The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Changes to Daylight Saving: Implications for Agriculture and Rural Communities
Evidence from Brake, the road safety charity, 5 December 2011
About Brake
Brakeis an independent road safety charity, dedicated to stopping death and injury on UK roads and caring for people bereaved and seriously injured in crashes. Brake carries out research into road users’ attitudes on road safety issues, engages schools and communities to spread road safety education, runs public awareness campaigns, and supports communities campaigning for road safety. It also provides news, guidance, and conferences for road safety and fleet professionals, disseminating international research and information on effective policies and best practice.
Evidence
Brake is in favour of changing the clocks to GMT +1 in winter and GMT +2 in winter (an hour ahead year-round, or Single Double Summertime)because evidence suggests it will save lives and prevent injuries on our roads, including in rural communities.
In the dark drivers are dependent on artificial light from street lighting and headlights. Pedestrians, other road users and hazards, such as animals in the road, become more difficult to see, meaning less time to react and brake in an emergency. However, during our winter time many drivers, pedestrians and cyclists have no option but to travel home in the dark, facing a greater level of risk from poor visibility.
Putting the clocks forwardby an hour year round will mean a net gain in light during average waking hours– so less daylight is ‘wasted’ while most people are still sleeping in the early morning, and it stays light later in the afternoon and evening. Crucially, this means more light in the afternoon in the winter months, when children are walking or cycling home from school and adults are travelling home from work. Research shows people make more journeys, and more complex journeys, at this time, compared to in the early morning[1].
Research into the impact of the clocks going back in October each year shows that it results in more crashes and casualties on roads across Great Britain[2] and that changing to Single Double Summer Time (SDST) could save 80 lives and more than 200 serious injuries every year[3]. The effects of darkness, caused by the clocks going back in October, increases with casualty severity[4]. Vulnerable road user groups, such as pedestrians, are overrepresented in these crashes[5].
It has been argued that Scottish roads would be less safe under SDST, but this is not the case. Research has shown that even in Scotland there would be fewer road casualtiesoverall as a result[6].
Road casualties are devastating to the families involved and to wider communities,not least close knit rural communities. They are also financially costly, and a huge burden on local services. In 2010, the Department for Transport estimated that the economic value of preventing eachdeath on the road is £1.6 million;the value of preventing each serious injury is £178,000[7]. By reducing road casualties SDST would also deliver a financial benefit to rural communities.
As well as contributing to reduced deaths and injuries, SDST would benefit rural communities by improving quality of life by creating more daylight hours when people are awake, enabling greater levels of walking and cycling by making the roads safer and lighter, increasing tourism and reducing carbon emissions. A summary of the range of predicted benefits of SDST can be found at
[1]Making the most of daylight hours:the implications for Scotland, Policy Studies Institute, 2010
[2]How does daylight saving time affect the safety of Britain’s roads?An interim examination of crash and casualty trends around clock changes, Road Safety Analysis, 2010
[3]Research published in Department for Transport consultation paper, A Safer Way: Making Britain's Roads the Safest in the World, 2009
[4]A new assessment of the likely effects on road accidents of adopting SDST, Transport Research Laboratory, 1998, and Making the most of daylight hours:the implications for Scotland, Policy Studies Institute, 2010
[5]How does daylight saving time affect the safety of Britain’s roads?An interim examination of crash and casualty trends around clock changes, Road Safety Analysis, 2010
[6]A new assessment of the likely effects on road accidents of adopting SDST, Transport Research Laboratory, 1998
[7] Reported road casualties in Great Britain 2010: annual report, Department for Transport, 2011