The Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) is calling for changes to British Summer Time (BST) to give motorists more daylight hours in the evening.
The road safety charity argues that by bringing British time forward by an hour in both the summer and the winter, up to 80 deaths and 200 serious injuries could be prevented on the roads every year.
Under the plans, Britain would observe British Summer Time (GMT+1) between the end of October and the end of March, and Double Summer Time (GMT+2) throughout the rest of the year.
The IAM also argues that the move would "align the hours of daylight to the waking and working hours of the vast majority of the population".
IAM chief executive Simon Best said: "Making evenings lighter would save lives. While an extra hour of daylight would help to make the commute home much safer for all road users, children, cyclists and motorcyclists would benefit most."
Flawed plans?
However, what the IAM fails to point out is that by making winter evenings lighter, winter mornings will inevitably have to be darker.
Currently, the sun rises at around 8:05am on the shortest days of the year, and bringing Britain forward by an hour would mean that the sun would not rise until most motorists have finished their morning commute.
On top of this, on the darkest days of the year, the sun sets at around 3:50pm. Therefore, bringing British time forward by an hour (to 4:50pm) would mean that most commuters would still be travelling home in darkness.
Surely then, the proposals would just force the majority of British commuters to drive to AND from work in the dark?
What do you think? Would moving British time forward by an hour increase road safety, or are the IAM's plans flawed?
