Sorry to bring this up again, but with the clocks going forward last weekend, I made an interesting discovery for anyone who uses the RDS time function in their car radios.
Basically, wait for the BBC to send the right clock codes and you'll wait till hell freezes over. Tune to Classic FM and the clock updates within a few seconds - which may (or may not) be as much Classic FM as you can take!
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Why must we put up with this nonsense every year?
I believe that it was introduced in WWI, to help munitions production.
Nowdays it just takes up time to no purpose.
If we stuck with GMT, which is the appropriate time zone for our longitude, it would save hours of messing around with clocks, the instructions for most of which are "safely" filed away.
Motoring theme: That would encourage those industries which depend on daylight to alter their working hours and thereby spread the rush-hour and reduce congestion.
Additionally, if you have a cold snop in April the roads in the early morning rush-hour are frosty/icy when they would be clearer an hour later.
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Brian
It was actually licencing laws that were introduced in WW1, with the intention of reducing the time munitions workers spent in the pub, so improving production.
So called 'daylight saving' time was introduced to increase food production, by giving 'lighter evenings' for farm workers. It does not, of course, increase hours of daylight so is an option to starting work earlier.
From that viewpoint, I'm sure many people enjoy the longer summer evenings, without having to revise their hours of work.
Do the darker mornings have a road safety effect though, as Scottish residents claim? (Phew - back on a motoring topic!)
Regards
John
PS My car clock set in a very short time using Radio 2
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Mark (Brazil) gives a link ot a history of motoring page in the road tax thread below. On page 2 of that link it explains where BST comes from:
1939
Driving tests suspended on September 2 due to the Second World War.
Road deaths totaled 8272, (probably due to the blackout).
(3 September) Petrol rationing introduced allowing about 200 miles of motoring per month for each motorist.
There are now two million cars on Britain's roads.
1940
20mph speed limit in darkness introduced to attempt to combat the high incidence of road accidents.
Introduction of British Summer Time, partly due to the road death toll.
Road signs removed due to the threat of enemy invasion.
I wonder if it's accurate.
Chris
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Brian wrote:
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> Why must we put up with this nonsense every year?
I couldn't agree more, Brian. Try explaining this nonsense to the cat - it takes him several days to figure out why his meal times are suddenly all over the place.
Ian
PS - I'm all for the lighter evenings, myself. Let's stick with summer time.
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John
On the bike I certainly notice the poorer conditions in the mornings when the clocks go forward.
By the time the clocks change it is light when I come home in the evenings in any case, so there is no advantage there.
So the net effect of the change is negative.
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Is there an argument for re-introducing time zones in the UK (yes - I did say re-introduce) a notional, national time was set by the Victorians in order to run train timetables more effciently (whoops !) so why not allow the very northen bit, that suffers in winter from dark mornings up to about 10.00am, to set their own daylight saving times and leave the rest of us to muddle along without fiddling with the clocks. My dogs have built in RDS clocks and need no re-porgramming.
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In some places in Somerset it is almost as if they haven't replaced the roadsigns since they were removed due to fears of alien invasion leaving many a Brummie/Manc/Scouser with caravan lost for days searching for "Holly Bush Campsite" near Lickham Bottom or Pratt's Bottom or many of the other mildy amusing place-names.
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Guy
No wonder they are lost - unless there are two Pratts Bottom they should be in Kent!
regards
John
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Ha!
You have it lucky!
I battled during the last week just to FIND a bl***y station!
Went on a trip inland, then back to the coast - at times I just sat with the radio on "scan" for a while - sometimes for 20 minutes at a stretch, trying to find a signal!
(which was then guaranteed to be playing either rap music, or some god-bothering gospel station stuff!)
And, dashing out of the house when I left, I forgot to reload the cassettes, taken out a few days before whilst cleaning the glovebox of a year's supply of cr*p!
Apart from that, the trip was quite fun ...
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