chipg5

I'm thinking ahead and planning a possible ride to my in-laws in Norfolk. When I drive the shortest route is down the Eastern Shore across the Bay Bridge Tunnel.

I've tried to find out if you can bike across it, with no success. It seems the new span has pretty good sized shoulders that would be bikeable, but the tunnels might make it impossible.

Anyway, anyone from Tidewater or Eastern Shore know about whether bikes are allowed across?

bld61

I doubt very seriously if they would let you go across because the 2 tunnels you have to go through have no shoulder in them. This would be very dangerous.

chipg5

That's what I thought might be the case, I've driven through the tunnels many times (before I started noticing the bikeability of every road I drove on...) and I don't recall anywhere that a bike could navigate.

Crabby Deb

Biking in the tunnel would most likely be fatal and at the very least illegal and full of CO.

How about using one of the ferrys? Look at VDOT's website.

chipg5

What a great idea!! I didn't even know there were ferries. Thanks CD!!

onedit: went to VA DOT ferry page; doesn't look like there's a ferry from Eastern Shore to mainland any more :-(

bld61

Ask your in laws to go pick you up once you get to the bay bridge tunnel.

chipg5

yeah looks that that might work, especially since my wife will be driving down with the kids, I can get her to pick me up at the start of the bridge on Eastern Shore. thanks bld61

skiffrun

this is prob too late, but I think a friend of mine went thru the bay bridge-tunnel a couple years ago with his bike.

he had to call ahead and make arrangements to be trucked thru in a pick-up.

chipg5

Not too late! I'm planning this for next summer some time. This is really great to know about, thanks skiffrun! Was he trucked across the entire bridge-tunnel or just through the tunnels?

bhchdh 

You are deffinatly not allowed to ride on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel at all. Here is the link to the website. https://www.cbbt.com/ They have contact information listed. There were a couple of times in the past when they closed portions of the bridge for cycling and walking. My daughter and I did it a couple of times just for kicks.

Beverly

My daughter and I also did the bridge ride a couple years. Do they still hold this event?

bld61

No they don't. ;( It was a great ride though.

skiffrun

too many questions ... too many details ... a-a-a !

i dunno.

edsouverain

I live in Virginia Beach and I agree this would be very dangerous. The tunnel is many miles long and this bridge is quite high up and you could quite possibly be blown around as you try to cross the bridge part as the wind coming in off the seas can be 50 mph+ gusts. I applaud the spirit though. What I would do is ride to Cape Charles which is the last city before VB. You literally could probably get a cab over for 50 dollars or so. I don't reccomend hitching etc, but if you did it from Cape Charles you probably would be ok if you got a good feeling. It is a pretty small place with 1000 or so residents. The or so might only be by a couple hundred.

chipg5

Thanks ed, yeah, I've driven over the bridge/tunnel many many times. I hadn't thought about the winds though, but I can see how that could be pretty treacherous. My main focus was the tunnels which I guessed would be impossible and from this thread I see my hunch was right.

Thanks for the suggestion about Cape Charles, good idea!

Fullcount

Update to this old thread. Yes - you can cross the CBBT with a bike, but must do it through a CBBT shuttle. You must contact the operations group 24 hours in advance to arrange the shuttle and pay the toll. See the FAQ on their website. https://www.cbbt.com/faqs/