Commuting east vs. west
 

I live in New Jersey - east coast of the USA. This rant may not apply to everyone.

My job is east of my house - the worst possible direction to bike commute.

In the early morning, the wind is still generally calm, so I gain no advantage. However, in the afternoon, the wind picks up and generally blows from the west - into my face as I ride home.

I lose with the sunlight too. I commute east into the glare of the rising sun and come home west, again into the sun glare. Daylight saving time makes it worse, the clocks get set back one hour in the fall so I get to repeat the whole sequence of riding to and from work through the sun glare.

Are you in need of a response ?

Move, or change jobs, or change working hours.

I suspect @ScottCommutes is asking for commiseration or something. I can offer it. I lived in New Jersey for 26 years. I had to drive to work most of that time, unfortunately. I can relate to the sunrise and sunset problems. But I never wished I lived on Long Island. I developed the ability to see with an excess of sun in my eyes.

I live just below 14 St in Manhattan, and I commute by subway on some days and by bike the other days. No car, yahoo! Riding along the Hudson River, most days, I have a strong headwind in the morning. And very often, the wind shifts in the midday, and I have a mild headwind in the evening. I'm thin, and that means wind challenges me more than hefty riders (higher surface area to mass ratio). I asked a big friend of mine how he deals with strong winds on his commute, and he didn't even know what I was talking about. He complains about hills.

Yep, hills are the killer for us fatties, hehehe.
I'm lucky in that my inbound commute is 1/2 downhill, 1/2 flat. I can almost get here without sweating, most days.
However, for the ride home, I'm usually riding into a wind and then that 1/2 is uphill.

I think you should just count it as training and get yourself some quality sunglasses.

I will also remind you that if you were riding with the sun behind you near sundown, your mirror would be blinding you. My club's Monday evening group ride had me pointing my mirror off-kilter and I had to resort to doing head checks like some kind of savage for the east-bound leg. It's always something.

As for riding into the wind more often than not, you could get an eBike, which takes the pain out of that. (but also robs you of some exercise!) eBikes are AWESOME for commuting.

I should also point out that I live about 30 miles due west of Manhattan - I'm riding with the traffic both ways as well. The drivers have the sun to deal with, but not so much the wind.

When I lived in Arizona I had the same situation. The Arizona flag depicts a rising star with its rays for a reason. The rising sun out there pierces through the skull. I live on the east coast now and it's not nearly as bad. Dark mirrored polarized sunglasses and a cycling cap with the visor and a helmet is how I dealt with it in Arizona. I also rode with a Take-A-Look mirror. It's a must. Why? Because drivers were blinded by the light also and I had to be able to see what they were doing coming up behind me.