Reader mailbag: Braking for tunnels

We dove into a classic Pittsburgh debate last week: When you're approaching a tunnel, do you brake, slow down or just keep cruising?

The big picture: Most of you backed Chrissy — hold your speed and don't be the reason traffic stalls.

• Others said it's bigger than braking: ignored zipper merges, lane squeezes and plain old driver hesitation were causing congestion.

What they're saying: "I'm with Chrissy: Don't fear the tunnel monster!" says Mark V.

Lex M. says she was raised in Pittsburgh and was introduced to tunnels as a new driver.

• "I now live in Virginia Beach and use several bridges and tunnels in the region experiencing the same thing...tunnel slowdown. About the only place I haven't experienced it is in the tunnels on the PA Turnpike. It drives me crazy! MAINTAIN YOUR SPEED...please!"

William P. says he's been a driver for 50 years and "an inability to merge is a perpetual problem that when combined with braking for no apparent reason is the number one cause of bottlenecks other than an accident."

Matt T. agrees: "Drivers refusing other drivers to zipper when merging is more annoying than the slowdown approaching the tunnels," he says. "It's infuriating!"

Chris B. sided with Ryan and said it is a normal response to slow down when driving underground.

• "Tunnel monsters are the perfect case study of traffic calming," he wrote on Bluesky. "Narrowing a road instinctively causes people to drive more slowly and more carefully."

Amandi L. said people need to just calm down. "Leave a couple of minutes earlier, breathe deeply and recognize that no one is a perfect or perfectly safe driver."