Massachusetts weighs doing away with winter time shift

Fox news ^ | January 11, 2017

[SMGFan]

BOSTON –  Lacking authority to change the laws of physics to allow more sunlight on the darkest days of winter, a special commission is instead considering whether Massachusetts should change the laws of man and observe daylight saving time year-round. If adopted, Massachusetts residents wouldn't have to set their clocks back in November and forward in March, as most of the U.S. does. Benefits of having daylight saving time throughout the year could include energy savings and less seasonal depression, proponents suggest

[Alberta's Child]

Sorry -- I should have been more clear. If MA basically goes to Atlantic Time, then their kids will be waiting for school buses in almost the same light conditions in Atlantic Time as Indiana kids have today in Eastern Time.

[Alberta's Child]

In my experience I've found that DST is pointless at far southern and northern latitudes.

The closer you get to the equator, the closer you get to days that are 12 hours from sunrise to sunset through the entire year.

The further north you go, the less impact DST has because the length of the day changes so quickly between the summer to winter solstices. In Anchorage, for example, you go from about 18.5 hours between sunrise and sunset in June to 5.5 hours in December. This means that once you reach the longest day of the year on June 21st, the days get shorter by about 4.3 minutes every day. So the sun rises about 2 minutes later each morning and sets about 2 minutes later each evening until you get to December 21st.

Pushing the clock ahead one hour for DST in Alaska gets you one extra hour of daylight in the evening, but the days shorten so quickly that you "lose" that hour within about 27 days anyway.

[Alberta's Child]

That was something that struck me one day after driving across a full time zone in the U.S. from Boston to Chicago.

The other thing I noticed (on a trip across Canada) was that the time zones in the U.S. and Canada are organized so that all of the Great Lakes are in the Eastern Time Zone. This makes the Eastern Time Zone extend west of some parts of the Central Time Zone in the Midwest.

[Political Junkie Too]

How about leaving the clocks alone and simply start schools and government office hours one hour later instead?

-PJ

[Dr. Sivana]

Actually, the TV networks don’t like Daylight Time because the sun sets later and people are outside or doing other things and not watching TV. They prefer only standard time.

I imagine so, but even less do they like Massachusetts being on at a different time than neighboring states that can see the scheduled shows an hour earlier than RI, CT, ME, NH.

[Wuli]

“Benefits of having daylight saving time throughout the year could include energy savings and less seasonal depression, proponents suggest.”

Studies have never found strong evidence that “day light savings time” saves either energy or money. What it gives at one end of the year, it takes at the other end.

When the sun is as close as it will be to being directly overhead, at any location, that is “mid day” in the natural sense, not matter how much people mess with their clocks. The global time zones are set to approximate that phenomena in one hour increments. Those one hour increments are as natural as one hour increments can be.

No one should have laws that say do as we say, not as the natural time of earth says.

Instead of messing with the clocks, people can voluntarily - businesses, schools, government offices, growing to towns & counties, ect - change their usual schedules, so that at one part of the year, they “start” work/school/business/ect at one hour earlier, and another part of the year they start one hour later.

But leave the f%^^$ time of day alone.

[New Jersey Realist]

Play hell on tv schedules! Your 10 o’clock show would be on at 9 or 11!

[New Jersey Realist]

Yeah, and it confuses the hell out of my pets. They get fed an hour later than their stomachs expect food and when they acclimate to that, they get fed an hour earlier. What’s a dog to think?

(meant as humor)

[discostu]

Uniform time zones used to be somewhat useful for commerce. But not anymore. In a global economy world most of us are doing business with folks in all manner of times usually not even knowing. Our CEO loves doing townhalls where we all have to conference in. They happen at 9AM where ever he is. And since we’re all the way around the planet that sucks and doesn’t for others.

[discostu]

But it’s not really DST that brings the light, it’s just the seasons. More light during summer. Meanwhile you should get sunlight bulbs, they’re expensive, but very useful for people with seasonal affective disorder (depressed when you don’t have enough sunlight).

[discostu]

But of course you can do all those things anyway. It’s the difference between sunset at 9PM or 10PM, if you’re off work at 5 or 6 you still have hours of daylight after work.

[TXnMA]

One of my reasons for interest in this is that, during the last several years of my "Massachusetts exile", I developed increasingly debilitating "Seasonal Affective Disorder": ("SAD"). [AKA "Cabin Fever"].

The only effective therapy (including SSRIs and using a special lamp) was moving back to sunny Texas -- and working outside on my own place during an entire winter.

After work, during DST in MA, I enjoyed fishing in a nearby lake -- or strolling through a beautiful local wildlife sanctuary -- to "power down" from the stress of a high tech management job.

With the end of DST, it suddenly was dark at 4:30 -- cutting off my "de-stressing" time. And, each year, I felt my midwinter efficiency declining further. Rather than face the dark evenings, I wound up staying inside and working as late as 10 PM...

While reading this thread, I just realized that ending DST suddenly robbed me of "something to look forward to" after work! Plus, the rapidly shortening days deprived me of daylight exposure.

Now, I know that the short daylight was bad enough -- but, the cessation of DST's abrupt imposition of darkness at quitting time totally "crashed my biological clock"!

In my case (and in the case of untold thousands of others) maintaining DST year-round would be a godsend -- especially in places like (northern and eastern) Massachusetts.!

~~~~~~~~~

But, your suggestion of scheduling work hours to optimize use of the available daylight has great merit! In fact, that is precisely what I do now that I'm retired and can set my own schedule -- and I have had sixteen blessed years with zero sign of SAD!!

~~~~~~~~~

It's sunny and 68 degrees out -- I think I'll take a mile or more walk back through our Piney Woods (maybe stopping to unload a few "de-stressing" rounds back at the range).

[LOL! I feel better already -- just anticipating the outing!] '-)

Yep -- our ancestors who "rose and slept with the sun" definitely had the right idea!!

[JimRed]

The most frequent argument I’ve heard against year-round DST is kids waiting for the morning school bus in the pitch dark for a couple of months. But they manage to pull it off in Alaska!

[dfwgator]

It has a lot to do with where you are in relation to the edge of the Time Zone. It’s bad to be right up against the Eastern border of a time zone, because it gets dark earlier than if you are further to the West.

[daniel1212]

Here in Arizona we don’t do the twice-a-year clock-changing nonsense and we get along just fine.

But i am sure the sun does not set there before 4.30pm in early winter.

[trisham]

I love this.

[trisham]

Gee, I wonder why that is?

[Dave W]

The sun don't set at 9 pm or 10 pm where I live. And those are days only in June and July in some far north states. So for 83% of the year when the sun don't set at 9 pm or 10 pm in the far north states or the 100% of the year when the sun don't set in the other states at 9 pm or 10 pm, then the additional hour of sun in the latter part of the day is welcome.

It really doesn't matter. The issue was settled decades ago. With the exception of farmers, Daylight time is wildly popular with the unwashed.

Daylight time is going nowhere. In fact, in areas that are on the east border of a time zone, they would love to be on the west side of the time zone since they have another - hour!

[x]

Arizona and Hawaii don’t observe daylight savings either, IIRC.

Indiana didn't either, until about a decade ago.

If a state is on the edge of its time zone, there may be some logic in skipping daylight savings time, but not if its in the middle.

There would be massive confusion if commuters from New Hampshire and Rhode Island had to reset their watches whenever they crossed over into Massachusetts.

[discostu]

This considerations proves it isn’t a done deal. DST is NOT wildly popular, most people bitch about it for weeks before and after. And with good reason, it’s stupid. It’s a stupid idea, enforced by a stupid government, and its only real purpose is to remind people who is in charge. You’ll set your clock how they say citizen.