolling down the street today when this lady in oncoming traffic tries to hang a left straight into me. Glad those reflexes kicked in and I was able to slam the brakes. Skidded a bit and that back tire got a little squirrely, but I stayed up.

Makes you realize just how fast you can lose control of a situation you think is business as usual. We both stopped and exchanged looks, her's was "oh no, I'm sorry", mine was more like shaking my head thinking how bad this could have been.

As we both went off in our own directions, I started thinking. Why was it my first instinct to brake? I think if I would've accelerated I would have cleared the intersection before she hit me. Instead, by braking I basically stopped in front of her. Good thing she stopped. I guess your first instinct is to brake and assess the situation better. What do you guys think?

Anyway, just my story today.

 

I think our first instinct is to brake because it slows us down, and if you are going to judge incorrectly you want to err on the side of less speed. Lets say you are going 40 and slow down to 20 before hitting, that would suck. But not as bad if you sped up to 60 and still didn't clear the cager. then you hit at 60mph.

Since energy =mass x speed squared, you would hit car 9x harder if you sped up. Your instincts were right. Better be damn sure the acceleration is going to work, when you use it.

 

Our father of blessed acelleration....

Run away...Run away!

What ever you did worked, good for you! Glad your vertical.

 

My thoughts are allways "what if the cage accelerates and I miss getting around the front"

 

I know either action will work sometimes.

I suspect braking would have a higher success rate however.

 

 

No sense in 2nd guessing if you walked away without connecting with the car or the street. Sometimes one way will get you out and sometimes the other. Then again other times you get away either way. As long as you walk away and have the bonus of not connecting with anything you don't intend too.....you did the right thing.

 

My instinct is to grab the brakes- I guess I feel that I have better control of what I am doing rather that counting on some idiot that already wasnt paying attention

 

Yeah, I would be looking for the brakes as you did. Sometimes trying to accelerate to avoid an accident can get dicey in traffic.

 

And good ones to have too , been there and she did and I learned to fly the hard way .