Transportation

Keeping that hour of sunlight in the evening could prevent traffic deaths and save more than 170 lives annually

When you’re enjoying your extra hour in bed Sunday morning, spare a thought for what that 60 minutes might cost.

While some dislike the seasonal shifts of Daylight Saving Time (DST) for the minor inconvenience to their sleep cycles and busy schedules, there’s a more serious side to the scheme: the loss of an hour of afternoon sunlight when it ends—as it does this weekend—may increase the likelihood of traffic accidents.

“Darkness kills and sunlight saves lives,” said University of Washington Law Professor Steve Calandrillo, who has studied the effectiveness of different DST policies. “The question is ‘when do you want sunlight?'”

For Calandrillo, who advocates for DST to be implemented throughout the year, the answer is simple: more people are active during the evening, including kids, and the additional sunlight that DST provides helps provide drivers with the visibility necessary to see pedestrians. “At 5 pm virtually everyone in society is awake,” he said. “There are far more people asleep at 7 in the morning than at 7 in the evening.”

In addition to leading to poor visibility in darkness, some experts say the requirement for people to abruptly adapt to a time change overnight may lead to dangerous driving. “Even though it’s dark, you’re still behaving like it’s light,” said Lawrence University economist David Gerard, of the first weeks after a time change. People may drive faster, he said, and pedestrians may be less attentive.

Advocates of perpetual DST have some statistics on their side. Adding an hour of sunlight in the evening year-round would save the lives of more than 170 pedestrians annually, according to a 2004 study in Accident Analysis and Prevention. The lives of nearly 200 vehicle occupants would also theoretically be saved by the change.

But despite this data, some child advocacy groups such as the National PTA have argued for more sunlight in the morning hours when children will be traveling to school. In 2005, the group opposed bringing DST forward into March from April. “People who take their kids to school in the morning, they kind of like Daylight Saving Time,” said Gerard. “They can deal with [darkness] at the end of the day, but in the morning it’s tough getting going.”

Both advocates and opponents of DST can agree, however, that better light equals greater safety — which is why some child safety advocates say that communities need to focus on providing better artificial street lighting, regardless of whether it’s used in the morning or evening. “The more visible kids are,” said Margaux Mennesson, a spokesperson for the group Safe Routes to School,”the safer they are.”

REYNOLDS, Ind. (AP) — An Amtrak train traveling from Indianapolis to Chicago collided Tuesday morning with a semi-truck in its path along northwestern Indiana rail tracks, injuring at 14 people aboard the train, police said.

White County Sheriff Pat Shafer said 14 people complaining of pain were taken to local hospitals after the collision. The truck driver was not among the injured, he said.

Shafer said the collision occurred about 8:20 a.m. when the northbound train struck a semi-truck that had crossed onto rail tracks running adjacent to U.S. 421. He said the train split the truck in half but its driver was not injured. He said it’s unclear why the truck was on the rural tracks about 25 miles north of Lafayette.

“The collision ripped the truck in half,” Shafer told The Associated Press.

Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said none of the passengers and crew injured in Tuesday morning’s collision involving the Hoosier State line suffered serious or life-threatening injuries.

Magliari said the collision occurred shortly after the train left Lafayette, where it had made it second stop to pick up passengers after leaving Indianapolis. He said the train was carrying 56 passengers and three crew members when it collided with the semi-truck.

Magliari said it’s unclear why the truck’s driver apparently disregarded train crossing signs at the marked public train crossing along a White County road that intersects with U.S. 421.

Shafer said the train’s uninjured passengers were taken from the scene on buses.

The Journal & Courier reported the collision left two large pieces of the truck on either side of the tracks at the impact scene about two miles north of the White County town of Reynolds.

More than a quarter of bikers 16 and older who were killed in 2012 in motor-vehicle crashes had been drinking

The number of bicyclists killed in motor-vehicle crashes jumped up 16% between 2010 and 2012, after many years of decline.

A study released Monday by the Governors Highway Safety Association suggests that recent growth in the popularity of biking has contributed to the rising death toll, though the findings do not offer conclusive data.

“To the extent encouragement of bicycling is successful, exposure and fatalities are likely to continue to increase,” the study says.

In 2012, the most recent year in which figures are provided, 722 bikers were killed in motor-vehicle crashes, up from 621 in 2010. The figure is still down from 1975, when the data was first compiled and 1,003 people were killed in motor-vehicle crashes.

The majority of bikers killed in motor-vehicle crashes were adults over the age of 20, a dramatic shift from 1975 when the majority of bikers killed in motor-vehicle crashes were younger than 20, and adults comprised only 21%.

The study also found that the lack of helmets was a “major contributing factor” in fatalities. More than two-thirds of fatally injured bikers were not wearing helmets, though it’s not clear what portion of riders generally wear helmets.

One figure has remained relatively constant since at least 1982: roughly a quarter of bikers over age 16 who were killed in 2012 had been drinking.

“Despite the association of biking with healthy lifestyles and environmental benefits, a surprisingly large number of fatally injured bicyclists have blood alcohol concentrations of 0.08% or higher,” the study said.

Oct. 27, 1904: The New York City subway opens

Long before New Yorkers started taking their pants off to liven things up on the subway, the ride was a novelty even with everyone fully-clothed.

On this day 110 years ago — Oct. 27, 1904 — 150,000 people rode the subway when it opened to the public for the first time, regarding the new form of public transit more as a circus act than as part of the drudgery of daily life. The first subway line, which ran from City Hall to 145th Street and Broadway, opened to “the tooting of whistles and the firing of salutes,” according to the New York Times’ report of the day, which noted the awe of those waiting in line for their turn to ride in the tunnels:

The general public would not be admitted until 7 o’clock, and its curiosity was vastly whetted all the afternoon by the unfamiliar appearance of crowds emerging from the earth.

Of this sight New York seemed never to tire, and no matter how often it was seen there was always the shock of the unaccustomed about it. All the afternoon the crowds hung around the curious-looking little stations, waiting for heads and shoulders to appear at their feet and grow into bodies. Much as the Subway has been talked about, New York was not prepared for this scene and did not seem able to grow used to it.

Ultimately, they did manage to grow used to it, and a modern level of malaise quickly took the place of curiosity and celebration. By 1932, when TIME reported on a proposal to unify the three different subway systems then operating independently, it referred to what this would mean for the “subway sardines” who read newspapers over their fellow passengers’ shoulders on the “humid, jam-packed” subway cars.

While the New York City subway was not the first rapid transit system to be built (London, Paris, and Berlin — as well as Chicago and Boston — had already developed the capacity to shuttle commuters like sardines) it made life both simpler and more annoying for the 3.25 million people who, by 1948, would twice daily “descend into the maelstrom of the subways with the haunted resignation of lemmings,” according to TIME, “there to die the small death of the rush hour.”

If there was still some circus-like curiosity to be found on the trains, the 1948 piece snarked, it was that “the subway rider is a sullen example of the incredible compressibility of the human frame.”

And if nothing else, subways had always been cheap. Per TIME: “They offered the longest uninterrupted ride in the world (if anyone could stand it) for a nickel — 22.65 miles from the remote reaches of The Bronx to even remoter reaches of Brooklyn.” That was, until later that year. If there was anything worse than being packed together like sweaty sardines, it was having to pay twice as much for the privilege, TIME concluded. But in the summer of 1948, it was announced, “New Yorkers would have to pay a dime to ride their dirty old subways.”

Read TIME’s 1948 take on the subway system, here in the archives: The Nickel’s Last Ride

Every travel agency is saying something different, but there are some tips that aren't up for debate

For years, travel search engines have scoured through their dense databases to determine the best day to book your Thanksgiving flights. This year, like every year, there’s a lot of mixed messages on what to do if you’ve procrastinated on booking tickets. Here’s what the big players are advising for cheap domestic U.S. air tickets:

• Kayak: Book in early November, about two to four weeks before Thanksgiving.
• Skyscanner: Two weeks prior to Thanksgiving.
• Orbitz: This Wednesday, Thursday or Saturday. If not then, then before Nov. 18.
• Cheapair: It depends on way too many things.

So what’s the takeaway? It’s better to be safe and book flights now, but you if you’re a risk taker, you can wait until the beginning of November to book your flights. But try not to wait until the week of Thanksgiving. It’s also important to weigh the risks of an unexpected fare hike in light of what your benefits of waiting actually are. These hyped “savings” are usually only about 5 to 10% less than the average fare, which amounts to $15 to $30 if your ticket costs $300.

In fact, since airline fares are notoriously difficult to understand, often the better question to ask is what not to do when you’re booking Thanksgiving flights.

Here are a few tips that travel search engines all agree on:

Don’t book a departure flight on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving (Nov. 26), or a return flight on the Sunday after Thanksgiving (Nov. 30).

Airfares increase as flights get fuller, and the Wednesday and Sunday flanking the Thanksgiving holiday are when the most people are traveling. A simple airfare search shows just how much more expensive it is to book travel on one of these days. In some cases, fares are up to twice as high.

If you have to book for Wednesday or Sunday, then book your tickets as early as possible.

If you’re locked into a Wednesday departure flight, aim for a Friday or Tuesday return flight, which is around 25% cheaper than returning on Saturday, Sunday or Monday, according to an analysis by Cheapair.

Booking a return flight on Sunday results in the most dramatic airfare spike, and there’s not really much you can do to save money other than to book your departure flight on Thanksgiving Day. But the tradeoff of sacrificing a chunk of your holiday is a discount of only about 10%, so it may make more sense to pick a different day—even if it’s Wednesday. In general, having a Sunday return flight means you’re stuck with a sky-high ticket price.

Consider booking a departure flight or return flight on Thanksgiving Day—or both.

If you depart and return on Thanksgiving Day, your fare may be up to 30% cheaper than the average price, according to Kayak. And even if you only depart (and not return) on Thanksgiving, those savings are particularly meaningful when applied to longer, more expensive flights. For example, flying the JFK-LAX route departing on Thanksgiving instead of the day before can save you nearly $100.

Don’t book flights in groups.

If you’re booking as a family and there are only a few flights left in the lowest fare category, it’s possible the airline will bump the entire party up to the next fare category, according to Cheapair. That doesn’t mean you can’t travel as a family, though: you just might have to book each person’s ticket individually.

Check other smaller airports nearby.

There’s often regional and even international airports near the ORDs, JFKs and LAXs of major U.S. cities. If you’re in Chicago, for example, consider Chicago Midway Airport instead of O’Hare; if you’re in Los Angeles, consider Long Beach Airport instead of LAX. Both are cheaper airports than their neighboring giants, according to Cheapflights.com, which ranked the nation’s 101 most affordable airports.

Check smaller airlines.

The five biggest U.S. airlines—American, United, Delta, Southwest and JetBlue—all increased their base fares slightly despite lower fuel prices and a worldwide fear of Ebola. While the effect on consumers is not yet clear, it’s also worth checking out smaller airlines like Spirit, Frontier and Virgin.

Read next: The Old Advice on When to Buy Flights Is Wrong (And So Is the New Advice)