European MPs vote to end summer time clock changes
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Re: European MPs vote to end summer time clock changes
#2I'm glad we are getting rid of daylight savings time. It's a biannual disruption of sleep cycles that costs lives (in increased accident rates) for at best marginal benefits: for most of europe sunrise and sunset times change too fast for an additional hour to really matter.
Still, I think given the choice most people would have prefered to stay in summer time instead of winter time (or equivalently: to abolish DST and move the timezone by one hour).
The actual proposal is only 8 pages long and also worth a read [1]
1: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/BRIE/2018/63030...
Re: European MPs vote to end summer time clock changes
#3>The proposal would give each member state a choice from 2021: either to keep the current summer time system or scrap the twice-yearly clock changes
So if you travelled vertically within a timezone, you could end up going back and forth by an hour repeatedly, depending on the state’s decision made here?
Truly, a design made by committee.
Re: European MPs vote to end summer time clock changes
#4> There were 4.6 million replies [to the online] consultation, 70% of which were from Germans.
Germans make up around 15% of the EU population. So by this metric they've got an out-sized democratic participation in the EU by a factor of almost 5x.
As seen on a solar map [1][2] Germany isn't even particularly badly impacted by this issue compared to say France or Spain. There's some truth to the saying that Germany basically runs the EU, but as results like this show mostly because they seem to be making an effort to give a crap about it and its policies.
1. http://blog.poormansmath.net/images/SolarTimeVsStandardTimeV... (source: http://blog.poormansmath.net/how-much-is-time-wrong-around-t...)
Re: European MPs vote to end summer time clock changes
#5>The proposal would give each member state a choice from 2021: either to keep the current summer time system or scrap the twice-yearly clock changes So if you travelled vertically within a timezone, you could end up going back and forth by an hour repeatedly, depending on the state’s decision made here? Truly, a design made by committee.
Outside the EU that's already true, even between countries that all observe DST (since start and end times of DST vary). But having most of the EU in the same time zone with the same DST rules was very convinient.
Re: European MPs vote to end summer time clock changes
#6>The proposal would give each member state a choice from 2021: either to keep the current summer time system or scrap the twice-yearly clock changes So if you travelled vertically within a timezone, you could end up going back and forth by an hour repeatedly, depending on the state’s decision made here? Truly, a design made by committee.
That's already what happens if you go from France to the UK or Spain to Portugal, so it's not really something new.
Re: European MPs vote to end summer time clock changes
#7Mind that this is just a step in the legislative process not the final thing. Next step is the EU Council where relevant ministers of the individual member states have to find an agreement. Some governments aren't that enthusiastic ..
Re: European MPs vote to end summer time clock changes
#8I'm glad we are getting rid of daylight savings time. It's a biannual disruption of sleep cycles that costs lives (in increased accident rates) for at best marginal benefits: for most of europe sunrise and sunset times change too fast for an additional hour to really matter. Still, I think given the choice most people would have prefered to stay in summer time instead of winter time (or equivalently: to abolish DST a…
>Under the new legislation, governments opting to make summer time permanent would adjust their clocks for the last time on the last Sunday in March 2021.
For those choosing permanent standard time - also called winter time - the final clock change would be on the last Sunday of October 2021.
It's down to the member states to decide but I think most would prefer summer; save for maybe the Nordics, where the vast difference in the amount of daylight hours makes quite a significant difference.
Edit: Removed Iceland, since they froze their EU application.
Re: European MPs vote to end summer time clock changes
#9I don't have a strong opinion on whether we're better off with or without the seasonal time change. But I don't like the idea of individual member states opting in or out, which is what this ruling allows.
I've lived the past few years in a border town where many people will live in Germany and commute to Austria, or live in Austria but do their regular shopping in Germany, or regularly go on weekend mountain hikes that may cross the border multiple times. Hopefully the authorities are smart enough to avoid the kind of situation where the two regions would end up in different time zones for half the year and all the ensuing confusion over bus and train times, opening hours and so on.
Re: European MPs vote to end summer time clock changes
#10>The proposal would give each member state a choice from 2021: either to keep the current summer time system or scrap the twice-yearly clock changes So if you travelled vertically within a timezone, you could end up going back and forth by an hour repeatedly, depending on the state’s decision made here? Truly, a design made by committee.
>So if you travelled vertically within a timezone, you could end up going back and forth by an hour repeatedly, depending on the state’s decision made here?
See: Arizona