The tunnel of death

ndru

I had the rotten luck of taking a wrong turn on my way to Decathlon today and ended up in the Rotherhithe tunnel.Good god, that was the most horrible experience of my life. It was a gas chamber, seriously I got dizzy half way from all the fumes, especially while being stuck behind an old diesel van.
Seriously I hope noone has to cycle through it to get to the other side. Whatever you do don't go in there.

prj45

Wonder what that does to people in cars that do it every day?

Valy

Is not thee a bit of filtering in cars? or at least an option to stop fresh air coming in?

prj45

Valy wrote:

Is not thee a bit of filtering in cars? or at least an option to stop fresh air coming in?

Er no, unless you have military grade air filtration systems.


IIRC car passenger spaces are concentrators of pollutants, you get a much higher dose than you do on a cycle, or walking.

ndru

Yeah, that's exactly what I was missing, especially when going uphill towards the end.

Valy

prj45 wrote:

Valy wrote:

Is not thee a bit of filtering in cars? or at least an option to stop fresh air coming in?

Er no, unless you have military grade air filtration systems.


IIRC car passenger spaces are concentrators of pollutants, you get a much higher dose than you do on a cycle, or walking.

Soz.

lol

prj45

Valy wrote:

Soz.

lol

What's more the Apollo 13 astronauts will tell you what it's like being shut up in an airtight space with only your expelled CO2 for company...

IIRC car drivers are exposed to pollutants at a level thousands of times above that a cyclist is exposed to going along the same road.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/ ... ution.html

Valy

prj45 wrote:

Valy wrote:

Soz.

lol

What's more the Apollo 13 astronauts will tell you what it's like being shut up in an airtight space with only your expelled CO2 for company...

IIRC car drivers are exposed to pollutants at a level thousands of times above that a cyclist is exposed to going along the same road.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/ ... ution.html

I see. Though closing the air con for the duration of the tunnel might help a bit. Well, it should.

Stevo_666

I just press the 'recirc' button in the car before going down the Rotherhithe - can't smell a thing.

MadammeMarie

ndru wrote:

I had the rotten luck of taking a wrong turn on my way to Decathlon today and ended up in the Rotherhithe tunnel.Good god, that was the most horrible experience of my life. It was a gas chamber, seriously I got dizzy half way from all the fumes, especially while being stuck behind an old diesel van.
Seriously I hope noone has to cycle through it to get to the other side. Whatever you do don't go in there.

OMG! First time I cycled to work from my current address, I didn't know about the cycle maps, so I used my A to Z, followed the "yellow" roads and ended up in that tunnel. WORST CYCLING EXPERIENCE EVER!!! My head was spinning when I came out of it! The noise inside there was deafening!

Luckily for me somebody pointed me to the TFL cycling maps. Never again!

flicksta

I've done that tunnel a few times, had a bird who lived in Mile End. Absolutely horrible from start to finish. I did the same when in the car, recirc button on!

Cafewanda

Used that tunnel frequently when I lived in Bow. Never got used to how nasty an experience it was so you have my sympathies.

biondino

prj45 wrote:

Valy wrote:

Soz.

lol

What's more the Apollo 13 astronauts will tell you what it's like being shut up in an airtight space with only your expelled CO2 for company...

IIRC car drivers are exposed to pollutants at a level thousands of times above that a cyclist is exposed to going along the same road.

http://www.livescience.com/environment/ ... ution.html

Just to clarify, those figures say car drivers are exposed to five times the level of pollutants, not thousands.

Porgy

I cycled through it once a few years ago to see if it was a viable option for a shortcut from Camberwell to Leyton - would have shaved miles off my journey - but it was truly horrible - never again!!

Bassjunkieuk

Done it once, never again! Wasn't to bad on the northbound direction as I managed to ride on the "pavement" but on the way back I didn't get up on it so had a car right up my ar$e the whole way back through.

I then revered to using the Cable Street cycle path but have now MTFU'd and play with the big boys (in their slow moving 4 wheeled toys!) on The Highway - if I catch the lights right it's definitely the fastest route but not for the faint hearted :-D

dvdfoz

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Done it once, never again! Wasn't to bad on the northbound direction as I managed to ride on the "pavement" but on the way back I didn't get up on it so had a car right up my ar$e the whole way back through.

I then revered to using the Cable Street cycle path but have now MTFU'd and play with the big boys (in their slow moving 4 wheeled toys!) on The Highway - if I catch the lights right it's definitely the fastest route but not for the faint hearted :-D

Agree with comments about Rotherhithe tunnel, like everyone else, done once never again.
Too narrow for anything to overtake, and noise of everything is amplified.

But The Highway, that is one of my least favourite roads, prefer to tackle the cobbles around Wapping.

nwallace

ndru wrote:

I got dizzy half way from all the fumes, especially while being stuck behind an old diesel van.

Yes that may be you main problem; getting stuck behind an old diesel van is shocking you should have easily had that scalp especially since you had the increased encouragement of getting away from its exhaust fumes.

prj45

biondino wrote:

Just to clarify, those figures say car drivers are exposed to five times the level of pollutants, not thousands.

Ah, never let the truth get in the way of a good story I say.

Retch

dvdfoz wrote:

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Done it once, never again! Wasn't to bad on the northbound direction as I managed to ride on the "pavement" but on the way back I didn't get up on it so had a car right up my ar$e the whole way back through.

I then revered to using the Cable Street cycle path but have now MTFU'd and play with the big boys (in their slow moving 4 wheeled toys!) on The Highway - if I catch the lights right it's definitely the fastest route but not for the faint hearted :-D

Agree with comments about Rotherhithe tunnel, like everyone else, done once never again.
Too narrow for anything to overtake, and noise of everything is amplified.

But The Highway, that is one of my least favourite roads, prefer to tackle the cobbles around Wapping.

You know where you stand on The Highway: keep it about 20 (traffic allowing) on the way in and you're golden. But the way home is slow.com/traffic. I really notice the stress of riding in such tight traffic versus sailing in in the morning.

But cable st is a pain in the arse, too many kerbs, bits of glass, errant peds...

ndru

@nwallace - I guess you've never been in that tunnel - there was no way I could've overtaken anyone in that tunnel, the same was true for cars - too tight

BentMikey

The odd driver gets incredibly frustrated behind you - even at 20mph or above, despite that being the speed limit.

Bassjunkieuk

Retch wrote:

dvdfoz wrote:

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Done it once, never again! Wasn't to bad on the northbound direction as I managed to ride on the "pavement" but on the way back I didn't get up on it so had a car right up my ar$e the whole way back through.

I then revered to using the Cable Street cycle path but have now MTFU'd and play with the big boys (in their slow moving 4 wheeled toys!) on The Highway - if I catch the lights right it's definitely the fastest route but not for the faint hearted :-D

Agree with comments about Rotherhithe tunnel, like everyone else, done once never again.
Too narrow for anything to overtake, and noise of everything is amplified.

But The Highway, that is one of my least favourite roads, prefer to tackle the cobbles around Wapping.

You know where you stand on The Highway: keep it about 20 (traffic allowing) on the way in and you're golden. But the way home is slow.com/traffic. I really notice the stress of riding in such tight traffic versus sailing in in the morning.

But cable st is a pain in the ars*, too many kerbs, bits of glass, errant peds...

Indeed, the way back is always a lot busier, still it's a good chance to hone the filtering skillz :-)

prj45

Ohhh.

The research is clearly flawed (as highlight by the first comment), but it does indicate that exposure to nano particles is higher for cyclists.

CYCLING to work may seem the healthy option, but a study has shown that people riding in cities inhale tens of millions of toxic nanoparticles with every breath, at least five times more than drivers or pedestrians.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/e ... 140213.ece

Clarion

I've ridden it once.

One time too many.

TimothyO

Every post I've ever seen from cyclists say that at most they've done it once, and never want to do it again.

On the other hand, I think it's the only tunnel under the Thames which you can cycle through. The others either ban cyclists, or don't allow them to cycle (just push their bikes).

Possibly it has to be done once, just for the experience, but I wonder when is best? Probably something like the early hours of Sunday morning, when motor vehicles are at a minimum.

I'd still use my Dinotte rear light, possibly on full laser beam of death mode.

Clever Pun

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Done it once, never again! Wasn't to bad on the northbound direction as I managed to ride on the "pavement" but on the way back I didn't get up on it so had a car right up my ar$e the whole way back through.

I then revered to using the Cable Street cycle path but have now MTFU'd and play with the big boys (in their slow moving 4 wheeled toys!) on The Highway - if I catch the lights right it's definitely the fastest route but not for the faint hearted :-D

Everytime I've tried the highway it's rammed... have you thought about the A13 a fair smattering of bus lanes and not 'as' busy

Bassjunkieuk

Clever Pun wrote:

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

Done it once, never again! Wasn't to bad on the northbound direction as I managed to ride on the "pavement" but on the way back I didn't get up on it so had a car right up my ar$e the whole way back through.

I then revered to using the Cable Street cycle path but have now MTFU'd and play with the big boys (in their slow moving 4 wheeled toys!) on The Highway - if I catch the lights right it's definitely the fastest route but not for the faint hearted :-D

Everytime I've tried the highway it's rammed... have you thought about the A13 a fair smattering of bus lanes and not 'as' busy

Mornings are normally pretty quick, it's the evenings that it gets rather busy - this evening was especially busy, but made slightly more bearable by the lovely blonde in her cycling shorts - was a damn shame to out-filter her ;-)

As I'm heading to/from Westferry Circus when I head that way the A13 is even further north then I really need to go. I did use it once when on the way back from near the northern side of the Blackwell Tunnel (a long story......) and it was rather pleasant!