About 18 or 19 years ago, the Captain I worked with rode in an airport car on the departure runway at White Plains, NY. It is still a short runway.
Why do people assume that the Ryanair Captain planned to make his decision to operate, based only upon a ride in a car? He must have had other information. He might have had the option to taxi on the runway as he checked the brakes on the way to the first exit and return for takeoff, in order to make his final decision.
On the other hand, for many years, airline crews at a busy midwestern airport de-iced by the beginning of a departure runway. A few years ago I asked Tower whether anybody knew what the braking action was. The Tower Controller said "we don't know". It was quite normal for B-737s, DC-9s, F-100, MD-80s, B-727s, A-320s, B-757s etc to depart without having a current braking action report from a jet. This runway is mostly used only for departures.
From what I remember, nobody else ever requested a braking action report OR another runway: was this the "sheep mentality"? For the newer pilots or laymen/amateurs, keep in mind that a turboprop or recip aircraft can usually slow down very well using only ground fine or prop reverse-with little wheel braking needed.