Post by anon on Feb 2, 2007 20:18:08 GMT
From: MediumBaldIan Sent: 9/24/2005 10:08 PM
On a recent trip to Austria I went through a series of tunnels.
I did the Mersey tunnel twice a day for five years so tunnels don’t bother me.
What did bother me was the fact that I was using a dark visor insert so on entering the tunnels I couldn’t see a bloody thing.
I found that I lost my sense of balance and direction.
When I lifted my visor I couldn’t breathe or see properly.
Have any of you experienced this and if you have ,how did you combat it?
TIA
Regards
Ian
From: Bert_The_Alien Sent: 9/26/2005 5:52 AM
Might sound silly and patronising but lift your visor first, since you already know you have a dark insert, so your eyes can adjust before the tunnel, and slow down, if you haven't already.
The breathing problems might be just a symptom of panic or shock from not being able to see properly - similar thing happened to me once when a fuse rattled out of my ol' GS550 suzy, and all the lights went out in the middle of the night on a dark stretch dual carriageway headed for Exeter!
That said, maybe the Mersey Tunnels better lit than the Austrian ones?
Dunno, don't go through tunnels much myself, but thats more from where I live, (devon hasn't got many 'proper' tunnels) rather than avoidance...
From: Grafe Sent: 9/26/2005 7:58 AM
I agree.
Your sense of balance and direction are helped by having visual cues.
Not being able to see doesn't help.
The breathing bit was probably a response to "What the #*+%! is going on here?" Your eyes actually take about 4 mins to accommodate pitch black to full light.
From: Kabul_calling1 Sent: 9/27/2005 6:52 AM
Due to lack of maintenance over the war in the Yugoslavia the tunnels there lost their lights, and the white /reflective painting on the walls was covered in road grime.
Dark is an under statement.
Entering these tunnels was always a gamble, due to the possibility of pot holes, cows sleeping in the shade - to get out of the heat of the day, collapsed sections of roof lining, or shed loads from trucks.
The routine I learnt was to slow right down before the tunnel entrance.
On entering the tunnel, lift visor, and pull sun specs to the tip of my nose, and proceed in a safe/slow manner, until eyes became adjusted to the dark, then slowly increase speed as I could see better.
A lot of the tunnels had curves or bends in them, so it was often many minutes before you could see the light at the end.
Even at slow speed, without lines on the road, or hi-vis curbs, and reflective markers on the walls, it was easy to get disoriented.
On one extremely long tunnel I found it easier to drop my feet off the pegs just off touching the floor, so that I would know if I was starting to wobble, or veer off line.
RMJ
From: Knight-of-old2 Sent: 9/29/2005 11:55 PM
I had the same problem wearing reactolites.
Disoreinted as I rode into a tunnel even worse if there was a bend in it.
After going through about twenty tunnels in one day I got the hang of it.
Richard
From: gordy Sent: 10/3/2005 9:11 PM
I had the horrors of zooming into the tunnels under Brussels this year totaly unplanned due to navigational error.
Now these things are really tight so trying to get the Caberg J1 lifted to peer over the steamed up sunglasses on a two up fully loaded 900 with mad Belgian taxis inches from you was not pleasant.
You live and learn
Gordy
From: Knight-of-old2 Sent: 10/4/2005 1:41 PM
Hey up Gordy
Are you back or still posting from afar.
Did you mean you went to Belgium by accident, if so I know that feeling did it earlier this year.
Richard
From: gordy Sent: 10/4/2005 8:18 PM
Nice one K!
Belgium was planned, going through Brussels wasn't, we'd just left a motorway service station close to the ring road junction and the traffic was so heavy I was concentrating on not being mown down when the next thing I knew, we were heading for the centre.
When we entered the tunnel and it went on for ages I thought it would take us right through the city, wrong again. I'll never complain about British road signs again.
All the countries we've visited so far have much poorer signs than us, including Canada. (we arrived back yesterday).
My mates just got back from Germany and the 3 numbers for one road on the autobahns threw him too.
It's a plot to make us all buy GPS's
Gordy
From: Knight-of-old2 Sent: 10/4/2005 10:06 PM
I said exactly the same the, UK method of road signs is about the best I've come across yet.
The motorways in Italy had one idea I liked.
Every kilometer on the central resevation was a sign.
One would tell what town the next turn off was for and how many kilometers it was to the turn off.
The next sign a kilometer down would tell you where the motorway (sorry autostrada) was going.
The next sign would tellyou the next turn off again etc. So you knew if you were on the right autostrada fairly soon.
Off the autostrada the signs could be very confusing.
Richard