Re: Tioga Road

Are there no guardrails on Tioga Road? We will be driving it west to east on June 4. Most pictures I have seen show no guardrails except for the bridges.

None that I can recall. The entire road is really gentle IMO. Even though the pass is fairly high there are
no switchbacks really and its a pretty tame road. I'm certain my mom wouldn't even have
any issues with this road. (she closes her eyes on mountain roads)
I'm certain she would never make it up Going to the Sun road in Glacier...

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bill-e-g
None that I can recall. The entire road is really gentle IMO. Even though the pass is fairly high there are
no switchbacks really and its a pretty tame road. I'm certain my mom wouldn't even have
any issues with this road. (she closes her eyes on mountain roads)
I'm certain she would never make it up Going to the Sun road in Glacier...

I understand that the NPS doesn't bother to install guardrails in Going to the Sun Road (or Tioga Road) because snow/rocks end up taking them out.

ok thanks.

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Bob Weaver
Are there no guardrails on Tioga Road? We will be driving it west to east on June 4. Most pictures I have seen show no guardrails except for the bridges.

There are a few (note emphasis) once you go over the pass into Lee Vining Canyon.

Every once in a while somebody does go over the edge. The last incident that I remember hearing about was about 5 years ago. A Chinese student and his mother were on their way from YNP to Las Vegas and never showed up there. No skid marks - found them about 1-2 weeks later on a second survey of the canyon.

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szalkowski
There are a few (note emphasis) once you go over the pass into Lee Vining Canyon.

Every once in a while somebody does go over the edge. The last incident that I remember hearing about was about 5 years ago. A Chinese student and his mother were on their way from YNP to Las Vegas and never showed up there. No skid marks - found them about 1-2 weeks later on a second survey of the canyon.

How effective are guardrails anyways? I've seen wooden post + corrugated steel guardrails that were taken out by a single impact. It might help with a glancing hit, but not a full-out swerve. At high speeds a car would likely just flip over a 2 ft high guardrail.

Once as a passenger I saw a car flip over a [edit] 3' concrete median barrier right into our lane. We were lucky and avoided it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2009 03:11PM by y_p_w.

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YPW
How effective are guardrails anyways? I've seen wooden post + corrugated steel guardrails that were taken out by a single impact. It might help with a glancing hit, but not a full-out swerve. At high speeds a car would likely just flip over a 2 ft high guardrail.

My dad thinks that they put guard rails up so that he could say to his terrified passengers, "RELAX, it's perfectly safe to go 50 MPH with all these guardrails!!!"

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y_p_w
How effective are guardrails anyways? I've seen wooden post + corrugated steel guardrails that were taken out by a single impact. It might help with a glancing hit, but not a full-out swerve. At high speeds a car would likely just flip over a 2 ft high guardrail.

Once as a passenger I saw a car flip over a 3" concrete median barrier right into our lane. We were lucky and avoided it.

They are extremely useful in helping pinpoint exactly where the vehicle created a new exit ramp... or flyway.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/18/2009 10:50AM by szalkowski.

I think they changed the name from "guardrails" to "guiderails" to "mildly suggestive rails".

"Cables"

LOL