colleen c

I've notice a difference in attitude between the morning and evening drivers. In my observation, it seem that the evening motorist driver are just simply more rude. Don't know if this is demographic specific or same everywhere, but that what I noticed here in CA (Bay Area).

Some thing I notice is the fact that afternoon driver is more often to be talking (or arguing ) on the cell phone, speeding, or distracted with kids in the back seat. They seam to weave in their lanes and hook cylist more so than the morning drivers. Yes, Ca do have hand free cellphone law but I see lots of driver disobey that law. On the other hand (sorry no pun intended), the morning driver have a coffee mug in their hand and half asleep. Still their attitude seem more forgiving than the evening driver, perhaps that long day with the boss set them off on a road rage.

So what seem to be the better motorist driver for cylist commuter? The morning motorist or evening motorist? No difference, same?

unterhausen

I think the morning drivers may be more dangerous because they are usually in a hurry and focused on getting to work. As far as rudeness and distractions go, I think you are correct

rumrunn6

I agree, in that the morning commuters are safer to ride a bike with.

In addition to the evening commuters being more dangerous I find that the 4:00 crowd is more dangerous than the 5:00 crowd. Meaning I prefer to be in the thick of it rather than on the fringe of it. Unfortunately I try to shift my work hours so that I leave early to compensate for arriving early. The old school thinking was I would avoid the "rush hour" traffic and be safer. The truth is those early evening (4:00) commuters are more reckless.

unixpro

To me, they're pretty much equally dangerous, but for different reasons.

The morning motorist is half-asleep, sipping coffee, running late, and thinking about all the stuff they need to get done in the day.

The evening motorists fall into two categories:
- People trying to get home. These are the people who are talking on the phone, worrying about dinner, picking up the kids, etc.
- Teenagers. They're oblivious to everyone but them and their friends. They've put their bikes away and think anyone riding a bike, no matter the reason, must be shown the folly of their choices.

Of the three, I'd rank the teenager as most dangerous, followed by the evening motorist, then the morning.

RaleighComp

+1

There is a distinctly different flavor to different "bands" of commuting drivers, on both ends of the commute. The early part of the rush hours seems to be populated with the most agressive drivers, the middle a little less so, and the most docile are at the tail end. I would say that the early part of the morning rush is a little worse in that you probably have mix of professional/blue collar whereas the early part of the afternoon rush is predominantly blue collar. At least it looks that way here in Boston. Generally speaking, when the ratio of BMWs/overall vehicles is high, be cautious;-)

mtnwalker

I'd say the rush hour traffic motorist is the worst. I know I'm pretty cool in the morning because not much is empeding my progress when I have to drive in to work. After work is a different story though. Cars are weaving in and out of traffic, idiots on cell phones while driving, morons accelerating like they are on a drag strip to get as fast as possible to the next red light, etc, etc. Plus hundreds more reasons to make drivers act like complete nincompoops making them more dangerous on their way home.

DallasSoxFan

Less people are stressed about hurrying to work on average than are stresses about getting home.

Doohickie

The vast majority of morning motorists are riding familiar routes to familiar places. They haven't dealt with the day's hassles yet. As a result, they are generally relatively calm. In the afternoon, along with commuters, throw in the extra traffic volume of people doing shopping, running errands, doing other "irregular" trips and trying to do it as fast as possible so they can get home. Yeah... afternoon is more of a hassle. I used to work near a mall and as Christmas got near, that effect was magnified.

Artkansas 

It's more dangerous in the evening has been my experience. People are tired, they actually want to get home quickly, and their mind is still unwinding from the day.

And, for me, I note that the two worst attacks on me in my cycling career happened late in the afternoon.

capejohn

My morning commutes are pretty much traffic free. I'm on city streets from 6-7 AM. The evening has much more traffic and I also find that when the traffic is heavy is calmer and safer for me. When the traffic is moderate in the evenings, its a race to the red light.

sauerwald

I commute in the bay area, and have found the morning commute easier, but my morning and evening commutes tend to have very different flavours. I commute in early in the morning, I ride harder, and then shower and get dressed after I arrive. Since I am riding in before the rush, there seems to be less traffic. I tend to take it easy when riding home. I don't change into cycling specific clothing, and try not to work up too much of a sweat on the way home. I do notice a lot more traffic, but i don't find the drivers better or worse.....

sd790

Here's how I think of it...

Morning drivers think that we are just slowing them down in their effort to get to work - a good thing, perhaps. In the afternoon and evenings, people want to rush home to their families, friends, bars, etc. so we are just getting in their way.

corkscrew

In the morning they are all tired and sleepy - so you have to be careful.

In the evening they are all angry and sleepy - so you have to be careful.

hshearer

Agree. Plus, personally, I'm always tired after a day of work, and that usually means grumpy. Put me in a car on top of that, and I wouldn't be much fun at all.

I've also noticed that some of the worst behaviours come from the people driving the shiniest luxury brand cars. Pick-up drivers can be bad, too, and again, shiny clean with lots of chrome usually seems to be a bad omen. Domestic sedans seem to attract a nice crowd, though. Am I profiling? I'm always a little more alert when I see that BMW or Lexus logo coming up in my mirror.

colleen c

I concur. It seem they don't give a darn about getting to work and they will find ways around us, but after work, they think we are taking away their free time and I do hear more horns in the late afternoon or early evening.

colleen c

I honestly don't think you're profiling. One on my worst motorist tailgator was late evening when this shiny car behind me going "boom....boom boom....bong....bong, bong". LOL, guy had a boom box so loud that I was vibrating. I thought my frame had a crack in it and was shaking. Worst part was the fact that he tail me for 1000 ft. I was begining to wonder can he listen to any of that music since most of it were leaking out the car

colleen c

At least I got a back massage from that boom box.

rwp

The motorists that share my commute are considerate, alert and, for the most part, abide by the traffic rules. This is true for the morning and afternoon. It's also true at noontime when I go home for lunch.

I'm dumbfounded that most on this forum have such ****ty commuting experiences. It really and truly saddens me.

CCrew

The worst one in my part of the woods is the one that's looking into the sun, so pick morning or evening since I work east of home..

genec

It really is area dependent... and route dependent. Some places and roads just are less bike friendly than others. I used to live and commute on the east end of town and never had any problems... but since moving to the west end, where housing density is greater and the arterial roads are faster, things are not so pretty.

What gets to me are the cyclists on BF that imply that these problems are in my head... clearly I am same rider, the routes are just different.

vaticdart

Evening, definitely evening.

I've only had a two or three nasty verbal confrontations with irrate motorists in the two and a half years I've been commuting year-round, but they've ALL been in the evening. I don't think I've ever even had a close call in the morning (with a motorist, that is, I've had them with peds).

There's a few reasons for this, I theorize the following:

#1: energy depletion; willpower and morality, not thinking just about yourself, literally requires energy. At the end of the day people tend to be more energy depleted than they are in the mornings.

#2: destination anticipation; in the morning people are on their way to a place they don't really want to be. If they get there ten or fifteen minutes early, whoop-de-do, they get to... read... or surf the internet. Yay... On their way home, they're on their way to a place they want to be, and their time there is their time, pure and simple. An extra ten or fifteen minutes seems like it makes a big difference in that state of anticipation.

#3: general anger; this connects to #1, but if you spend all day being unhappy at your job, you're far less likely to be a considerate human being full of light and happiness at the end of that day.

#4: errand frustation; a great many people have items A through Q that they need to do BEFORE they can go home and relax in the evening. In the morning most people go from home to work with no or few errands inbetween.

#5: the futility cycle; I think a lot of people get into that "is this all there is?" state of mind on the way home. Sleep, work, home, sleep, work, home... The cycle seems much more imposing when tired, angry, and facing that little chunk of time to themselves that most people get.

Caribou2001

+1

More people are okay with being 5 minutes late to work than 5 minutes late for dinner, it seems....

gerv 

This is my experience. I find traffic moving a little slower in the morning and there somehow seems to be less of it. My only anxiety is dealing with traffic coming off the freeway... they usually want to take city streets at breakneck speed.

TRaffic Jammer

I figure if I'm to encounter something unpleasant, in the form of a metal box, chances are it's on the rush hour home.

dedhed

My experience is the morning traffic is much easier to deal with than the evening and less of it.