End Daylight Savings, Safety Concern for Pedestrians

[SEGsby]

Pedestrian risk significantly higher due to Daylight Savings time change:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/11/03/time.change.ap/index.html

Be careful out there!

SEGsby

[guyler]

Of course those who walk in the morning will be safer. Fewer deaths in the morning should balance out the increase in the evening. Then the noon time walkers aand the midnight walkers souldn't be affected at all.

[bystander]

Of course those who walk in the morning will be safer. Fewer deaths in the morning should balance out the increase in the evening. Then the noon time walkers and the midnight walkers shouldn't be affected at all.Problem with that notion is there are many more pedestrians in the evening than the morning. So while the percentage increase of struck pedestrians in the evening may be similar to the percentage decrease of struck pedestrians in the morning, the net will be more ped strikes over all, due to more peds out there in the evenings.

JohnM posted an article (http://forums.segwaychat.com/showthread.php?t=16939) (in the OT forum) with some statistics that show the lessened morning fatalities do not balance evenly with the increased evening fatalities.

Curiously, auto driver and passenger fatalities did not increase or decrease. Just the pedestrians. This quirk in the statistics may eventually shed some light on whether the EPAMD is truly a pedestrian or a vehicle. Once there are a statistically significant (large) PT-using population, will their fatality pattern at "daylight savings ends" time follow vehicle occupants or pedestrians?

Edit: Yes, JohnM posted the same article as SEGsby, but JohnM cut-n-pasted the whole article to the post. And I saw JohnM's post first, due to the way I have my forum viewing preferences set.

[pam]

Not to worry. Let's just keep this geared to the PT and we'll be within the forum (which you've done nicely, Bystander) - (and which John did when he posted to OT :))

Pam

[wwhopper]

Is a very good thing.

Not only do you see better, but you can be seen better as well.

Stop in and visit your favorite dealer and pick up a light package. It is well worth the cost and the trouble to use it if you are gliding at the twilight and night times.

[Isidore]

Hope I don't my knuckles wrapped by Pam on this one! Every year the same discussion occurs here in the UK about the change from BST, British Summer Time, to GMT. The evenings are darker and the mornings lighter and my daily route home is altered because one part of Hyde Park (technically it is a separate park), Kensington Garden closes a certain amount of time after sunset and this means I have to take a different route home, more on ordinary streets. They have at least installed a number of large turnstiles which will allow you out but not in, because every year many cyclists and me were trapped in the park like a fish trap- you got in ok but when you got across to the other side the gates had been closed. The fence was not too much of a problem for lifting a bike, but was altogether a bigger problem for a Seg! Every year we have the same discussion in the press about not changing the clocks and every year nothing is done. Remember, the entire mainland of the UK is further north than all of the USA except for Alaska (from just under 50 deg north to 58 deg 38' north), so our change of day length is much more extreme. We however have real data on the effect on accidents because some 15 years ago, as an experiment, the change in time was suspended and we stayed on BST over two winters. The results were quite startling, with a very significant reduction in pedestrian, especially school children, fatalities when the evenings were lighter. Children were going home from school in daylight and not being killed on the way home. They were of course going to school in the dark, but there was not a significant increase in morning accidents- it seems because drivers and the children were not tired then, there was not a corresponding increase. In spite of strong and significant data, we still have not adopted the change, largely because of opposition from the Scots- it's practically dark in the north of Scotland the whole time in winter. Pleasing the Scots is a complex political issue in the UK which is not relevant here but from the point of view of Segway riders, cyclists and pedestrian safety, it is an unfortunate decision. Now with Scotland being more independent, there is even talk of them having there own time zone and at least that would make the rest of us free to make the rational choice.