The Effects of Daylight Saving Time on Vehicle Crashes in Minnesota

Arthur Huang and David Levinson

No 201008, Working Papers from University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group

Abstract: Daylight saving time (DST), implemented as an energy saving policy, impacts many other aspects of life; one is road safety. Based on vehicle crash data in Minnesota from 2001 to 2007, this paper evaluates long- and short-term effects of DST on daily vehicle crashes. To provide evidence to explain the causes of more/fewer crashes in DST, we examine the impact of DST on crashes in four periods of a day: 3 am-9 am, 9 am-3 pm, 3 pm-9 pm, 9 pm-12 pm. The effects of risk and exposure to traffic are also separated. Our statistical models not only include weather conditions and dummy variables for days in DST as independent variables, but also consider traffic volumes on major roads in different periods of a day. Our major finding is that the short-term effect of DST on crashes on the morning of the first DST is not statistically significant. Moreover, it is interesting to notice that while DST per se is associated with fewer crashes during dusk, this is in part offset because it is also associated with more traffic on roads (and hence more crashes). Our path analysis shows that overall DST reduces crashes.

Keywords: daylight saving time; vehicle crashes; exposure; fatal crashes; traffic volume; Minnesota (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D63 R41 R48 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ure
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Journal of Safety Research 41 513-520.

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http://hdl.handle.net/11299/180000 first version, 2008 (application/pdf)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nex:wpaper:daylightsavingstime

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