Originally Posted by
Attilio
Another benefit to dark riding is those are the times on road for example that there are the least cars. Most accidents happen during rush hour. A lot of people are anxious or tell me what a bad idea going out at 8pm is but the truth is that I live in a somewhat rural suburbanish area with wide main roads. If I go for a 1 hour ride at that time I could count on the fingers on one hand during that time the total cars that pass by me vs taking mere seconds at like 4pm and commuting somewhere. The probabilities are in my favor at that hour. And the lights are REALLY good and so is the warmth afforded by modern clothing so why not?
+1 to the advantage of low traffic at night.
I used to ride to work frequently when I was on 2nd shift (2p-11p) The midnight ride home was far less stressful than the daytime ride in; even in the heavily developed suburban/commercial areas I traveled. Way easier to deal with the 4- and 6-lane parkways, particularly the massive intersections, when you’re only dealing with 3-4 vehicles, rather than dozens coming from all directions.
Most of my route was lit, to one extent or another, so my on-bike lighting was more to “be seen” than “to see with”
I also liked to go out late for fast-paced tempo rides. There’s a couple nearby neighborhoods that were great for doing intervals, but were only accessible by a 1/2-to-1-mile run down a very high-traffic 6-lane that would be crazy dangerous under normal operating conditions
At 12a-1a; you might get passed by half a dozen cars, but they can see you a 1/4-mile off, and they can pass with a whole lane to spare