As the clocks go forward this Sunday, Brake, the road safety charity, is renewing calls for government to make roads safer by putting the clocks forward by an hour all year-round. This would mean making the most of available daylight, with lighter afternoons and evenings in the winter months, reducing danger to pedestrians and cyclists.
Moving the clocks to GMT+1 in winter and GMT+2 in summer would save an estimated 80 lives a year and prevent hundreds of serious injuries on the roads, preventing needless suffering and saving the NHS around £138 million a year in the process.
Safer, lighter evenings would also encourage more recreational walking and cycling. Combined with Brake’s GO 20 campaign for 20mph limits in cities, towns and villages, this would mean a powerful boost for healthy, active lifestyles. By slowing down to 20mph in built up areas, night and day, drivers can make a personal contribution to making roads safer for those on foot and bike.
In 2012, despite widespread support from the Lighter Later coalition, MPs, and letters from 26,300 members of the public, a Daylight Saving Bill which would have compelled the government to review and act on the evidence for changing the clocks, ran out of time. Now Brake is renewing its calls for government to make this common sense change.
Find out more about the Lighter Later and GO 20 campaigns to make roads safer for people on foot and bike. Tweet us: @Brakecharity, hashtag #LighterLater.
Julie Townsend, deputy chief executive, Brake, said: “Putting the clocks forward by an extra hour throughout the year is a simple change that would make a huge positive difference to society, giving us all more daylight to play with. With lighter afternoons and evenings, many more people would be able to get out and walk and cycle, to get to school or work, or simply for their health and enjoyment. People on foot or bike would be easier for drivers to see, many devastating road casualties would be prevented, and our communities would be more social, enjoyable places. As British summertime gets underway, we’re also appealing to drivers to make their own change to protect people on foot and bike, by slowing down to 20mph around homes, schools and shops.”
About the Lighter Later campaign
Brake is in a coalition of organisations campaigning for the clocks to go forward for an hour year round, making it GMT+2 in summer and GMT+1 in winter. This simple change would make our evenings lighter and give us more daylight during waking hours. It’s estimated this would result in 80 fewer road deaths and hundreds fewer serious injuries each year, preventing unnecessary suffering and saving the NHS £138million annually.
It would also cut 447,000 tonnes of CO2 pollution, and save us all on our bills, because we would have to put our lights on less. Not to mention a big boost to leisure, tourism, and healthy life-styles because we get a bit more daylight to play with. Find out more at www.lighterlater.org.
In January 2012, the Lighter Later Bill ran out of time on the House floor, meaning MPs couldn’t vote to put it through to its third reading, despite over 140 MPs staying to vote.
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