Glueball and all,
I would absolutely NOT try to use a lateral separation maneuver based on TCAS information only to avoid a collision. Laterally, TCAS is inherently sloppy – that is why there is no envisioned lateral escape maneuver based on TCAS only information (ADS-B, well that is another story for another day….you could do lateral escape on an ADS-B based system due to its inherent accuracy and update rate).
If you have the capability in your aircraft, bring the range down close and watch the TCAS targets “hop” laterally – that is why (but it is very accurate in range).
And, I’m wondering if some of the bad/erroneous TCAS RA’s referred to were events prior to TCAS 7.0 being implemented.