What are your thoughts on the U.S. going to year-round daylight savings time?

1. 76

   The Dirt Farmerposted 9 years ago

   What are your thoughts on the U.S. going to year-round daylight savings time?

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2. 73

   dashingscorpioposted 9 years ago

   
   
   Some places already never change their time. It would be nice not to have go through changing (every clock, watch, radio, oven, microwave, car or whatever) twice a year.
   Also making it darker earlier when we "fall back" means more energy is used as people turn on their lights earlier.
   I believe this tradition was started to assist farmers a long time ago in order to have more daylight during spring and summer months to work longer hours. It also allowed children to help after school.
   Today most major farmers have sophisticated machinery that can work longer and harder than people do. In fact there are fewer farmers than ever! Changing the clock back and forth ignores the technological progress we've made over the years.

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   1. 79

      DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Fall and winter days are already shorter; people will turn on their lights more anyway.  At which end of the day is a moot point; it doesn't matter, it's going to happen.  But IMO, it would be better to have the day.

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3. 81

   alancaster149posted 9 years ago

   We have an hour's daylight saving from late October to late March mainly because those to the far north of Britain are in the dark longer. From the later Sixties until the early Seventies we had standard time. A complaint went up that - amongst others - children in the far north of Scotland and the Northern Isles were at risk going to school in the half-dark and almost total darkness. Daylight saving was re-introduced. They may have it in Sweden and Norway, although the hours of light are practically nil as you go further north past the Arctic Circle and therefore not worth introducing - as in Canada, Alaska and Russia (Kamchatka to Siberia).
   Mind you the difference in latitude is noticeable even between London and North Yorkshire, about 250 miles away. You can sometimes see the Northern Lights in Northumberland.
   The reverse is true of lighting-up time in midsummer, when sunset in London is about 9.45pm and on the boundary between Yorkshire and Durham it's about 10.45pm, and nearly midnight by the time you get to Lerwick on Shetland.

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4. 51

   bradmasterOCcalposted 9 years ago

   I like the idea, and in the past the big objection to doing that was the kids going to school in the dark.
   The solution, let school start an hour later, it will also help people trying to get to work, but not the people driving their kids to school. It is a push.

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   1. 81

      alancaster149posted 9 years agoin reply to this

      If school starts later, kids go home in the dark. It's easier to shift the clock settings. That way they get an extra hour's lie-in on the Sunday (clocks go back Saturday night).

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   2. 76

      The Dirt Farmerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Hi,, I've read that one reason some are advocating year-round daylight savings time here is so the commute home from work/school is during light hours when criminals are less active. Apparently, rapists & thieves in general are not morning people

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   3. 51

      bradmasterOCcalposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      It isn't dark at 4pm, and it allows an extra hour of daylight when we need it the most. it also messes with your circadian rhythm when you make time changes.

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   4. 79

      DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      bradmasterOCcal  is correct.  It messes with your body's rhythms, and is not healthful.  Plus, the cats don't like their food schedule messed up. ;-)

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5. 81

   SgtCecilposted 9 years ago

   I haven't given it much thought until now. I've lived in Japan the past few years and the locals don't have daylight savings time. Japan's latitude is similar to the US and somehow they make it through the year OK.
   
   I'm not a farmer or a kid going to school but I'm guessing that daylight savings time isn't as necessary as it was back in the day. Still I think the only thing tougher than keeping daylight savings time is getting rid of it. Might as well tell the US to go metric.

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   1. 76

      The Dirt Farmerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      Some people are advocating that we keep it year round rather than eliminate it. Like the idea?

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6. 79

   Shyron E Shenkoposted 9 years ago

   I don't see what difference it makes, so I think we should keep standard time all year. 
   If it is a problem for the school kids change the school time to start a half hour later and end a half later. 
   As for farmers they go by the sun and work from the first light of day until it is dusk. I work on my grandfather's farm. I don't know that anyone looked at a clock except during school and even that did not matter, because school were allowed to leave early when the cotton was open and kids had to help pick it.

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7. 79

   DzyMsLizzyposted 9 years ago

   This is exactly what I think should happen.  Make the current DST the NEW standard time, and then leave it alone; no more switching back and forth twice a year!
   
   Why?  Because DST was designed to make the days seem longer, and the winter days already have fewer hours of daylight, so that is when it would make the MOST sense to have the DST 'longer day' function in place.
   
   Summer days are already longer, and IMO, it makes less sense to have DST in place then, than in the fall and winter.

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   1. 76

      The Dirt Farmerposted 9 years agoin reply to this

      I couldn't agree with you more. It just makes sense.

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