Originally Posted by
rallison
I'm pretty sure the main concern with riding at night is the worry of running into a drunk driver.
From the IIHS from 2009:
Time of Day - Deaths - %
Midnight-3am - 4,378 - 13
3am-6am - 2,824 - 8
6am-9am - 3,041 - 9
9am-noon - 3,236 - 10
Noon-3pm - 4,404 - 13
3pm-6pm - 5,468 - 16
6pm-9pm - 5,420 - 16
9pm-midnight - 4,767 - 14
Vehicle fatalities, true. If anyone has a similar breakdown for cyclists, I'd love to see it.
So, 3-6PM has the highest total number of deaths, followed very closely by 6-9PM And, in third place, we get 9PM-Midnight.
While it's true that I'm concerned about drunk drivers, in Irvine I'm more concerned about random bike-lane drifters.
Someone posted above that early morning is a great time to ride, but personally my feeling is that most fatal bike accidents occur in the early morning when commuters are rushing to get to work and take advantage of empty roads to drive like maniacs, email while driving, shaving, etc. I'd rather take me chances at night with the drunks.