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nighttime commuting concerns

6K views 76 replies 34 participants last post by  mechBgon 
#1 ·
I have been riding to work a lot lately and I would like to make riding to work something I do every day except for extreme weather. as the days have gotten shorter, especially after the daylight savings change, I have to ride home completely in the dark. it's only 3 miles total each way along busy city streets but i don't feel safe on these roads, even when I have my body and my bike lit up like a Christmas tree. anything else I should consider to make my ride home safer? I cannot seem to find an alternative route that does not involve tripling my commute distance.
 
#3 ·
I have a Planet Bike Superflash blinky on the back of my helmet, a red Frog on my seatpost, a Solarforce flashlight on my helmet, a Niterider Minewt 750 on my handlebar, a white Frog wrapped around my front hub and a hi-vis vest on, but my backpack covers a lot of my vest from behind. i HATE riding with a rear rack. I have a bright blue frame.
 
#6 ·
If at all possible try to time your commute to lulls in traffic patterns. When I go in at night (@19:30) I leave at that time since it's after "rush hour" (such that it is down here), and when I head home if I'm on time it's @ 06:00. If I'm late getting out, I'll wait and have breakfast or read a book for a little while so I'm not riding during peak morning traffic. It stinks having to cool my heels, but it takes a lot of the tension out of commute home.
 
#8 ·
I have to ride home completely in the dark. it's only 3 miles total each way along busy city streets but i don't feel safe on these roads, even when I have my body and my bike lit up like a Christmas tree.
Well I am in the same situation...dark in and dark to home....

I ride about 8 km (short route is 5 km)...

So you could be safer if you rode 9 miles that is 15 km.

Since it takes me about 4 km just to warm up....I would definately consider the longer ride at least some of the time.

Especially if the route is much safer.
 
#9 ·
I have several routes home.

16 miles is the shortest route. It takes dangerous surface streets. I only take this route if it's after midnight, and I do full speed the entire way home (~20-25 mph).

19 miles is the next shortest. It takes less dangerous options, but is still dangerous. I broke a wheel avoiding a car and ramming a curb at high speed because it is that dangerous. To be safe, I have to descend a 30 mph zoned hill with manhole covers in the middle of the road at over 45 mph or face the prospect of getting rear ended.

The longest route that I use is also the safest. It's 30 miles each way, but it's 27 miles of closed trail. Most of the time I take the 30 mile route home.
 
#12 ·
consider a taillight that is daylight visible, or nearly so.

A Dinotte, or a Magicshine, or something like that. Pack the lumens. I have found that the Magicshine taillight I added seems to be the single most important component of getting cars to give me space at night.

Also, as much reflective tape as possible. I have a very large area of red on the backs of both of my fenders, and bits around my chainstays. I have bits of white on my fork legs and the fronts of my brake levers. I also have both red and white reflective tape all over my helmet, front, back, and sides. My pack, an Osprey Talon, has reflective bits on it, too, but I like that reflective triangle. Right now, I toss a blackburn blinkie on my pack, but I'm not a fan of how it hangs from the pack.

In addition to what you are doing, how about describing the route you ride? You say busy city streets but that can be a lot of things. how many lanes? speed limits? are there shoulders or wide lanes? My route is about the same distance and the way I drive is down busy streets more than 3/4 of the way there. however I take a different route when I ride. speed limits are lower (about 2 miles are neighborhood streets where I pass a school and a hospital with 20mph zones), so traffic is lighter, and incidentally, the lanes are much wider even though there's no paint on the roads there. The better route adds about half a mile, but it turns out to be faster because there are fewer lights and stop signs.
 
#18 ·
Google map your route, choose bicycle as your form of transportation. Worst case, triple your ride. That would still be only 9 miles. :D
tried that. it tells me to take the route I am already taking.

the first half of the trip home is four lanes populated by strip clubs, Ethiopian restaurants full of cabbies, and gay bars. i don't trust the drivers pulling out of those establishments. fortunately, most of it is lit up and there are four lanes. then I have to make a right turn onto a two-lane street with zero shoulder and a wide sidewalk. shortly after that, I have to make a left turn onto a neighborhood street and I have home-free because that last third is easy. there is no traffic light at that last left turn so I have to sit there for several minutes and then sprint across on foot. it's that busy intersection and subsequent stretch of narrow, busy road and that left turn across traffic that freak me out.
 
#17 ·
A lot of good suggestions- hope you`re able to make use of some :)
One that didn`t get mentioned above (pretty sure it came up in the thread that BrianMc linked, though) is reflective stuff on moving parts: tape on crank arms, tape on rims if they`re deep or reflectors on the spokes, reflective leg bands and jacket cuffs.

kind of OT for your case, but I think I`m actually more visible lit up at night than I am in the daytime whith so many other distractions. That`s for mostly rural riding, probably different with more lit up stuff around (cars, streetlights, signs, and what-ever else).
 
#23 ·
Oh! You mean like this:

http://img20.imageshack.us/flvplayer.swf?f=Py7m
Uploaded with ImageShack.us

James Doohan once did a documentary on Dad's farm when I was about 6. So maybe the warp lines of the Enterprise changing to light speed had a bad influence on me as I was a fan from the pilot, on. Or maybe Mel Brooks did it with Spaceball's going to plaid at ludicrous speed. Obviously cloaked Klingon Birds of Prey or Romulan Warbirds were not my models. :)

One thing that still amazes me. Is that reflective stuff does not show well in the absence of street lighting or a following vehicle to light them up. (I used a car to light the road at right angles to the bike with the bike dead ahead as it passes in and out of view to or from the left. The camera is aimed to the right like a driver looking in that direction, and at the height of a Ford Ranger driver (higher than sedans, lower than most SUVs). Of course they are only going to stare that way if nothing is coming from the right and they are mesmerized by the UFO. It does let you see what a quick look at amy point would look like.) Note that the cyclist is almost directly in front and only a second away and the speed is in the 16 mph range before the passive stuff does much. With low beam the yellow jacket is not seen.

I also ride under street lights so I have some reflective stuff as it weighs little, maybe as much as a pair of AAA's total.

Drivers share the road most generously. Be advised that very drunk drivers are attracted to flashing lights. So heading to the ditch or a lawn or bunny hopping to a sidewalk may be required. Two flashing lights of even the same make are never in sync for long and the disharmony is very attention getting. Provided they look up from test screens of course. ;(

BrianMc
 
#25 ·
NateHawk, how well does reflective tape hold up long term? I live in hot & wet central FL and I find that most tape tends to peel back after being wetted and soaked with road debris, and this process continues over time. Eventually I have to remove all the tape and start over. Can you recommend a brand of tape that will avoid this?
 
#65 ·
I installed some reflective strips on our bikes years ago. Our bikes sat outside under a covered patio for a good solid year exposed to West Texas: heat, dust storms, and flash floods. As a result, a lot of the hardware has started rusting.

Anyhow, I all but forgot about it until tonight. I was swapping parts tonight and took a picture to show a friend. That's when I saw the reflectors, reacting to the flash. I only used a few pieces on all sides combined with a front and rear light. I just wanted to pass this along to those thinking about using reflective tape.

(Yellow reflective tape on Swing arm and fork)

 
#26 ·
I've been commuting in Texas for the past year, where when it rains, there's usually a lot of lightning. I don't ride in that stuff. So my commuter bike has had relatively few wet days. Mostly hot and dry weather.

I bought whatever it was that walmart had in stock in the automotive section and it's been fine for the past year. no signs of peeling. it might have even been the 3m stuff, which is highly regarded.

On my frame, I put electrical tape underneath because the package had warnings about the adhesive being strong enough to peel off paint. elsewhere, however, I didn't bother. I put some on the bare metal of my cranks and on some plastic bits.
 
#44 ·
I bought whatever it was that walmart had in stock in the automotive section and it's been fine for the past year. no signs of peeling. it might have even been the 3m stuff, which is highly regarded.
I don't know why I hadn't thought of the automotive section for reflective tape... that's a damn good idea. The other place I've heard of getting them from is marine or sign suppliers, which supply a sheet rather than a strip. We have guillotine paper cutters at work though so that makes it easy to convert these sheets to whatever size we want.

I'll add another vote for a bright taillight such as the Magicshine MJ-818.
I talked to a few people RE: the MJ 800 lumen lights (as in, people in the industry) and the illumination is less consistent than other lights - as in it will start off at around 787 lumens and be around the 687 lumens mark at 50% charge on the battery. L&M put the discharge illumination on their advertising material for the Urban series lights to make their lights a selling point over the cheap knockoff lights. That's the main difference between the MJ lights and something like Light & Motion.

For a tail light, I think this is perfectly fine, considering my current lights do that anyway! Headlight, that's personal opinion, but I do remember switching mine from low to medium to high as the ride progressed with my old MJ lights.
 
#27 ·
I'll add another vote for a bright taillight such as the Magicshine MJ-818. I got one and am very pleased with it. It is very bright and I use it on my dedicated commuter during daylight and night time rides. Did I say it is bright already? I may get another one or some other taillight with at least .5 watt for use on my other bikes. The Magicshine that I have is sort of a permanent fixture on the dedicated commuter. I have other bikes that I sometimes use and would like a brighter taillight on them when riding at night. In fact, only one has a rear blinkie, but it's such a toy compared to the MJ-818.

As others have said, I'd recommend passive "lighting" such as reflectors and reflective tape and active lighting in the front and rear. Highly recommend something with some serious lumens.
 
#28 ·
I forgot to mention that I have reflective rims and tires with reflective sidewalls. I also have blinkie spoke lights that spin round and round as I ride. This time of year I ride with reflective velcro straps around my ankles to keep my pants out of the chain, too. But I also wear one on the non drive side since that is the traffic side
 
#29 ·
It was dark. I was driving. A vehicle approached going the other way, I thought it was a motorcycle with those winking headlights used to gain extra attention. It was a bicycle. I was impressed. I do not know what kind of bar light it was, it seemed to be a slow flash, or maybe not really a flash but a pulse to higher power.
 
#32 ·
^^ Ha Ha. Very funny. I wish. :) Here I was wondering if you'd taken a wrong turn in Montpelier and ended up here in SE Indiana. Then I remembered, my headlights don't pulse. Maybe it was variable cloud reflectivity. :)

A pulsing headlamp would be good.True flashes leave you unmarked for too long. The guy who builds the electronics I used for my light periodically upgrades the software. That will be a request from me.

BrianMc
 
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