Clocks change = change in commuter habits?

[amateur]

Does the clocks changing result in a change in commuter habits/passenger flow/travel flow?

Do changing the clock an hour back, mean people prefer to get an earlier train in the evevings in order to avoid the darker shorter days?

Do you notice a change in passenger flow, on commuter trains immediatedly after the clocks change?

Taking about October. Not Spring.

 

[Master29]

I wouldn`t have thought much difference really. Possibly in a few cases where people wouldn`t like the idea of walking to and from a station in dark hours or living in the country.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Not that I've noticed. Most commuters are creatures of habit and take the same timed train (and often seat/standing position) all the time.

 

[HarleyDavidson]

They're still grumpy despite the fact that they have had an extra hours sleep courtesy of DST ending.

 

[cuccir]

No. The main annual rhythms are, in order of more to less impact:

1. Major Public Holidays
2. School term time
3. University term time


People travel for work, and for the majority their hours are separated from natural rhythms of light and dark.

There will be a small number, but not s noticeable amount in most places

 

[PR1Berske]

Commuters are creatures of habit. As said above (I think!) often even down to the same standing position on a platform.

Changing the clocks won't alter a worker's behaviour too much in this regard. Same time to make your desk, after all.

 

[Ianno87]

I suspect not much difference in the mornings.

Evenings, people might be tempted to head home earlier, rather than have a post-work pint or something.

 

[edwin_m]

I experimented one year with staying on the same "solar time" in autumn and getting the train an hour earlier by the clock. Most of my colleagues didn't know I'd got in earlier and wondered why I wanted to leave before the usual time. Gave up after a couple of months due to chronic lack of sleep.

 

[al78]

They're still grumpy despite the fact that they have had an extra hours sleep courtesy of DST ending.

That only applies on the Sunday when the clocks change, so there should be no difference in grumpiness during the following working week.

 

[DarloRich]

Does the clocks changing result in a change in commuter habits/passenger flow/travel flow?

Do changing the clock an hour back, mean people prefer to get an earlier train in the evevings in order to avoid the darker shorter days?

Do you notice a change in passenger flow, on commuter trains immediatedly after the clocks change?

Taking about October. Not Spring.

As impeding apocalypse would have little or no impact on commuter habits I very much doubt the clocks going back register. The only change it makes to my commuting habits is to remind me to dig out the winter coat.

 

[al78]

Do changing the clock an hour back, mean people prefer to get an earlier train in the evevings in order to avoid the darker shorter days?

Very unlikely. The sunset now is much earlier than when the majority of commuters in the city finish work, the only way they could avoid communting in the dark is to leave work before 4 pm. Maybe feasible for those who have flexible working hours, not for those with standard office hours. There is no avoiding the dark evenings until the end of March.

 

[Bletchleyite]

As impeding apocalypse would have little or no impact on commuter habits I very much doubt the clocks going back register. The only change it makes to my commuting habits is to remind me to dig out the winter coat.

The "big coat" - how very Northern of you!

 

[DarloRich]

The "big coat" - how very Northern of you!

I only own one coat. You only need a winter coat. Years of standing on cold terraces watching terrible football have taught me the value of a decent coat! I will have to put the heating on soon.

 

[al78]

I only own one coat. You only need a winter coat. Years of standing on cold terraces watching terrible football have taught me the value of a decent coat! I will have to put the heating on soon.

I have a jacket (from an outdoor pursuits shop) that will keep out the worst of the UK weather, and a lightweight cycling jacket, which works well on rainy summer days when a proper coat would be too much. A winter coat when cycling would result in me getting soaking wet from sweat.

 

[LWB]

They're still grumpy despite the fact that they have had an extra hours sleep courtesy of DST ending.

Is DST a typo for BST?

Double summer time was last used in WW2 I believe.

 

[SPADTrap]

Is DST a typo for BST?

Daylight saving time?

 

[rebmcr]

Is DST a typo for BST?

Double summer time was last used in WW2 I believe.

It was BDST though. DST is the standard abbreviation for Daylight Savings Time, usually relative to a specified 'regular' time zone.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I experimented one year with staying on the same "solar time" in autumn and getting the train an hour earlier by the clock. Most of my colleagues didn't know I'd got in earlier and wondered why I wanted to leave before the usual time. Gave up after a couple of months due to chronic lack of sleep.

Just curious - were you going to bed an hour earlier as well?

For myself, I tend to run on GMT all the year round and make a mental adjustment during the summer.

 

[LWB]

It was BDST though. DST is the standard abbreviation for Daylight Savings Time, usually relative to a specified 'regular' time zone.

Ahh. Thank you!

 

[edwin_m]

Just curious - were you going to bed an hour earlier as well?

I think most days I collapsed into bed as soon as I got home, to sort of surface an hour or so later.

 

[nw1]

I guess it depends how flexible your work is.

If work allows you to get in an hour earlier and leave an hour earlier, then maybe: in many ways 8-4 is a more sensible working day than 9-5 at this time of year, as it means your working day is in daylight throughout. Less so in the later part of the winter months, January and February, when solar noon shifts forward by around 30 minutes meaning that winter time seems more the 'natural' timezone than it does now.

I always attempt to get up and go to bed an hour earlier as soon as winter time is imposed upon us, but evening social events tend to scupper this as they don't run an hour earlier to compensate for the clocks. Admittedly in December you're stuffed either way as the mornings then become very dark, so winter time makes more sense then - but at this time of year the days are very lop-sided with daylight heavily concentrated on the earlier part of the waking day. It seems very odd to be considerably lighter at 7am than at 5pm - this is very much a November thing, at the end of the winter the converse is true.

 

[nw1]

Very unlikely. The sunset now is much earlier than when the majority of commuters in the city finish work, the only way they could avoid communting in the dark is to leave work before 4 pm. Maybe feasible for those who have flexible working hours, not for those with standard office hours. There is no avoiding the dark evenings until the end of March.

Depends on when you finish work I guess, but dark evenings here in the south finish considerably earlier than the end of March. We get sunsets well after 5 even before the end of February, which means on 9-5 hours you're probably doing much of your commute in daylight or twilight even by then. I always think of the last Sunday in October to around February 10th (and particularly late Nov to early Jan) as the period of really oppressive darkness.

 

[bramling]

Does the clocks changing result in a change in commuter habits/passenger flow/travel flow?

Do changing the clock an hour back, mean people prefer to get an earlier train in the evevings in order to avoid the darker shorter days?

Do you notice a change in passenger flow, on commuter trains immediatedly after the clocks change?

Taking about October. Not Spring.

Only the likelihood that not so many people will be taking annual leave, so generally things will be at their busiest.

 

[Bletchleyite]

By the "0713 Bletchley-Euston" gauge that is very true - there's a seat for everyone in August, as generally at any point in August about 1/4 to 1/3 of people are taking 2 weeks off for a family holiday. Full and standing later in the year.

 

[cuccir]

Yeah, October-December and Mid January-Easter are busiest times, with half term dropping off. July/August Summer holidays are obviously the quietest.

Easter-June and September are usually a touch quieter as: people w/o kids take annual leave during good weather; universities have less teaching; school timetables are disrupted by exams, but they're still much busier than holidays.

 

[bramling]

Yeah, October-December and Mid January-Easter are busiest times, with half term dropping off. July/August Summer holidays are obviously the quietest.

Easter-June and September are usually a touch quieter as: people w/o kids take annual leave during good weather; universities have less teaching; school timetables are disrupted by exams, but they're still much busier than holidays.

Agree with this. I normally have 1-2 week holidays in April, May, June, early July and September. By contrast I've got no annual leave at all during the time GMT applies.

 

[sefton]

In the spring/summer with the lighter mornings, some people take the opportunity to catch a slightly earlier train. Not huge numbers, but it is noticible.

 

[joncombe]

A colleague of mine generally cycles to and from work in the summer months but switches to train in the winter after the clocks change, so it does happen. But I would think the effect is small.