IAM says bringing Britain's clocks forward an hour year-round would save lives on the road

'Yes, correct. But I just wish they'd stop b^88ering about with the clocks altogether - GMT all year round, please.

This.

Darkness north of the border - Have the scotch not got electricity yet?

It has been tried before, it didn't work then and won't work now. From a biological prospective it is also nonsense, but then when have motoring lobbyists ever bothered with inconvenient things like evidence or science.

Moving the clocks around doesn't make any difference to the fact that THERE'S LESS DAYLIGHT. It's winter time, it's what happens. Move them forwards, it's just pitch dark in the mornings instead. You can't create extra daylight!

I used to work on a shift system (8am - 8.30pm on the days that I was working) so for about 9 months of the year I needed lights while riding to/from work - changing the clocks made no difference whatsoever.

This same old drivel gets trotted out every year by one campaign or another. It's been put on hold now until 2014 anyway once the Scots have had their referendum on independence.

Why change it around when it works as it is. The accidents wont fall as its driver / rider error not the dark (although there are occasions of bad light causing accidents).

Airport expansion - there's a good topic. Why, when we have brilliant airports in the north, manchester and newcastle to name 2, do we need more runways in the south.

There was a survey done whereby something like 40% of people from manchester flew through heathrow due to the flights not flying from manchester. Simple, ge tthe airlines to relocate some flights and this takes the pressure off heathrow and no more runway needed.

Jobs in the north would be created and the toffy nosed southerners would get their way. There is more than enough room for extra flights at both Newcastle and Manchester not to mention the liokes of L'pool and Glasgow. Anyway i have moved off topic a bit so i'll shut up now.

Rather than messing around with time zones, why don't we just start and finish work an hour earlier, eg: 8 - 4 instead of 9 - 5? That way you still get lighter evenings for the ride home and we don't bugger everything up.

And farmers can continue blocking up the back roads at whatever time of day they feel like...

I'm with OldRidgeback in thinking the claims are a bit dubious.

I would much rather they got rid of BST and satyed on GMT or whatever all year round.

The simple answer to this is to tow Britain south until it is level with Portugal. We get a better climate and less extremes of light and dark at the height of summer and in the depths of winter.

I remember the experiment 40 years ago too. I grew up in Scotland and we had to put up with those dark school journeys. It is all very well to talk about changing what we have at present but I've never been convinced by the safety claims made by those wanting to change the system.

Tony, I think that 40 years on, our lifestyles are more hurried and pressured. School run then work etc. I may be wrong, but it's my observation that over the years that driving skills have become poor to say the least. I also remember the experiment except for me I had to travel to school in the dark. My primary school over those few years put a stop to us cycling to school

"However, the same report also shows a drop in the casualty rate for cyclists killed or seriously injured per billion kilometres travelled for November compared to October, "

Surely this suggests that darker evenings following the existing clock change are better for cyclist safety? How can the report come to the opposite conclusion?

This gets brought up every year. Problem is, it is only the very south that 'benefits' anywhere north of Manchester and Northern Ireland will be plunged into darkness until late morning. This was experimented in the early seventies late sixties and nothing came out of it.

It would mean more sleepy, distracted, rushing drivers around on the a.m. run and all for that extra hour in the evening. Also for the likes of myself - people starting work at 5 and 6 am would be travelling to work all the year round in the dark.

IAM would be better pressing for a safer environment for all road users. Personally I don't think scrapping the current setup will make roads any safer.

The stats for the last time we had double summer time showed that overall casualites went down everywhere - including in Scotland. The reason commonly cited for this is that although it was darker in the mornings - people were also less tired and more alert to danger, whereas when it's dark in the evenings they are more tired and less alert.

I can remember double summertime - it was fantastic.

It wasn't abandoned because it was unpopular or unsafe it went because the minority Labour Government of the day needed the support of the Scots Nats and that was a sop to try and get it. It was a real benefit to the vast majority of the population and these days you'd have to assume that the benefits to the tourism industry would far outweigh any potential losses incurred a small part of the farming industry.

But if it was darker in the morning then the casualty rate would probably change again. We did try not moving the clocks back at some point in the past and it wasn't followed through with for whatever reason. Might be interesting to look back at the stats for that period. Whichever way you slice it there are only so many hours of daylight. Given the fact that people tend to be more in a rush in the morning and children/teenagers (generally the most vulnerable road users) have to go to school early and come back earlier than adults usually, the way it's done now is probably better.

The only change I would like would be another hour of daylight in the evening in the summer months (say May to August) when it gets light very early in the morning, so have 2 changes a year instead of 1. This would put us in sync with most of the rest of Europe for a certain period at least.

If Britain is only classed as the south of England. The government looked at this and the loss to farming and other industries in the north of Scotland meant it was a non starter.

I'm all for making cycling safer, but not at the cost of people's lively-hoods (unless you drive a taxi or bus )

Fewer incidents in the winter than in the summer?
Could that be because there are fewer cyclists on the roads in winter?

I wholeheartedly would welcome moving our clocks to a time that will make it lighter for the vast majority of the UK's population at its travelling times.

There is little more moiserable than it getting dark by 5pm.

If the Scots want to remain on GMT, there is no reason why there couldn't be a separate Scottish timezone. Portugal and Spain both have 2 timezones.

I'm sure there are a lot of other measures which would improve road safety more than this, 20 mph speed limits, harsher penalties for motorists etc. This is just going to make it darker in the mornings. There is a reason we're not on CET: we're not in Central Europe.