Effects of Daylight Saving Time on Traffic Accident Risk

Very hard to believe that more daylight later in the day is a net negative for traffic safety.

In any case, the solution is to pick one timeframe and stop changing it.

They think the increased risk is from circadian misalignment.

> observed that spring DST significantly increased fatal MVA risk by 6%, which was more pronounced in the morning and in locations further west within a time zone. DST-associated MVA risk increased even in the afternoon hours, despite longer daylight hours. The MVA risk increase waned in the week subsequent to DST, and there were no effects of the fall-back transition to Standard Time (ST) on MVA risk, further supporting the hypothesis that DST-transition-associated, preventable circadian misalignment and sleep deprivation might underlie MVA risk increases.

Accident risk has been shown to decrease by the same amount when the time switches in the fall. It's a wash.

I thought that as well, but this study appears not to have found that

> and there were no effects of the fall-back transition to Standard Time (ST) on MVA risk

EDIT: It seems our assumption was correct, at least for the UK:

> There is substantial evidence that fewer people would be killed and seriously injured on Great Britain’s roads if this country were to put the clocks forward by one hour throughout the year. The Department should take the lead in re- examining the practice of changing clocks at the end of British Summer Time with other central Government departments.

I wonder why the OP study (using US data) found something different?

Source: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200809/cmselect/cmpu...

Georgia is putting DST on the ballot this November. Voters will have a choice to stay with DST, going to standard time year around, or asking Congress for permission to stay on DST year around. My guess is none of the options will receive a majority vote but year around DST will get the plurality. Since that requires Congressional approval and the ballot referendum is non-binding, nothing will change as a result. Having discussed the issue over the years, it's also a bit sad realizing how people don't understand that this doesn't actually create an extra hour of sunlight, it just shifts an hour of pre-noon sunlight to be afternoon sunlight. A surprisingly large number of people are quite insistent that it creates more sunlight per day, citing longer daylight hours during the summer months as proof.