The longest half second

Dunno if I've actually got slightly better reaction times than the average for my species, or if I'm just always in a bit more of a hurry, but the longest half-second in my life is always that interval it takes the guy in front of me at the light to notice that it's green, and that the coast is clear, and so he can now, any time he feels like, really, actually start the paperwork involved in getting his foot to the accelerator.

I suspect Neal Stephenson feels the same way. I remember a passage early in Snow Crash in which Y.T. goes through the same sort of supposition, picturing a guy in a minivan going through the slow and ponderous motions involved in trying to maneuver to get her off it (not gonna explain that; if you've read the book, you know). Find myself thinking of that bit at stoplights now all the time.