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Daylight Savings Time (2020)

theory.stanford.edu

11–20 of 78 posts

Re: Daylight Savings Time (2020)

#11
post #2

Oregon and Washington have already passed bills to change, but the bills require California to also pass one, and they have not. Oregon signed their bill in 2019.

It may be worth noting that most of the population in Washington, Oregon, and northern California is quite far west in the Pacific timezone so standard time in those areas is roughly equivalent to daylight saving time in much of the northeast US at least some of which would be in Atlantic time if we respected actual longitude more. In other words, the west coast already gets a lot of evening light and it gets light relatively later in the morning even without DST.

Re: Daylight Savings Time (2020)

#13
It's funny how the real reason we jump through time hoops escapes the conversation... the business class doesn't want to offer flexable work time for employees.

The OP links to another site that says the science is in: "Wake up to the morning sun". Well, clearly, the answer is then to get rid of the stupid two shift shuffle each year (use standard time), get up to the sunrise, and go to fucking work.

But NO, business leaders of america will sob and whine... working hours are 9 to 5 ONLY! Natch, no cookie for politicians.

Re: Daylight Savings Time (2020)

#15
post #6

The US tried a 2-year experiment of eliminating Daylight Savings Time back in the 1970s, and it was so reviled in practice that it was cancelled after 7 months.

People tend to hate change in general, so these things are hard to shift once put in place. That doesn't take away the fact that humanity managed to thrive without DST for thousands of years, so clearly it can be done.

Re: Daylight Savings Time (2020)

#16
We absolutely need Daylight Savings Time, you can argue about Standard Time not being necessary.

Without DST, in my hometown, it will get dark at 6pm every day from Sept 23rd to March 4th. That's depressing for the 9-5ers with commutes.

I wouldn't see the sun past 7pm outside of May 1st -> August 16th.

If we're getting rid of DST, we need to switch the working day from 9-5 to 8-4 or 7-3.

Re: Daylight Savings Time (2020)

#18
post #15
post #6

The US tried a 2-year experiment of eliminating Daylight Savings Time back in the 1970s, and it was so reviled in practice that it was cancelled after 7 months.

People tend to hate change in general, so these things are hard to shift once put in place. That doesn't take away the fact that humanity managed to thrive without DST for thousands of years, so clearly it can be done.

They thrived without clocks at all. They worked where they lived. They didn't start work at 9 and end at 5. We're in much different circumstances.

Re: Daylight Savings Time (2020)

#19
post #7

I care more about sunset than sunrise, so if people are proposing to get rid of DST instead of making permanent DST I will fight them tooth and nail. I get that it's subjective, but my subjective view is that having sunlight after work is more important, and I stand by that.

Yeah, that's most people, I think.

We're fine with getting rid of the time shift, but if we're going to do that, it makes more sense that the back half of the day have sunlight for longer. People need to do things and kids need to play. Most folks aren't going to work to plow fields anymore.

Re: Daylight Savings Time (2020)

#20
post #5

We need daylight savings time. What we don't need is standard time.

Why not just use standard time, and shift schedules so that standard office hours are from 10am-6pm?

It is far more difficult to get thousands of businesses to coordinate on a fundamental cultural shift to a 10a-6p working day, than to just not change clocks back after switching to DST one last time.
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