Why are dark evenings dangerous, but dark mornings "safe"?

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

It's completely dark by 4pm GMT in Scotland in winter. It's not even properly light at 9am GMT. SAD in a can!

And that's just the mainland. It's even worse in Orkney and Shetland.

I'm in a 9-5 office job.

I got fed up with the rush hour traffic and also the fact that everything goes wrong in the afternoon so I don't get out at 5pm.

I now tend to do a 10-6 day.  It hasn't caused a problem.

In my previous job I changed my hours once we got to the end of BST - I did 10-6 so I could go in in daylight and come home once the worst of the traffic had gone. It's full dark by 4pm once we get into November so it made no difference leaving at 5 or 6 in terms of light, just traffic.

[mattc]

I'm in a 9-5 office job.

I got fed up with the rush hour traffic and also the fact that everything goes wrong in the afternoon so I don't get out at 5pm.

I now tend to do a 10-6 day.  It hasn't caused a problem.

In my previous job I changed my hours once we got to the end of BST - I did 10-6 so I could go in in daylight and come home once the worst of the traffic had gone. It's full dark by 4pm once we get into November so it made no difference leaving at 5 or 6 in terms of light, just traffic.

Based purely on personal experience, I feel the %age of UK employees working 9-5, with no flexi-time* is getting very small.
Professionals tend to have flexi-time (and work loads of hours anyway), and most of the low-paid have to work silly shifts (e.g. after-hours cleaners, shelfstackers, catering workers, factory staff keeping the facilities going 24x7).
Dairy cows?

I am ready to be proved wrong by the Power of Statistics!

*Usually unofficial, maybe.

[Salvatore]

I've waited long enough I think.  I'd just like to point out, as is my wont twice a year, that Belgian energy saving time is best.

I'm sure you enlighten us with your opinion on the matter rather more frequently than that. That's my impression, anyway.

[Domestique]

I enjoy dark mornings. Seems to me motorists give more space and dont pull out when they are unsure.
Would more than welcome longer evenings.

[andygates]

With dark mornings, I always have lights.

With dark evenings, I often set out in the morning, think "it's nice and bright" and get delayed or the weather changes, and I'm caught after dark without lights.

[hellymedic]

I've waited long enough I think.  I'd just like to point out, as is my wont twice a year, that Belgian energy saving time is best.

I'm sure you enlighten us with your opinion on the matter rather more frequently than that. That's my impression, anyway.

Yebbut what is this Belgian approach?

[rower40]

It's just a joke, innit?
Belgian Energy Saving Time has the acronym BEST.

Kaboom.

Tish.

[hellymedic]

It's completely dark by 4pm GMT in Scotland in winter. It's not even properly light at 9am GMT. SAD in a can!

And that's just the mainland. It's even worse in Orkney and Shetland.

The hours of light are shorter in the Northern Isles but IME thequality of the light was much worse in Glasgow than in Shetland. I have lived and worked in both.

[domesticated ape]

I'm definitely not a morning person, so I'm all for an extra hour of daylight in the evenings. BST all year would suit me just fine, GMT+2 in the summer wouldn't be too bad either.

The energy-saving arguments seem to make more sense to me than the road safety ones, as I can't see how darker mornings are any safer that darker evenings, especially with frost, and the first few hours of light in the mornings are wasted for most people.

[Crumbling Nick]

I think the analysis of the British Standard Time experiment in paragraph 2.1 of this document might start to answer the original question. I remember the experiment, but had been unaware that "The number of injured cyclists rose".

The regional analyses seem to match the views already expressed in this thread. The political outcome suggests that saving other peoples' lives was less important than personal convenience. Plus ça change...

[Cudzoziemiec]

In my previous job I changed my hours once we got to the end of BST - I did 10-6 so I could go in in daylight and come home once the worst of the traffic had gone. It's full dark by 4pm once we get into November so it made no difference leaving at 5 or 6 in terms of light, just traffic.

Completely OT question:
Is this way of using "full" to mean "completely" or as an intensifier in common use in Scottish English?
I ask because I have only ever previously come across it in India, where it is "Indian standard English".

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

I don't know, it might just be me.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Well, that's full ok by me! Thanks.

[Tourist Tony]

I've waited long enough I think.  I'd just like to point out, as is my wont twice a year, that Belgian energy saving time is best.

How does that work?

Isn't Belgium, like much of the EU, on European time, an hour ahead of us all the time? (Except that they change their clocks an hour befor we do.)

There is no such thing as "European time".

[hellymedic]

Sorry, CET Central European Time - GMT/UTC +1 in winter, +2 in summer.

[rafletcher]

Just leave it on GMT then. If you want more daylight or to integrate with Europe, get up earlier.

..d

And change your job.  And convince all the other people with whom you interact to do the same.

Simple, really.

 

I'm in a 9-5 office job.

I got fed up with the rush hour traffic and also the fact that everything goes wrong in the afternoon so I don't get out at 5pm.

I now tend to do a 10-6 day.  It hasn't caused a problem.

Well lucky you. I on the other hand HAVE to be in between 9 and 5:30. I'm usually there 8-5:30 to siut me, but now way on earth is 8-4:30 acceptabel.

[andygates]

I don't know, it might just be me.

I've heard it used too, and not just by Scots. 

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

Well, that's full ok by me! Thanks.

I think I would only use it for dark/daylight though. And I spent a long time in Yorkshire so my parts of speech can be a bit of a mixture!