Steely Dan

today is one of my least favorite days of the year.

for the first time in roughly 8 months, my post-work commute will be in the total darkness of night, thanks to DLS fall back.

no more setting sun, or dusk, or twilight riding, just pure raw unadulterated straight-up night.

the only silver lining to all of this is that, given my start time (and chicago's location on the extreme eastern edge of its time zone), i always have plenty of daylight for my morning commutes, even on the winter solstice.

but the night rides home in winter aren't my favorite. it's not that i don't like riding in darkness, it's the combination of the darkness and chicago's crazy aggressive rush hour traffic that's less than ideal.



oh well, only 18 weeks to go until March 12th. that's only 90 night rides home from work. i can do this, just gotta take it one night at a time.

GeneO 

I get to ride home in the dark too. Quite a bit of it on trails through woods. Chicagoland too, great weather!

Abe_Froman

Where do you ride? Thankfully, my commute now only has a mile or so of trafficky traffic.

Darth Lefty 

It's time to buy some lights!

Steely Dan

from edgewater up to my job in downtown evanston. ~5 miles one-way. mostly side-streety, but i have to take some busier streets to get around cavalry cemetery on the chicago/evanston border. stupid cemetery, what a dumb waste of perfectly good space.

it could certainly be a lot worse.

mcours2006

I don't like having DS to begin with. For the past month and a half I've had to ride to work in the dark, and the last couple of weeks it's remained dark an hour after I got here. Today, at least, I was here close to sunrise.

I leave work early enough that I don't have to deal with darkness, but possibly the setting sun as I ride west going home.

But this time of the year you're either riding in darkness in the AM or riding in darkness in PM, unless some of you are lucky enough to have six-hour work days.

no motor?

The ride in today was nicer as it was warmer and still in broad daylight. The ride home won't be too bad for me, I've been riding home in the dark for a while now and this won't be any different.

Abe_Froman

Huh, I used to be over in Andersonville by you. In Jefferson park now, ride up to Winnetka. Most of my commute is thankfully pretty quiet.

GeneO 

For me this time of year it is shorter - 28mi RT, mostly on trails as there is no safe road route to work. Guess I am lucky in that. But I have to have a bright light for going through the forest preserves and woods and Prairie paths.

Steely Dan

that's a nice long ride, i'm guessing you utilize the north branch trail? do they keep that plowed in winter?

Abe_Froman

Actually no. I take the little trail the starts at Bryn Mawr, a little bit west of Pulaski past the cemetary there. Takes me up past Touhy, then its neighborhood streets up to Gross Point Rd which takes me to work. I do the North Branch Trail every now and then, but it overshoots a bit to the east of where I need to go. Although, in the dark, it may be a better option as I can probably get to the north end of it without going on any major streets. We'll see....this is a relatively new job, started in the spring on this route, haven't had to deal with snow yet. About 24 miles round trip.

tarwheel 

I have to ride in the dark for at least part of my commute from September through April. Personally, I would rather ride in the dark during the morning leg of my commute because there is less traffic then. So, I am not crazy about the time change in the fall, which means most of my ride home is in the dark during the heaviest period for traffic. However, I am probably more visible to drivers in the dark because I have an very good light system with two headlights and three taillights.

Daniel4

Too many people complaining about suddenly riding home in the dark. Solution:Get up an hour earlier. You've already done it the past eight months.

And guess what? If you're living north of the Tropic of Cancer, you're gonna be riding in the dark at sometime during the year.

TenSpeedV2

I ride home in the dark every night that I commute regardless of the time of year. As a second shift worker, getting out at 11:30pm ensures this. It is just something that I have grown accustomed to as I don't have a choice other than changing shifts. Night riding can be really nice although dealing with rush hour traffic in Chicago at night is not high up there on my list.

GeneO 

Well that was fun, sort of...

I got to the forest preserve I go through which is about half way through my commute back home and there is a sign it is closed for deer culling from 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour after sunrise, from November through March! Well my only alternative to getting killed on route 56 was to take sidewalks fo some way, then get on city streets until I got to my subdivision. A shorter but more stressful ride for me.

mcours2006

When riding in the dark I'm not so much concerned about the traffic volume. The volume doesn't change. I've got lights. I'm more concerned about being able to see the debris and other hazards on the road. Even having ridden that same route dozens of times and with good headlights it becomes difficult to see and avoid crap on the road.

GeneO 

I am worried about that too, but more so drivers texting or reading a magazine or dialing a cell phone or many of the other distractions I see too much of when driving in my truck. Lights don't help much then.

Steely Dan

How is that a solution to avoid riding in the dark for the evening commute in the winter months? I have set office hours from 8:30am - 5:30pm everday. When I chose to wake up and go to bed is completely unrelated to that schedule.


Well duh, but the inevitability of the situition doesn't mean that I have to like it. I accept that this is a reality of where I choose to live on our fair cosmic orb, but I'm still not crazy about it.

dailycommute

Day fades fast in Maine, still getting an AM commute in, then mtb at lunch (keep that one at the office) as substitute for evening commute. I ride the bus home in winter here--starting seventh year. I find the bus a tough psychological commute for me (walking/waiting/riding the long slow bus in the dark). The diesel fumes make my head spin. Always a cast of characters though!

tarwheel 

If you dread riding in the dark, that's perhaps a clue that your lighting system is not adequate. There is no excuse not to have a great light system these days. The prices for LED light systems have dropped incredibly over the past few years, concurrent with the marketing of more powerful lights with longer run times. You can buy an 800-lumen headlight now for less than $100, with run times that should get you through any commute distance. Similar improvements have come with taillights.

mcours2006

Or it may be that you don't like the dark, 800-lumen light or not. Some people just don't like riding or driving at night.

tarwheel 

That's why I said "perhaps"!

Steely Dan

perhaps, but i have plenty of lights on my bike, and because i live in chicago, it never actually gets dark dark anyway.

i think it's more about the psychology of going home at night that bothers me. it's all just such a jarring change when we flip our clocks back. and i don't like it.

if i were a car or transit commuter, i probably still wouldn't like it.

stupid planet earth with its stupid axial tilt.

Abe_Froman

Don't hate the planet, hate the city.

I want to go somewhere warm and sunny

Steely Dan

nah. don't hate the city, hate the planet's axial tilt.