Commuting in the Dark: 46 Cities Ranked by Dark Commutes (2026)

A commuter in Oslo who leaves home at 07:40 and leaves work at 17:00 travels both ways in the dark on 79 working days in 2026. In Edinburgh it is 64 days, in Belfast 68, in London 43 and in Seattle 37. On those days the commuter leaves home before sunrise and gets home after sunset, so on an office day they see daylight only through a window. In New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and most other large US cities, the same schedule gives zero such days: their winter mornings are dark only for people who leave earlier.

These figures come from our own calculation, not a survey. We computed sunrise and sunset for every day of 2026 in 46 cities with the NOAA solar equations, applied each country's clock changes and public holidays, and used official commute times from the UK Department for Transport, the US Census Bureau, Eurostat, Statistics Canada and the HILDA Survey. The method is described in full below, and the script and its output files are available on request so anyone can check or rerun them.

The timing is not an accident. Clocks in the UK and the EU went back on Sunday 25 October 2026, and in the US and most of Canada they go back on Sunday 1 November. Going back an hour makes mornings lighter and evenings darker. For a few weeks most commuters get daylight in the morning, then sunrise creeps past their departure time again and the double-dark season starts. In Edinburgh that season runs from mid-November to mid-February.

Key Takeaways - With a common schedule (leave home 07:40, leave work 17:00), commuters in Oslo travel both ways in the dark on 79 working days in 2026, Helsinki 77, Belfast 68, Glasgow 66, Dublin 65 and Edinburgh 64. London has 43 and Seattle 37. - 18 of the 46 cities have no such days, including New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Madrid and Rome. Their evenings are dark in winter but their mornings are not, at 07:40. - Where a city sits in its time zone matters as much as latitude. Belfast sees the sun rise 40 minutes later than London on the shortest day, and Madrid has 136 dark mornings a year but no dark evenings at 17:27. - Two remote days a week cut Edinburgh's double-dark office days from 64 to 41 and London's from 43 to 27. Three remote days cut them to 27 and 18. - Vancouver and Calgary stopped falling back this year. This winter, Calgary commuters leave home in the dark on 96 of 103 working days, up from 76 under the old clock rules, but get home in daylight every day.

What "commuting in the dark" means in this analysis

A dark commute both ways (we also call it a double-dark day) is a working day on which you leave home before sunrise and get home after sunset. We count it for one typical schedule per city, on Monday to Friday working days, excluding public holidays. Annual leave is not removed, so a person who takes the week between Christmas and New Year off will have about four fewer such days.

The schedule is the same everywhere so the cities can be compared: leave home at 07:40, leave work at 17:00, and get home after the city's average one-way commute. Two official travel datasets support those times. In England's National Travel Survey 2025, the median weekday commuting trip that starts before noon starts at about 07:41, and the median one that starts after noon starts at about 17:02 (our calculation from DfT table NTS0502, retrieved 28 October 2026). In the US, the median time workers left home for work in 2024 was about 07:39, and 32.3% left before 7am (our calculation from American Community Survey table B08302, 2024 1-year estimates).

We use sunrise and sunset as the line between light and dark, as most weather apps do. Before sunrise the sky is already partly light. So we also report a stricter count using civil twilight, when the sun is more than 6 degrees below the horizon and it is properly dark outside. By that measure Edinburgh has 32 double-dark commuting days in 2026 and London none.

Which cities commute both ways in the dark the most?

Nordic, Scottish and Irish cities lead, because they are far north and also sit in the western half of their time zones, which pushes sunrise later on the clock. Oslo (79 days) and Helsinki (77) top the ranking. Belfast, Glasgow, Dublin and Edinburgh follow with 64 to 68 days each. Copenhagen is level with Edinburgh at 64, ahead of Amsterdam, Newcastle, Stockholm and Brussels.

The full table below covers all 46 cities. "Dark mornings" counts working days when you leave before sunrise, and "dark evenings" counts days when you get home after sunset. "This winter" counts the double-dark days from Monday 2 November 2026, the first working day after the North American clock change, to 31 March 2027. Sunrise and sunset are given for the shortest day of the year: 21 December in the north, 21 June in Sydney and Melbourne.

Sources: DoneThat calculation (method below; script and data on request). Commute times: DfT TSGB0111 (2024) for British cities; Eurostat lfso_19plwk28 (2019, city residents, national figure) for Belfast, Dublin and continental Europe; US Census Bureau ACS 2024 for US metros; Statistics Canada LFS (May 2025) for Canadian metros; HILDA Survey (2017) for Sydney and Melbourne.

Stockholm is further north than Edinburgh but ranks lower, with 58 days. Its sun sets earlier, but at 07:40 the morning is light on more days. On Stockholm's shortest day the sun rises at 08:43, against 08:42 in Edinburgh, but Stockholm's sunrise moves earlier faster in January and February.

Why some cities lose their mornings: time zones

Latitude sets how long the day is. The time zone sets where that daylight falls on the clock. Cities at the western edge of a time zone get late sunrises and late sunsets. Cities at the eastern edge get early ones.

• Belfast and London. On 21 December the sun rises at 08:44 in Belfast and at 08:04 in London. Belfast is 5.8 degrees of longitude further west on the same clock. That 40-minute gap is a large part of why Belfast has 68 double-dark days and London 43, even though London's longer average commute (45 minutes) gets Londoners home later.
• Madrid and Paris. Spain uses Central European Time, although Madrid lies west of Greenwich. Madrid's sun rises at 08:34 on the shortest day and sets at 17:51. A Madrid commuter leaving at 07:40 starts in the dark on 136 working days a year, the most of any city here, but gets home in daylight every day. Paris has 101 dark mornings and 53 dark evenings, and 53 double-dark days.
• Detroit and Boston. Both use Eastern Time. Boston's latest winter sunrise is about 07:13, and Detroit's is about 08:01. Detroit has 70 dark mornings and 33 double-dark days; Boston has no dark mornings at 07:40. Atlanta, further south but also far west in the zone, has 42 dark mornings.

The clock change starts the season

Clocks going back in late October and early November give commuters a few weeks of light mornings. Then sunrise passes 07:40 again and both trips are dark until the days lengthen. Edinburgh shows the pattern clearly. In October 2026, while clocks were still on summer time, 8 working days started in the dark. After 25 October, mornings were light until mid-November. Then the double-dark days run 13 in November, all 21 working days in December, 19 in January and 10 in February. By March both trips are in daylight again.

The US change on 1 November follows the same pattern. In Seattle, 6 working days in October 2026 start before sunrise. After 1 November, mornings are light until early December. From then until late January, the city's commuters travel both ways in the dark on 37 working days this winter.

Vancouver and Calgary: no falling back this year

British Columbia made its last seasonal clock change on 8 March 2026 and now stays on UTC-7 all year, so clocks there will not go back on 1 November (Government of British Columbia, retrieved 28 October 2026). Alberta moves to permanent "Alberta Time", the former Mountain Daylight Time at UTC-6, on 1 November 2026 (Government of Alberta, retrieved 28 October 2026). The time zone database we use (tzdata 2026e) already includes both changes.

The result is a straight trade of dark evenings for dark mornings. This winter, from 2 November to 31 March, a Calgary commuter on our schedule leaves home before sunrise on 96 of 103 working days, against 76 under the old rules. They also get home after sunset on none of them, against 63, so the double-dark count falls from 58 to zero. In Vancouver, dark mornings rise from 47 to 87 and double-dark days fall from 47 to 36. Whether that is a better deal depends on whether you value light on the way in or on the way home.

North America: dark evenings, mostly light mornings

Most US cities are further south than Europe's capitals. New York is at about the latitude of Madrid, and the US clock change comes a week later than Europe's. At 07:40, 11 of the 17 US metros in this analysis have no dark mornings at all. Their commuters still get home after sunset on many winter days: 75 working days a year in New York, 76 in Chicago and 81 in Boston.

Only the cities at the north or the western edge of their zone get double-dark days at 07:40: Seattle (37), Detroit (33), Minneapolis (30) and Portland (30). Toronto has 31. Many Americans leave earlier than 07:40. A third of US workers (32.3%) leave home before 7am, according to the Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey, and for them winter mornings are dark in most cities.

For US metros we also ran each metro's own median departure time from ACS table B08302, keeping the time leaving work at 17:00. The median departure ranges from 07:25 in Houston and Phoenix to 08:06 in San Francisco. Seattle's median commuter leaves at 07:48, which gives 25 double-dark days rather than 37. Detroit's leaves at 07:51 (23 days), Minneapolis's at 07:41 (29 days) and Portland's at 07:43 (25 days). Of the other 13 metros, only Phoenix has any (7 days).

How many dark commutes do 1, 2 or 3 remote days save?

Every day worked from home is a day without a commute, dark or not. With a fixed weekly pattern, the double-dark office days fall roughly in proportion to the days at home. The table uses Friday for one remote day, Monday and Friday for two, and Monday, Wednesday and Friday for three. It shows a selection: the six highest-ranked cities; Amsterdam, Manchester and London; and the five North American cities with the most such days (Minneapolis ties with Portland at 30). All 46 cities are in the data files.

In Edinburgh, two remote days a week remove 23 of the 64 double-dark office days in 2026. Three remove 37. For a London commuter, two remote days remove 16 such days and, at 45 minutes each way, about 24 hours of travel in the dark both ways. The exact number moves by a day or two with the weekdays you pick, because bank holidays fall unevenly. To see what your own commute costs in hours and money across the whole year, use the commute cost calculator.

Does a dark commute matter?

For many people it is a preference, not a problem. For some it is a real cost. The NHS describes seasonal affective disorder (SAD) as "a type of depression that usually happens in the winter", thought to be linked to reduced daylight. Its self-help advice includes getting as much natural daylight as you can and trying to go outside in the daytime every day (NHS, retrieved 28 October 2026). On a double-dark office day, the commute does not give you that chance; only a lunchtime walk does.

This analysis does not measure health effects, and the count of dark commutes is not a diagnosis of anything. It shows how many days a typical schedule leaves no daylight for the trip to and from work, and how much a remote day or a shifted start time changes that.

Using the numbers in a flexible working request

A dark commute on its own is rarely a winning argument for remote work. It works better as context for a specific, reversible ask: one or two fixed home days through the winter months, or a start time that lets you travel in daylight. In Great Britain employees can make a statutory flexible working request from their first day in a job, covering place of work as well as hours and start times (GOV.UK, retrieved 28 October 2026). Our guide to the right to request remote work covers the UK, Ireland, the EU, the US, Canada and Australia country by country.

If you are writing the request, start from a flexible working request template for the UK or a work-from-home request email elsewhere. Make the case about the work, not the weather: what you will deliver, how your manager will see it, and when you will review the arrangement. The guide to convincing your boss to let you work remotely covers that part.

Method and limitations

The calculation is a single Python script with its input and output files, so it can be checked line by line. Journalists and researchers can request the script and CSV files through the contact page linked at the end of this article.

1. Sun times. Sunrise, sunset and civil dawn and dusk for each day of 2026 at each city centre, from the NOAA Solar Calculator equations (based on Meeus), with a solar depression of 0.833 degrees for sunrise and sunset and 6 degrees for civil twilight. Local clock times use the IANA time zone database (tzdata 2026e), so each country's clock changes fall on the right dates. Against the independent astral library, our sunrise and sunset times differ by at most 37 seconds over all 46 cities and 365 days. The script prints the tzdata and holidays versions it ran with.
2. Working days. Monday to Friday, minus public holidays from the open-source holidays package (version 0.62) for each country and region. US cities use federal holidays without Columbus Day and Veterans Day. Personal leave is not removed.
3. Schedule. Leave home 07:40, leave work 17:00, home at 17:00 plus the one-way commute. The anchors are England's NTS 2025 and the US ACS 2024, as described above.
4. Commute times. UK: DfT TSGB0111, Labour Force Survey October to December 2024, by region of workplace (London 45 minutes, Greater Manchester 30, Scotland 25). Belfast, Dublin and continental Europe: Eurostat lfso_19plwk28, mean one-way commute of employed people living in cities, 2019, by country. US: ACS 2024 1-year, mean travel time to work by metro area (tables B08013 and B08303, read through the Census Reporter API). Canada: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey, May 2025, by metro area. Sydney and Melbourne: the HILDA Survey's 2017 daily commuting times as published by the University of Melbourne, halved to one way.
5. Remote days. Fixed weekdays, as in the table above.

The main limitation is the schedule. Moving the whole day 30 minutes changes the counts a lot, because winter sunrise in many cities sits close to 07:40. With an earlier day (leave home 07:10, leave work 16:30), London has 66 double-dark days and Edinburgh 68. With a later day (08:10 and 17:30), London has none and Edinburgh 43. Both variants are in the output CSV. Leaving earlier makes mornings darker and evenings lighter, so the net effect differs by city: Paris drops from 53 to 19 with the earlier day.

Other limitations: one schedule cannot describe every job, and work hours differ between countries (Spain's start later, the Nordic countries' often earlier). The Eurostat figures are national averages for city residents from 2019, not figures for each city. The HILDA figures date from 2017. Sun times are for flat ground at the city centre and ignore hills, buildings and cloud. A dark commute here means the sun is below the horizon, not that streets are unlit.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which city has the darkest commute?

Of the 46 cities analysed, Oslo has the most working days in 2026 on which a commuter leaving at 07:40 and finishing at 17:00 travels both ways in the dark: 79. Helsinki follows with 77, then Belfast (68), Glasgow (66), Dublin (65) and Edinburgh (64).

When do the clocks go back in 2026?

In the UK and the EU, clocks went back one hour at 01:00 UTC on Sunday 25 October 2026: 2am in the UK and Ireland, 3am in most of the EU. In the US and most of Canada they go back at 2am on Sunday 1 November 2026. British Columbia and Alberta no longer go back: both now keep daylight time all year.

Why is it still dark in the morning after the clocks go back?

Going back an hour makes mornings lighter for a few weeks, but days keep getting shorter until 21 December. Sunrise moves later every day and passes most people's departure time again by late November or December. In Edinburgh, sunrise reaches 08:42 on the shortest day.

Does working from home reduce commuting in the dark?

Yes, roughly in proportion to the office days you drop. In Edinburgh, 64 double-dark office days in 2026 fall to 52 with one remote day a week, 41 with two and 27 with three. In London, 43 such days fall to 35, 27 and 18.

Is commuting in the dark bad for you?

This analysis does not measure health effects. The NHS links seasonal affective disorder to reduced daylight in winter and advises getting outside in daylight every day. On a double-dark office day, the commute offers no daylight, so any daylight has to come during the working day.

The bottom line: winter commuting is a daylight question

For commuters in Scotland, Ireland and the Nordic capitals, a normal office schedule means about three months of working days with no daylight on either trip, from mid-November to mid-February. In London it is December and January. Most large US cities escape the morning half of that at 07:40, and pay with dark evenings instead. Remote days cut the count roughly in proportion: two a week remove more than a third of it. If daylight matters to you this winter, the strongest ask is a specific one, such as two fixed home days until March or a start time that lets you travel in daylight, backed by the right to request where you have it.

Sources

• NOAA Global Monitoring Laboratory, Solar Calculator and its equations, retrieved 28 October 2026.
• UK Department for Transport, NTS0502: trip start time by trip purpose, England, updated 10 September 2026.
• UK Department for Transport, TSGB0111: average time taken to travel to work by region of workplace, 2024 data, updated 17 December 2025.
• US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates, table B08302, time leaving home to go to work, and tables B08303 and B08013 (travel time to work), via the Census Reporter API, retrieved 28 October 2026.
• Eurostat, lfso_19plwk28: employed persons by commuting time, educational attainment and degree of urbanisation, 2019, retrieved 28 October 2026.
• Statistics Canada, Average commute times for the 15 largest census metropolitan areas, May 2021 to 2025, The Daily, 26 August 2025.
• University of Melbourne, Pursuit, Lost in transit (HILDA Survey commuting times).
• Government of British Columbia, Permanent daylight saving time, retrieved 28 October 2026.
• Government of Alberta, Alberta's new time system, retrieved 28 October 2026.
• NHS, Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), retrieved 28 October 2026.

Written by Don, DoneThat's AI coach, so this article is AI-written. Every number in it is either taken from a linked official source or computed with the stated method, and the schedule assumption is stated next to the results it drives. Reviewed by Christoph Hartmann, founder of DoneThat. Journalists can request the script and CSV files, or ask a question, through our contact page. More about us.