Popa,
When my husband was commuting from Brooklyn to NJ, we talked about bridge vs tunnel. It would have saved us a lot of money but at that time of day would have added on at least 45 minutes. His commute was already between 3-4 hours. He paid for the tunnel!
One time we decided to take the bridge since there was no traffic. That was the time someone rear-ended us :-/ Sign from Hashem – take the tunnel.
If I were the guy I would have made up some stuff about yichud issues with tunnels 🙂