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DST-Hating Reps in Washington State Vote To 'Ditch the Switch' (komonews.com)
In the state of Washington, the House has voted 89 to 7 to "ditch the switch, bring the light, and defeat the dark night," says one representative. KOMO reports:
Changing the clocks twice a year impacts the body's natural rhythms and is associated with a spike in heart attacks, strokes, and traffic collisions each year, according to the Washington State Department of Health's impact review. Extended daylight in the evening is also better for kids who play sports or who are active outside, Riccelli said. The bill now heads to the Senate for consideration.... The federal government would have the final say.
And meanwhile, one Pennsylvania newspaper has published a state representative's op-ed calling for Pennsylvania to help lead the resistance in America's Eastern Standard Time zone, complaining that "This weekend, we again will be forced to comply with an archaic tradition, one that offers no benefits." There is no national crisis that changing clocks helps to alleviate. In fact, there are more negative side effects from changing clocks than benefits. Studies have shown that automobile accidents, workplace injuries, heart attacks, strokes, cluster headaches, miscarriages, depression, and suicides all increase in the weeks following clock changes.
This government-mandated interruption of natural biological rhythms and sleep cycles can wreak havoc on job performance, academic results, and overall physical/mental health. Clock changes require farmers to make needless adjustments, as crops and animals live by the sunlight... During this legislative session, I will be working to advance this commonsense legislation that will not only end the antiquated ritual of changing clocks, but will also help preserve the health, safety, well-being, productivity, and lives of Pennsylvanians.
And meanwhile, one Pennsylvania newspaper has published a state representative's op-ed calling for Pennsylvania to help lead the resistance in America's Eastern Standard Time zone, complaining that "This weekend, we again will be forced to comply with an archaic tradition, one that offers no benefits." There is no national crisis that changing clocks helps to alleviate. In fact, there are more negative side effects from changing clocks than benefits. Studies have shown that automobile accidents, workplace injuries, heart attacks, strokes, cluster headaches, miscarriages, depression, and suicides all increase in the weeks following clock changes.
This government-mandated interruption of natural biological rhythms and sleep cycles can wreak havoc on job performance, academic results, and overall physical/mental health. Clock changes require farmers to make needless adjustments, as crops and animals live by the sunlight... During this legislative session, I will be working to advance this commonsense legislation that will not only end the antiquated ritual of changing clocks, but will also help preserve the health, safety, well-being, productivity, and lives of Pennsylvanians.
If this ever comes up for a vote I'll be first in line to abolish DST and the pointless back-and-forth with the clocks.
It's stupid and serves no purpose except to fuck up everyone's schedule twice a year.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
The only source of potential pushback I'm aware on this is parents who don't want their kids waiting for the bus in the dark (that happens with the DST-all-year option) Which they may not realize until after they've lived with it. The standard-time-all-year option ends up with everyone driving hoe from work in the dark more days per year. Let the royal rumble commence.
We of course could effectively have the DST-all-year solution and stay on standard time if all businesses and government offices changed their hours. Good luck with that.
Someone had to do it.
I was around the last time the USA got rid of daylight-savings time, in 1973-1975. It was total hell. Children went to school in pitch darkness and bitter cold, and people drove to work in the dark. I can't imagine who would want this again. You get rid of a one-hour change for a much worse difficulty every day for months on end.
These days, many more working people travel regularly than in 1973, when jet travel was so unreachable for the common man that rich people were called the "jet set". Most working people today deal with much worse than a one-hour change on a regular basis.
Technically, that was actually year-round Daylight Saving Time, i.e., elimination of standard time, not elimination of DST. But the first link suggests that's also what is proposed here (they technically don't hate DST, just the change--and so-called "standard time," in which we actually now spend less time of the year in than DST--is usually the one people object to). This would indeed make the morning sunrise later with respect to the clock, an issue in winter for many regions of the US, the argument usually being that children would go to school in the dark in the morning (I'm not sure the "going to work" argument would hold up since where I live, it's already dark after work during standard time by late November, so it's either one or the other).
R.Mo
Daylight Slacker's Time - Fall back an hour in Fall, and Fall back an hour in Spring, too. More sleep twice a year!
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
Depends on where you live, as in latitude and longitude. My Province is wide enough that there is an hour difference between the east and west parts. One part gets screwed either way when sunrise varies by an hour across the time zone.
Then there's the north where the sun comes up at maybe 10:00 and sets at 2:00 or worse. Doesn't matter where you set the clocks, it's usually dark and cold.
I'm dreading the next week as I'll be getting up an hour early and love this news as my Premier basically said, "whatever California, Oregon and Washington does, we'll do as we should all be in sync". Feds aren't involved here either. Don't understand why your feds get to say what timezone a State is in.
There's also a private members bill in the legislature to create a new time zone along the coast, always on DST. Might even pass if the Greens support it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
I was a part-time researcher at a college in Norway for three years. I'd come out in the summer and work for a month or so. There were 2 or three hours of darkness at night. But this was obviously a lot less of a burden than the 9 hour time change every time I flew there and back.
These days it is not unusual for me to go from California to Europe every month, or at least to another US time zone. You learn jet-lag regimens, how to time your flights, you get the right drugs from your doctor (never Ambien - I think it makes people sleep-drive and kill their children). I wonder if these people complaining about a 1-hour change never even cross the country.
Bruce Perens.
They want to keep Daylight Saving Time year-round, not abolish it.
Previous efforts had been to establish Standard Time year round, but it turns out people prefer that hour of sunlight in the evening rather than the morning.
And, if the US Congress won’t allow it, the fallback is that Washington State move to Mountain Standard Time year round.
I live in Washington State, and I support this message. And yes, I was a kid (in Washington State, no less) the last time the US as a whole tried this... and I don’t remember it being problematic for me.
#DeleteChrome
I want to cast Magic Missile.
This space unintentionally left blank.
The original reason for DST: Stores and parks did not want to change the signs that said when they would open
The park nearest to my house has a sign that says "Closed one hour after sunset".
I'm dreading the next week as I'll be getting up an hour early and love this news as my Premier basically said, "whatever California, Oregon and Washington does, we'll do as we should all be in sync".
California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia should form their own country.
(I'm a Washington resident, and I'm not sure if I'm joking or not...)
#DeleteChrome
The correct way to fix that is to change what time school and work starts. Not to change everyone's clocks. 7am or 8am may have been pitch darkness where you were. Other places it was fine. The places which are affected by longer night (higher latitudes, further west in the time zone) can simply change the start times for school and business in winter. If you insist on changing the clocks, everyone is affected - even people in areas where the time change offers no benefit and is tremendously inconvenient.
The West shall rise again!
#DeleteChrome
Those of us who rise before sunrise (which is most people I know) understand that daylight is not saved. It is robbed from the morning daylight. Only an ignorant Congressman who has never seen a sunrise could possibly call it Daylight *Saving* Time. By the way, DST in the US is so long now that it practically coincides with the school year. If we went back to year-round standard time, any school district that wanted to could simply change their hours. Then nearly everyone could get the schedule that they want. Problem solved!
COE
You know the purpose of time zones is so that every area has solar noon at around noon on the clock (more or less). If you live in a northern latitude, you get more daylight in the summer, and less in the winter. Big deal. Most people I know get up around 5am, so yeah, if I lived in New York or Chicago, during a month per year the sun would rise before I did. Big f'ing deal. That's better than the semi-annual diruption.
COE
This issue comes up twice a year, every year, then disappears just as quickly as the sun sets on an arctic day in December. Until there is concerted year-round pressure on congress to change it, this issue will continue to come up twice a year every year.