Clock runs out on efforts to make daylight saving time permanent

Washington Post ^ | 4 November 2022 | Dan Diamond

[ShadowAce]

Early this Sunday morning, Americans will engage in the annual autumnal ritual of “falling back” — setting their clocks back one hour to conform with standard time.

If some lawmakers had their way, it would mark the end of a tradition that has stretched for more than a century. But a familiar story unspooled of congressional gridlock and a relentless lobbying campaign, this one from advocates that some jokingly call “Big Sleep.”

“I know that the permanent standard time people and the permanent daylight saving time people will be disappointed because they didn’t get what they wanted, and we will be out of sync with other countries,” Malow said. “But it’s a way to stop going back and forth.”rmanent stanis fall is a stark contrast from their sunny celebrations when the Senate abruptly passed their bill two days after the “spring forward” clock change, with still-groggy lawmakers campaigning on it as a common-sense reform.

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“My phone has been ringing off the hook in support of this bill — from moms and dads who want more daylight before bedtime to senior citizens who want more sun in the evenings to enjoy the outdoors to farmers who could use the extra...

[JohnBrowdie]

. . . a familiar story unspooled of congressional gridlock . . .

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congressional gridlock is almost always a good thing.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Ending DST or making it permanent would be Y2K all over again.

No thanks.

[Grampa Dave]

My wife and I are in our 80’s, and we welcome this little trip back to sanity.

We belong to the big west coast ppo/hmo, and she just cancelled an appt. for this coming Monday.

She rescheduled her appt a couple of weeks down the road.

The lady, who handled it, said that many people were cancelling next Monday-Friday, and many said that they didn’t want to be driving nor riding in traffic, next week.

[MotorCityBuck]

Like clockwork.

[fella]

the Ancient Romans had a more nature centric of keeping time day and night were divided into 12 equal parts between sunrise and sunset. Making daylight hours longer in the Summer and shorter in the Winter. And the opposite for nighttime hours. That way instead of changing twice a year it would change everyday but be in tune with nature. Our smart devices should be able to keep track of the hours for us.

[Dr. Sivana]

Ending DST or making it permanent would be Y2K all over again.

Actually, the existence of DST makes problems on servers, certificates etc. twice a year. Most of it works properly, but there's always that oddball device that doesn't sync up properly.

[Kazan]

Who in the summer wants sunlight at 5 a.m. rather than until 9 p.m.?

Being dark at 8 a.m. or 5 p.m. is wash. Most people are up at both times.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

In Arizona we don’t play the time change game.

The Navajo Nation does, though the Hopis do not.

[Tommy Revolts]

Yup, unnecessary.

[Tommy Revolts]

Federal law allows a state to exempt itself from observing daylight saving time.

[Carl Vehse]

"The whole notion of “daylight savings time” needs to go by the wayside."

"DST" stands for "Daylight Saving Time" but it is better described as "Daylight Shifting Time," since the change in the clock time simply shifts the daylight time from the morning to the evening hours heading toward the summer and then back again as the U.S. heads toward the winter. There is no "saving time"; you don't even earn extra seconds as interest when you get the standard time back.

At 40 deg latitude—approximately the middle of the continental U.S.—the width of each time zone is approximately 800 miles (the width is a little more for southern latitudes and a little less for northern latitudes).

Nowadays adjusting the clock twice a year is a compromised solution to providing daylight hours to morning commuters and school children during the winter as well as evening daylight hours to families in the evening to enjoy being outdoors more during the summer.

DST is not needed as much the closer one gets to the equator; Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and American Samoa do not use DST.

DST becomes meaningless the closer you get to the poles. However, Alaska, with its two time zones, still uses DST, even though parts of the state have daylight all day during some of the summer and no daylight in some of the winter.

If you want to blame something for having to put up with daylight saving time, blame the 23 degrees tilt of the Earth's axis as it orbits the Sun. Of course, without that 23 degrees tilt, life on Earth might not be possible.

[glennaro]

It would be tough in California in May and June without DST.

If we stayed on Pacific Standard Time out here, during those months it would start getting light at 3:30 a.m., with sunrise at 4:45 a.m. ... a bit early, I should think.

[Tommy Revolts]

For the deceivers - "The U.S. Department of Energy stated in a
2008 report that sticking with one consistent time could
save enough electricity to power 100,000 households per year".

[stevio]

Personally, getting up in the dark in the worst. Plus kids waiting for a school bus in the dark in unsafe. I say leave it the way it is.

[xkaydet65]

During the Arab oil boycott in 73 DSL was extended to save energy. It ended spon after a large number of morning auto accidents and other losses had occurred. It seems people were used to driving home in the dark after work, but too STUNAD (Italian slang),to drive safely in the dark at 8AM.

[packagingguy]

“I made my walk to the bus stop by starlight”

You brought up the reason people argue for permanent daylight savings time.

Fewer crimes are committed in the morning. Therefore if it is dark in the morning it has a minimal effect on crime.

However during standard time it starts getting dark in the 4 pm hour. More crime is committed in the late afternoon, evening and nighttime.

The reasoning is that if there is more light later in the afternoon then there is a narrower window of opportunity to do mischief.

Of course if people didn’t commit crimes this would not be an issue.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Plus kids waiting for a school bus in the dark in unsafe. I say leave it the way it is."

So just have the school board shift the school hours instead of making the entire universe engage in the foolishness of shifting clocks twice a year. Pick a time and stick with it.

[discostu]

From a software perspective it would make things way easier. The change times are a nightmare from a code perspective. Especially the “fall back” where 1 and 2AM happens twice. Both changes screw up your timed events, but the double hit is way worse.

[Verginius Rufus]

Benjamin Franklin first came up with the idea of moving the clocks ahead one hour in the summer. He was then in Paris and didn't like that it got light so early in the morning (when he had been up late the evening before).

A lot of people like having an extra hour of sleep on the Sunday when the switch back to standard time is made. Maybe Congress can win a little popularity by mandating that every Sunday be 25 hours long.

[llevrok]

News shows here are going on about the dangers of a 1 hour shift in one’s circadian clocks.

An hour? C’mon man!

I was an international business traveler and often went through 17+ time zones in a week....and thrived.

Get over it jam tarts!