A plea: if ever you are driving a car and you are sharing a narrow tunnel with a very narrow shoulder with a fully-loaded cyclist, please DO NOT ever think that honking at them is an intelligent idea. We can already hear your loud engine sound reverberating and amplifying through the tunnel. We are aware that there is not too much space in a tunnel. We are aware that if we wipe out we might be spread on the tunnel wall like jam on toast. We are pedaling as fast as our little legs can handle, and I can assure you that we are feeling somewhere between worried and terrified, which would be the opposite of relaxed.
If you honk, it is about 50 times louder for the cyclist and then on top of that another 120 times louder in the tunnel. We are likely to freak like deer, brake and end up causing more problems. So a little room, a little time and a little understanding is all we usually need even if we do take up the whole lane. I promise most of us aren't doing that for jollies.
This rant is in response to the dude who honked at us while we were trying to dash uphill through the Cape Arch Tunnel in Oregon. After startling two of us with the honking, my friend ahead of me braked and looked like she was going to get off her bike. Next thing I know I have tipped over and hit the side of the tunnel and my friend has done the same but she's fallen right into the middle of the traffic lane. I run out to grab her in case traffic doesn't stop but thankfully she gets up and we haul her bike up as quick as we can. Thank goodness of the big rig truck driver saw this happen and had the presence of mind to stop and block oncoming traffic off until we got back on our bikes.
As for mister motorist, as he exited the tunnel he slowed down enough to shout something to my friends who were already out of the tunnel. "Your friends fell in the tunnel" he shouts, as he drives away...
Janius Tsang
