It's always unpleasant to have contact with the headphone zombies. It was nice of the OP to take the brunt of the encounter by leaning away from the inevitable impact. It is usually safer for the cyclist to lean into a certain collision with a movable object, but I understand the reluctance to do so. By steering away you may save both of you from damage, but if you don't succeed you could be much worse for wear. Where I live, the bike paths have numerous solid objects at the edge (light standards, concrete blocks, map displays, mile posts, planets (scale replicas), concrete walls, bars...). It encourages me to carefully consider what actions the zombies could take and make sure I always have an out.