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

[Gay State Conservative]

The farther you are from the equator the more DST makes sense.Massachusetts,a state which is justifiably known for stupid ideas,has come up with another one.

[Ray76]

Mass is too small of a geographic area.

Split the difference, move EST up half an hour and leave it there all year.

[freedumb2003]

>>how does this special commission cost? They may ask for more time to study this.<<

Including “fact finding” trips to spend a lot of time where these is a lot of daylight and no DS.

[Gene Eric]

DST is a summer time shift from standard time for the given timezone offset. Not sure how DST is an advantage.

[nickcarraway]

If you call having John McCain as a senator, “getting along fine.”

[Maine Mariner]

I live in Maine and have a 40 minute commute to work (each way) I really don’t like driving home at 4:30 pm in the dark.

[HandyDandy]

Without DLS, how are we going to figure out when to replace the batteries in our smoke detectors?

[Gay State Conservative]

Uniform time zones are essential for commerce.I've read that there was a time in the US when there were almost as many time zones as there were cities and towns.

[BenLurkin]

DST makes no sense. Anywhere.

[BitWielder1]

Why would morning people prefer this? [DST]

It forces everyone to get up an hour earlier, whether they like it or not.

[Alberta's Child]

It might actually make sense for MA to do this -- and maybe the rest of New England, too. Not only are they very far north in the continental U.S. (meaning the days are longer in the summer and shorter in the winter than most other places), but they are also very far EAST -- which means they are practically 30 minutes to an hour ahead of most of the Eastern Time Zone anyway.

Case in point ...

I just checked tomorrow's sunrise time for two different places in the Eastern Time Zone. The sun will rise at 7:12 AM tomorrow in Boston, and at 8:04 AM in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Both of these cities are in Eastern Time, but they are 52 minutes apart by the sun's rising and setting.

I've long suspected that one of the reasons Daylight Savings Time was originally instituted was that many of the country's biggest cities were in the far eastern areas of their respective time zones -- Boston, New York and Philadelphia in Eastern Time, Chicago and St. Louis in Central Time, etc. This means the sun rises very early and sets very early in these cities compared to the rest of these time zones.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_rstablew.pl?ID=AA&year=2017&task=0&state=MA&place=boston

[Gene Eric]

Enough with the half-measures — just repeal DST! ;)

[Alberta's Child]

I like the idea of shifting sunset later in the day, and rising in the dark ...

I never understood the thought process behind this. It would be easier to simply adjust work and business schedules to start an hour earlier in the day, wouldn't it?

[hoosierham]

DST is idiotic.
Simply have winter and summer business hours but noon should be noon.DST is a holdover from WWI and deserves to be in the dustbin of history.

[Alberta's Child]

Oh, I see. That should just affect you for one or two days.

[9YearLurker]

I’m for it—I think more states would follow suit and more schools would start later—which they should do anyway.

[King Moonracer]

New England should be atlantic time. Maine to Michigan is crazy

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Well, you would still have to drive to work in morning dark. DLST moves one hour of sun light from the morning to the evening. Because Maine is further north and east than Massachusetts, in winter the sun rises and sets even earlier.

http://aa.usno.navy.mil/cgi-bin/aa_rstablew.pl?ID=AA&year=2017&task=0&state=ME&place=Bar+Harbor

Hell, the sun sets at 3:53 PM on December 9th in Bar Harbor this year. Under DLST that would at least be 4:53.

[Gay State Conservative]

DST makes no sense. Anywhere.

I like it.Daylight from 7AM to 4:30PM in winter is preferable to 8AM and 5:30PM.

Daylight from 5AM to 9PM in summer is preferable to 6AM and 10PM.

IMO