bmthom.gis

I've been trying to leave for work earlier and earlier, it had been dark when I had been leaving, but now it is light. I will leave at 415, so I should still have plenty of light for most of my ride. I have lights. I don't worry.

highrpm

Early work guy here. I've been riding in to work at night for a while now. The traffic at 5:45am in the dark is light. I feel for you guys that are riding home in the dark - traffic at 5:45pm is much heavier around here.

tjspiel

Had to be much more cautious, not so much with cars, but with people. The last time I rode home in the dark during rush hour was back in February. I don't remember what the weather was like then but it wasn't 70 degrees.

It won't be this warm again until April and people know it. Combine that with a growing downtown population and there were far more people milling around the MUP along the river than I'm used to do during a typical dark rush hour commute.

Though the MUP gets use year round, it's usually nothing like it was last night during the colder months. Last night was busy even for the summer. Sort of like the last hurrah.

Wolfhaven

I adjusted my morning start time a while ago to avoid the sunrise and having blind drivers coming up behind me. Riding in the dark I actually feel safer knowing they will see my lights a ways off. Leaving earlier to avoid the sunrise means I get to leave earlier which had a side benefit of less traffic, but now, at least for the next couple of weeks, means I'm heading home into the sunset. Cloudy days it's not a problem but on clear days I'll have to adjust.

GovernorSilver

Regarding visibility, I seem to be more visible at night than in the day, due to the lights. They get the attention of pedestrians and drivers alike that I wouldn't get during daylight.

But it does seem like sunrise/sunset are areas of concern. With DST out of effect, I still seem to leave the house after sunrise (sun was in my eyes when I drove out to vote around 7:20 AM - I usually ride out around 8), so mornings should continue to be fine for me. Sunset also seems to happen before I get off work.

timvan_78

i've been commuting in the dark in the AMs for weeks already.

First dark commute home yesterday I noticed lots of other under-lit commuters. Some had blinkies with batteries almost dead. (barely visible)

RubeRad

I work on the earlier side of things, like 7-5, so the time change shifted my dark mornings to dark evenings. I would much rather commute in morning darkness, traffic is much much quieter.

I just switched taillight from Planet Bike Blinkie 5 (which was fine, I got it mostly because it came with a rack-mount bracket) to a cygolite hotshot (which is amazing, I switched because my wife found it on the road and it's just plain better -- I bought a rack-mount bracket for it).

In front I have a zoomable cree LED flashlight, it claims 2000lm, probably that's not true, but it's still amazingly bright, especially for the price, I run it only on medium. I switched to this single-18650 light after using a similar light that required two 18650s, now I have a reliable backup battery. The big flashlight I held on with two interlocked hose clamps tightened down with a wrench, but this shorter one does fine with a cheap mount which is essentially thick rubber bands.

Plus I have my not-secret visibility weapon, my "kittier", decorated with an amusing safety message in 3M conspicuity tape so headlights can't miss it. Lots of people tell me they saw me out on the road with my bucket.

rhm

Like many of you, I've been riding in the dark in the morning for a long time, but yesterday was indeed my first evening commute in the dark since sometime early in the year. I didn't like it! So many cars. There aren't so many cars in the morning.

Tim_Iowa

My ride home yesterday was fine. I have a Luxos U dynamo light with a huge beam, and a dynamo tail light.

My only complaint was the low sun in my eyes as I rode west.

wu_osiris

I've been commuting early in the AM in the darkness, it's quiet and less traffic. Well this stupid DST happened and I had to work late yesterday. So I rode home in rush hour traffic in the dark. It was not anything I want to do again. So I will make sure going forward I'm never leaving work after 4:30PM

BassNotBass

No change. I'm done with my commute before the sun sets however the evening run in the dark is awesome.

RidingMatthew

tonight will be first bike ride in the Darkness I have driven home in the stupid rain past two nights.

Mr Pink57

I work until 5, have classes on Wednesday's after work so that day I usually get home well past dark. I am setup for it though.

PB Blinky 5
PDW Fenderbot
LNM Vis 360
LNM Urban 550
and tons of side reflection

RubeRad

I've got two due-west streets on my route that, since the time change, have been giving me sunrise-in-the-eyes through my helmet-mounted mirror. And not long ago I had the same problem in the evening going the other direction on those same roads!

wilfried

I don't like EST (though I like the extra hour of sleep when the clocks change). I start work well after sunup, so light in the morning does me no good (and I am the polar opposite of a morning person; the whole notion of seeing sunrise is perverse). I would much rather see light in the evening, but it's pitch black now when I leave work. It doesn't change anything though. I don't have any flexibility to adjust my hours (not that I would ever dream of adjusting my hours earlier; see not morning person comment above), so I just put on my lights and off I go.

If I was king of the world, I would simply split the difference, move the clocks half an hour one year, and then leave them be forever. Just what is the point of EST/DST in the age of electric lights, that newfangled technology, anyway?

RubeRad

As I understand it, part of the original motivation was to reduce, across the country, the total amount of electric lighting use (expended energy). With fluorenscent bulbs in wide use now and LEDs growing as well, that savings might not be significant anymore.

GeneO 

OK. I ride on mostly trails and through some woods. Always nervous a deer will plow into me.

tjspiel

Lots of stuff is still better in actual daylight, - cycling being one of them.

chas58

I love commuting in the dark. Cars are easy to see, and I’m easy to see.

I have bright Serfas blinky lights front and rear, mounted low so they light up the wheels too. That and a 850 lumen light on my helmet so I have plenty of visibility. I like it. Watching the sunrise and sunset is a nice bonus too!
(I'm doing a 25 mile commute, and its gorgeous this time of year)

Allycat24

I gave up riding for EST - I didn't feel particularly safe on the streets even though I'm pretty visible and I upgraded my lights. I had a hard time seeing unlighted cyclists and runners, both on the streets and the trail. I also didn't like the lack of peripheral vision. Last week, I encountered several deer either on or just beside the trail and I prefer not to run into one. I will enjoy sitting on the bus, reading a book, and just riding on weekends until March.

Steely Dan

true, but pedestrians become shadowy ghosts and my peripheral vision is severely compromised in the dark. i never know when a jaywalker is going to pop out between two parked cars. i've had many close calls with them over the years riding in the dark.

it's one of the main reasons why i ride a bit slower and more defensively in the dark. it may add a couple of minutes to my ride, but it's worth it to not plow into a stealth-ninja jaywalker at full speed.

Daniel4

You must be getting something confused here. To say that you don't like Standard Time is saying you don't like normal time, the time that the Sun (and the stars) is telling you. If it's as simple as not liking to return home in the dark, then simply get up in the morning earlier.

I wake up the same time this week as last week meanwhile the rest of North America wakes up an hour later. So it appears that all my co-workers are arriving an hour after I do this week because they all shifted their sleep schedule. I had forgone the extra hour of sleep and in return I will not be losing the hour of sleep in March when we switch back to DST. So if it weren't for my workload, I would be returning home in daylight. But since I was returning home last week in the dark anyways, there's still no real difference to me. The only thing I do miss is the 10pm evening news.

old's'cool

Point taken. But many of us work for employers that have a certain expectation of normal working hours, daylight savings time or not.

chas58

Best part about dark commutes:

If I use a strobe, traffic often stops for me (either coming towards me or in front of me). Maybe they think I'm the police because of a white strobe?

Its just funny seeing a car get pulled over by a bicycle.

tarwheel 

I'm a longtime veteran of commuting in the dark, but was still caught off-guard on my first commute home since daylight savings ended. I had to work late by two hours, so it was totally dark when I left work. My lights are more than sufficient for riding in the dark, but the combination of misty rain and darkness caused me to have a spill. Part of my commute is along a busy 4-lane road for about 1.5 miles, which is the only portion of my route with an actual bike lane. Unfortunately, the city did not pave all the way to the curb when they have resurfaced the road several times, so the pavement drops off sharply about 2-feet from the curb. My vision was so compromised from the mist and darkness that I mistakenly let my front wheel hit that drop-off and lost control. My bike went down very quickly, but fortunately there were no cars beside or behind me, and the only injury or damage that I suffered was to my ego. I take that back, my beloved Showers Pass rain jacket somehow got a hole in the shoulder during the incident, but hopefully that can be patched.