[only tangentially related]
My anecdotal story…
So I’m riding my motorcycle, following my gf whose driving her car. She misses a left turn on the way out of a residential neighborhood. I honk my horn to get her attention. She pulls over to the curb on the right. I interpret her maneuver as allowing me an opportunity to pass and lead the way out.
I was wrong.
Just as I pass her rear bumper (accelerating up in 2nd gear, about to shift to 3rd), my peripheral vision registers the amber glow of her left turn signal.
Yup. You guessed it. She wasn’t pulling over to let me pass. She was pulling over to make a u-turn!
So my bike hit just behind her front bumper and forward of the wheel well. And stopped. A split second before that, the whole time dilation illusion had kicked in, so I saw a lot of this with crazy clarity. That allowed me to relax just enough so that, when the bike’s forward motion was arrested, I didn’t try to hold on, but instead lift off and sail right on over the car.
You know, when following a ballistic trajectory and as asphalt is coming up at your face, it’s amazing what thoughts go thru your mind, like, “Wow. This time dilation thing is crazy. Hey dummy! Pay attention to that painfully hard blacktop coming at you really fast!”
Tuck and roll!
Ended up sitting up in the middle of the street. Flabbergasted. Not a scratch on me. Couldn’t believe it. Got up and walked my bike back home. Glad I was all geared up properly.
—
Lesson learned: I misinterpreted her actions. I should’ve looked for a right-turn signal which would explicitly mean she was pulling her car over to the shoulder. In the absence of that, hold back.