Advocacy & Safety - What would you have done?

Now that we have a little more daylight in the evenings, I went for a quick ride after work today. Since I didn't plan to be gone long, I left my blinkies at home. After riding due east for about a mile and a half to leave my new neighborhood, I rode due south for a ways and turned around. Just as the sun was getting low in the sky, I turned due west into my neighborhood. Immediately, I was blinded by the setting sun.

At this point I stopped to weigh my options: go back to the main road and do another up and down and ride home in the dark or take my chances riding into the sun knowing that I would be all but invisible to drivers coming up behind me.

I rode home in the dark. Has anyone else ever made the mistake of having to finish a ride heading west at dusk? I would not even have done it with a rear blinker.

I've only been commuting for a short time, but I avoid riding into the sun like the plague. Nothing worse. I've been in a car barreling down the road when the sun hits the window at the wrong angle. You just hold on and hope that everything works out. You can't see the car in front of you, much less a cyclist.

I've done it, we have alot of trees around here that help with knocking some of the sun out.

I would have done the same thing. Much better visibility right after the sun sets.

I would have done the same thing. Much better visibility right after the sun sets.

+1. Not to recommended riding without lights but riding against a blinding sun set is deadly, drivers simply cannot see anything at time. Chances are your bike, shoes and/or gears have reflecting material on and will work but be careful.

Fortunately, most of my normal riding routes have me heading east to get home. This issue does come up on morning rides though. My solution is to generally avoid high traffic/higher speed roads when traveling east. This is also easy to accomplish on my normal routes.

I've done it, we have alot of trees around here that help with knocking some of the sun out.

Fair enough....when the car is also in the shade. My experience is that this is the worst possible combination when the cyclist is in the shade and the car is in the sun.

Seems weird to me ... I've never been disabled by the setting sun, you can't look down and use a hand to cover the sun? ... plus, was it "dark" when you rode home, or just "dusk" ?

jw

Now that we have a little more daylight in the evenings, I went for a quick ride after work today. Since I didn't plan to be gone long, I left my blinkies at home. After riding due east for about a mile and a half to leave my new neighborhood, I rode due south for a ways and turned around. Just as the sun was getting low in the sky, I turned due west into my neighborhood. Immediately, I was blinded by the setting sun.

At this point I stopped to weigh my options: go back to the main road and do another up and down and ride home in the dark or take my chances riding into the sun knowing that I would be all but invisible to drivers coming up behind me.

I rode home in the dark. Has anyone else ever made the mistake of having to finish a ride heading west at dusk? I would not even have done it with a rear blinker.
Over 1/2 of my commute is on a highway that runs E-W (the other half runs N-S), so I ride into the rising sun and home into the setting sun for a couple months out of the year. When the sun is in your eyes, looking in the mirror is very difficult so it's hard to follow motorists who are coming up on you. Bright sun, particularly when accompanied by rain is by far my least favorite condition and has resulted in several close calls. Even the brightest tail lights and hi viz clothing do little to help (though wearing orange rather than yellow noticeably improves visibility). I'll take pitch darkness, driving rain, and a 15-20mph headwind over that crap any day.

Dark lenses are very helpful both for seeing ahead and behind you in bright sun. Depending on where the sun is, a visor is also helpful. Unfortunately, my commute is long enough that although I'm now riding into a setting sun, it's dark when I get home so I can't wear dark lenses unless I want to stop halfway into the commute and switch (though that problem will be gone in a couple weeks). I wear amber lenses on clear days and clear lenses on overcast. In a few weeks, I'll be able to switch to dark lenses all the time.

I ride due east and due west into the sun every single day. For about half the year it is pretty bad. Maybe less than half.

Anyway, I ride in the bike lane. When I drive I can see the white line of the bike lane but I can not see much of anything else. I figure if I can see only the white line I'm not the only one. Blinkies are not bright enough to penetrate the glare. I figure I'm safest being where cars are most likely not going to be. I would not trust that a driver could see a bike in front of them on the road since I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to see one until I was right on top of them, and if I can't see one, probably nobody else could either.

My commute takes me west in the morning and east in the evening, so I guess I am lucky in that respect. I never much thought about the danger of doing the opposite, but it seems like something to be concerned about.

Depends on the road I'm on- how wide it is, bike lane, wide outside lane, shoulder, any relief from the sun, how much time will I be on the road. Is the traffic slowed due to the sun and can I keep pace with it?

sounds to me like you judged the situation wisely. some cyclists wouldn't even have detected the problem and taken no precautions.

It does remind me why I always carry a little spare blinkie in my seat bag with spare tube etc. on all my road rides (actually 2- 1 amber/1red). Though I've gotten stuck like that, ridden home in the dark and then remembered I had the lights only after I got home. Too much of a hurry to get home to pull over, dig them out and clip one to the jersey pocket on the back and one to the front zipper of the jersey.

BTW lots of hardware stores and convenience stores sell cheap blinkie type lights or even weird gadgets like chemical light wands that will work in a pinch on a ride home like that- it's crap kids buy- look where the toys are. I've bought cheap flashlights and electrical tape and improvised if it's going to be more than a half hour of real dark when I've had to. Hopefully, you've brought a lock along and some cash so you can run in the store and buy it though.

About 2 miles of my going home commute is due west, and at certain times of the year, if I'm riding home near sunset, it can be pretty bad. I don't like even driving home under such poor visibility conditions.

I use my mirror, and I try to make myself as visible as possible, sometimes standing up just to be a bigger silhouette. I'm prepared to ditch into the curb or gutter if someone approaching from behind does not acknowledge my presence (by slowing down and/or adjusting laterally), but I have never have had to do it yet.

As far as riding in the dark without lights... that's when I actually adopt the philosophy of assuming I'm invisible, and ride accordingly (mostly slowly in the gutter pan or even on the sidewalk).