Abe_Froman

I do hate tilt...especially with pinball machines. Can that sort of anger transfer?

noglider 

I've seen bumper stickers that say a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work. Riding in the dark is not my favorite, but I still choose it, because it's still riding. Same with riding with clothing on my legs.

zze86

DLS was like a light switch not only terms of lighting conditions but stupidity factor of drivers. So many close calls that day on the ride home. Almost had an accident occur right in front of me as a truck towing a trailer moved into the left lane to give me room and then this compact car proceeds to zoom past in the right lane. The truck having passed me tries to get back into the right lane to make a right hand turn and almost pushes the compact car into the curb (which did not have the light on BTW). Almost missed seeing two cars behind me while making left hand turns because they were driving around without their lights on.

I know the etiquette is to not have blinking lights on at night but I felt like I HAD to that night and turned ALL my lights blinking. On bike, on helmet, armbands.

Steely Dan

week 1 of the "The Darkness" is over.

only 17 more to go!

ItsJustMe

What I really dislike about DST is that we finally get to the point where my ride is completely in darkness and then I'm riding directly into the sun in the morning for a few weeks.

nayr497

Yup, not much fun. I enjoyed walking my dogs in darkness/coming light in the morning before work. And riding home in the light.

Now I walk the dogs in the light and ride home in the dark. I cheer myself up by just seeing it as a countdown to Dec 20th, or is it the 21st?

Steely Dan

well, here we are at the solstice!

the grip of "The Darkness" now only grows ever weaker.

GamblerGORD53

For me it's pick 1 ...
Cold, dark, wet.... I sit.
The Luddites were lately rattling the DST cages on the news here. Another ******* cause.

fietsbob

The Commons is Long Gone , that was what The Luddites were against, crushing their incomes and stealing their homes.

KD5NRH

I prefer full dark; the work end of my commute is about a mile out of town, so once it's too dark to see the road without headlights, I know the cars will have theirs on and my reflectives will be doing as much or more to make me visible than my lights. At twilight, there are always some knuckleheads who won't turn their lights on until they can't see the radio display.

Lug

Couldn't find a similar picture for Anchorage, so here is one from Fairbanks that is dated 2 December. Not a very big window to ride in if you don't like riding in the dark.

jeffpoulin

^^^ Nice time-lapse photo. I just looked it up and Fairbanks gets a measly 3:41 of daylight (from 11:00am to 2:41pm). Oh, and below 0F too. Nice.

PatrickGSR94

If anyone has seen Casey Neistat's holiday video posted this week where he's lifted and pulled on a snowboard by a custom-built 16-rotor 10-foot diameter drone, they were up at some ski resort in the north of Finland, where for about 2.5 weeks in December there is NO sunrise. Just a few hours of twilight each day, basically a combined sunrise/sunset sky appearance for 3-4 hours. The next sunrise doesn't happen until 30 December, and the sun is only visible for less than 1 hour. Conversely, in July there are 24 hours of daylight.

Steely Dan

Hooray, we are now more than half-way through "The Darkness"!

Last friday represented the end of the 9th work week of the 18 weeks between fall back and spring forward. Only 9 more weeks to go. The first 9 flew by....

RidingMatthew

Thanks for the update Steely Dan.


we can do it!


9. more. weeks.

rhm

This time of year I try to sit on the right side of the train on my way home, and watch the sun as it sets. I just get a glimpse of it every now and then between buildings and trees, and I note to myself where I get the last glimpse of it. Every day, it's a little farther along the line; in another month or two, it will be on the horizon when I get off the train. Now, when I get on my bike in the evening, there's just a glimmer of light in the western sky, but soon enough I'll actually see the sun on the horizon again as I'm going over the bridge over the tracks.... It's a hopeful time!

alan s 

Meanwhile, in other breaking news, the South Pole is enjoying a beautiful summer.

cyccommute 

And what all the late risers forget is that just when we are getting to the point where we can ride both ways to work without lights we are plunged back into an hour of darkness on the morning side...and it's an hour colder.

I hate day light savings!

Daniel4

If your work can give you flexibility, ignore DST. Standard time arrive at work 8am. DST arrive at work 9am.

Steely Dan

i love daylight saving!

without it, the sun would rise at 4:15 in the morning on the summer solstice in chicago because of the city's location at the extreme eastern edge of the central time zone.

no one needs the sun to rise at 4:15am. 5:15am is early enough as it is with DST.

Daniel4

I don't see why we need government telling us when to wake up. If you want to wake up early, then wake up early. Why drag everybody else into it? I'm doing it.

TaintedRide

Well you guys could always move here to Arizona. We don't have Daylight Savings Time, but we do have heat! Tonight my ride 17 mile ride home was 51 degrees, it was cold!

cyccommute 

Honestly, I doubt that anyone would notice what time the sun rose at the summer solstice no matter whether we were on standard or daylight savings time. We really don't care that much during summer...or I should say that our natural internal clock doesn't care.

But in March, it makes a huge difference. That's why the change in so jarring at both ends of daylight savings time. In March, we are just getting used to the natural cycle with the morning light just about right for us to wake up when all of a sudden we plunge ourselves back to the middle of February.

Daniel4

It's easier to set a schedule where you can ignore DST than to move to Republican country.

Steely Dan

but in chicago, because of its eastern edge of time zone location, the sunrises at 6:08am on march 11th, and then rises at 7:06am on march 12th after spring forward. considering that i typically wake up at 7:00am, that works out just fine for me. i don't really need to have the sun up any earlier than 7:00am and would much, MUCH, MUCH rather have any excess daylight saved for the end of my workday, hence why i love daylight savings time! it saves the daylight for me, instead of wasting it on 4:30am when i'm sound asleep anyway.

of course, i'd be ok with doing away with DST altogether if it also meant moving chicago into the eastern time zone.