Daylight Savings Whine
Someone at the NYT thinks we should drop it. What think ye?
November 25, 2008 in Uncategorized | Comments (21)
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Someone at the NYT thinks we should drop it. What think ye?
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I think this should be a poll, and daylight savings time is stupid. It messes up my kids schedule at both time changes.
Comment by cantinflas — November 25, 2008 @ 12:07 pm
I think the best argument for it is that it makes it so kids aren’t waiting for their school bus in the dark.
Beyond that I say drop it.
Comment by Clark — November 25, 2008 @ 12:09 pm
Drop the rolling forward of time in the Spring, but keep the rolling backward of time in the Fall. How I look forward to the blessed Sunday on which I am allowed an extra hour of sleep!
Comment by mapinguari — November 25, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
I love daylight time. It gives you more time in the evenings after work to be outside playing sports, doing yard work, playing with the kids, lounging around, etc. It’s worth the extra cost and CO2 as far as I’m concerned. I’d even be willing to pay an extra tax to keep it.
Comment by Tom — November 25, 2008 @ 12:33 pm
Well why don’t they just adjust it to always be lighter in the winter rather than darker in the summer?
Comment by Rusty — November 25, 2008 @ 2:29 pm
darker in the summer???
DST gives us the ability to get more daylight in the summer during the hours we actually use it. It’s supposed to save energy by allowing us to use natural light later in the day, instead of switching on electric lights. It’s debatable whether it actually works that way, but it makes sense that it would.
If you don’t have DST, then in the summer you end up with the sun coming up at an hour that most people are not awake and going down at an hour when they still are awake and would like to continue to use it.
The current trend is toward expanding DST, as you will note happened this year (at least in Utah). The exceptions are places where the Sun is not helpful in the summer, like Arizona, because it’s already too hot.
More daylight in the evening in summer is a good thing, in my book. More time to ride your bike and other fun summer stuff.
Comment by MCQ — November 25, 2008 @ 2:55 pm
Would you do that each year? After a few years of only rolling back time in the Fall, the sun would rise at midnight and set before lunch.
Believe me, if I knew where the solar system dimmer switch was located, I wouldn’t be cycling in the dark.
Comment by BrianJ — November 25, 2008 @ 3:20 pm
MCQ,
That’s what I’m saying. If we get rid of it, let’s just re-adjust the time so that it’s always DST, lighter later all year around.
Comment by Rusty — November 25, 2008 @ 3:22 pm
Rusty, the problem with that is that in some areas, the shorter daylight hours in the winter would mean that the sun wouldn’t come up until after nine. Not really workable.
Comment by MCQ — November 25, 2008 @ 3:40 pm
I’m sure science will figure it out.
Comment by Rusty — November 25, 2008 @ 4:47 pm
Yeah, we’re just a few months away from the giant space mirror that will make it daylight 24/7 platet-wide. DST? How quaint.
Comment by MCQ — November 25, 2008 @ 5:04 pm
I say drop DST. As a part of that, I want Denver to secede to the Central Time Zone. The sun rises by 5:00am in Denver in mid-June with DST, I really don’t need the sun blasting in my west-facing windows at 4am.
On the other hand by mid-December the sun is down by 4:00pm. And that totally sucks. I’d take the sunrise at 8:00am in exchange for the extra hour in the evening.
Comment by spencer — November 25, 2008 @ 5:07 pm
OTOH, the Mountain time zone is the best for TV watching. National sporting events start way too late on the East Coast, and too early on the West. Central isn’t terrible, but still not as good as Mountain.
Comment by spencer — November 25, 2008 @ 5:09 pm
I’m with Rusty, make it always DST. Drop the change.
Comment by a random John — November 25, 2008 @ 5:42 pm
Drop the change. The Washington Post was reporting Obama is considering getting rid of DST to save energy. How that helps, I don’t know. But I sure support my new President even if it doesn’t save a cent.
Comment by jjohnsen — November 25, 2008 @ 5:50 pm
Neat trick, that. Do you watch sunsets from your east-facing balcony too?
Comment by MCQ — November 25, 2008 @ 7:50 pm
I live in Japan where there is no DST. During the summer, the sun is shining through our windows by 0430. It got so bad (waking up the kids and such), that we bought those blackout curtains — the sun still eeks through.
Now that it is winter, it is dark by 4:30 p.m. I hate walking/biking home from work at 5pm and having it be completely dark.
Keep DST!
Comment by Hayes — November 26, 2008 @ 12:26 am
For a while now I’ve been saying I’m going to run for congress on a 1-issue platform of making it be DST year-round. I have several neighbors who have committed to vote for me.
Comment by sister blah 2 — November 26, 2008 @ 12:48 am
Yeah, San Diego is perfect for that scenario. The Mini Apple, not so much.
Comment by MCQ — November 26, 2008 @ 1:18 am
Why not simply speed up the clocks during certain “hours” of the day during the Summer? For example, 6AM-8AM would go slow, taking about 200 minutes, then from 8AM-6PM the clocks would be sped up so the work day was really only about 300 minutes, then we slow the clocks way down again from 6PM until sundown. We gets lots of “time” to sleep in or hang with the kids (who are on Summer break) before work, then plenty of time to play after dinner.
Comment by BrianJ — November 26, 2008 @ 1:52 am
BrianJ – my comment was certainly tongue-in-cheek
Comment by mapinguari — November 26, 2008 @ 8:09 am