Less Injury With More Daylight?
As you will doubtless be aware, the clocks went back last weekend
, taking us from British Summer Time to the gloom of mere Greenwich Mean Time, where the light starts to falter, eventually, at about 3pm, a most depressing set of circumstances. However, there are rumblings afoot that this non-proliferation of precious daylight maybe about to come to an end.
A new campaign, Lighter for Later, is calling for the discrepancy between most parts of continental Europe and the UK to be scrapped. Under the Lighter Later proposals, the clocks would be permanently set to one hour forward of where they currently sit: GMT+1 in the winter, GMT+2 in the summer. The campaigners argue that this would be of undoubted value to the UK.
Usually, most people spend the first five hours of daylight in the summer in bed, asleep: shops and attractions would be able to extend their opening hours and we would dramatically reduce energy consumption and CO2 output.
The campaign has received the backing of Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, who says that it would not only have a positive effect on the country's economy but also its safety.
And this is where we're interested. It is, without a doubt, more dangerous to drive in winter: with less natural light drivers have less Vitamin D and are more likely to be tired and make mistakes. of course, visibility is also reduced and the roads are physically more dangerous due to ice and rain.
Opponents to the clock-change have always argued that it makes life more dangerous in the more northern areas of the country, especially Scotland, which are most affected. But Mr Johnson says that surely people are more likely to sustain injury in a crash in the afternoon rush hour, when they have been at work all day and are more exhausted, than they are post-breakfast and refreshed?
With more daylight available to afternoon rush-hour commuters all over the UK, no matter which part they hail from, they will arguably be safer. People in Scotland will apparently gain around 300 hours of daylight over the year, which may also have a positive effect on their health and wellbeing as well. More time will be spent outdoors and fewer hours will be frittered away in front of a TV screen.
In the drive to improve road safety and reduce injury and death on the roads, great amounts of money have been spent, many campaigns have been implemented, and many ideas been posited. But this idea is so simple, and has the backing of so many influential figures, that we have to wonder why it hasn't come up sooner.
by: Richard Craig
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