Drivers Do Not Know How to Face Risks in TunnelsA study entitled "Experimental psychological results from driving in tunnels - Contributions to road safety", elaborated by Segtúnel, a team from the Department of Social Psychology at the University of Barcelona, and commissioned by consultant engineers Geoconsult España, concludes that the majority of the Spanish drivers do not have the necessary information or the sufficient training to know how to behave in emergency situations inside a tunnel.The strategy to study the aspects related to the human factor that could contribute to improve safety in road tunnels is focused on comparing the behaviours of road users in tunnels with the behaviours they have in open sections and observe the differences (if any).The first task consisted in driving on a research circuit, carefully designed, on real roads with real traffic, where the open and tunnel sections used for the study had been clearly defined.The second task consisted for drivers to count in reverse while driving (for example, 10,000 then 9,999 etc.), to enable researchers to detect a deterioration caused by the mental stress of counting and driving simultaneously. The reverse counting is affected (slowdown, stammering, error or failure) due to the mental overload in each moment. The overload can be caused by traffic situations (for example overtaking a motorcycle), by the characteristics of the infrastructure or the driver himself. The research group included 30 drivers. To carry out the experimental tests, a 70 km road circuit was determined, both in urban area and between cities. That circuit was the longest of this type ever used for studying driving behaviours. It included a noticeable series of tunnels, both road and urban tunnels, single or double tubes: La Rovira (1,165 m), Mig ring road (2,280 m), Vallvidrera (2,500 m), Valldoreix-Mirasol (836 m), Guinardo (324 m) and Mitre (580 m). One of them among Europe's oldest tunnel while another one is among the most modern and longest urban tunnels in Europe. On this circuit, three types of sections were determined, according to the type of activity that was going to be observed: experimental sections, observation sections and relaxation sections. On the experimental sections, so-called experimental tasks were carried out, both on the open stretches and in tunnels. Considering return trips, the length of tunnels was 11,890 m, corresponding to the three longest tunnels of the circuit. The length in open sections was identical.Moreover, this circuit had to allow for an observation study about the perception of speed in tunnels and in open sections. This required more tunnels and more open sections to do these tasks, because it was impossible to do them in the experimental sections reserved for another type of exercises by drivers. Having the same length of tunnel and open sections on this circuit was not a prerequisite. The total length (go and return) was 3,480 m. Lastly, the circuit was scattered with a few zones where no type of study at all was done to allow drivers to relax and recover the state of normality that could have been altered doing the exercises. Its total length is 40.45 km.The study, managed by Professors Ricardo D. Blasco and José Manuel Cornejo, determined that 61.5% of the drivers interviewed would turn off the engine and stay inside the car in case of traffic jam inside a tunnel. 75.7% of the drivers declared they would close the windows, only 5.9% would try to go backwards and only 1.8% would get out of the car (this is the correct decision), while 14% confessed they would not know how to behave in a jam situation in a tunnel. The study also reveals that 57.6% of the drivers consider that the rescue signs in the tunnels are not very visible and 8.4% not even saw them. In addition, six out of ten of the interviewed participants recognised they never used a fire extinguisher.In a situation where there is a gas leak or the presence of smoke, closing the windows of the car does not guarantee anything and can prevent drivers from perceiving some sort of danger. If the driver shuts himself in the car, the problem could be that when he wants to react, it is too late. The study shows that people are too reluctant to leave their cars while what should be done in the first moments of uncertainty is to leave the car and walk away in the opposite direction of the destination. According to the authors of the study, the drivers that enter in a tunnel suffer from a cognitive demand higher than when they drive in open sections.The work also emphasises that in the last 400 metres in tunnels of more than one kilometre, a noticeable rise of the mental load occurs due to the presence of a visual focus and intense foveal attraction to the daylight at the exit. The foveal vision is opposed to the peripheral vision which, for example, attracts the driver to the wall of a tunnel. There are many more incidents in the entrance and exit sections of a tunnel than in any other in spite of the fact that these sections are those with least mental load. The authors illustrate this idea with the example of the Blackwall tunnel that crosses the Thames in London. It was built in 1897 for horsedrawn carriages. Engineers then detected the need that the tunnel exits coincide with a curve section to avoid the exciting effect and the dazzle that the outside vision of light was producing on horses. Visit www.ub.es/dppss/rblascor/segtunel/encutun.html y www.geoconsult.es 50-51/05.