RobertHurst

Amazingly, this is just about exactly right for an upright bicycle. That's about .88 g deceleration. For decades (prior to the publication of my book Art of Urban Cycling) cyclists were instructed that the best they could do would be maybe .7 g. In fact the latter number describes the max deceleration (aka minimum stopping distance) for a cyclist who sits on the seat like a sack of potatoes. A rider who knows how to use the body mass to aid deceleration can take 5 feet off minimum stopping distance at 20 mph.

You and ILTB are both correct. Practice does help bicycle handling, and stopping quickly is a pretty important handling skill as well as a full-body athletic maneuver. However, in real-world situations your reaction time is probably more important than handling skill. And the rider who simply watches where he or she is going probably won't need to stop quickly or make any evasive maneuvers.