Poll: Daylight Savings Time

[gerntz]

People who don't like something will disproportionately respond to a voluntary response question regardless of the subject.

 

[scrabbler1]

Michael Downing wrote a book about DST back in 2005. I saw him on C-Span talking about it in an old video clip and soon got the book from the library.


"Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time."

Fascinating stuff about the history of DST and the politics behind it and how the time zones wee created and altered over the years.

 

[Independent]

I'm not sure how many people here have lived in both Eastern and Central time zones.

When I was Eastern, we thought core office hours were 9 to 5, primetime TV ran from 8 to 11 and late night talk shows started at 11:30.

Here in Central, we think core office hours are 8 to 4, primetime TV runs from 7 to 10, and late night talk shows start at 10:30.

On average, we get up an hour earlier on the clock, and according to the sun, than Easterners.

We're more likely to be getting up in the dark. DST running into November is a bigger problem.

 

[Closet_Gamer]

We should move the clocks once by 30 minutes and then never touch the darn things again.

 

[gerntz]

We should move the clocks once by 30 minutes and then never touch the darn things again.

Yea, but which way? Folks on the eastern side of a TZ would want DST all the time - Boston, NYC, Chi-town, Denver. Those on the west side want ST all the time - Detroit, TX, KC, SLC, PHX. Me, I say to h with the east side folks.

 

[gerntz]

Oh yea, for those in ME, you should be in the Atlantic TZ, not Eastern.

 

[braumeister]

So Russia has the right idea? They don't observe DST at all across their 11 time zones.

China has just one time zone (and no DST), despite being geographically wide enough for five.

As I said in the OP, it's a confusing mess.

Some of us who were in the military got used to scheduling things in "Zulu" time, which is what we called UTC. It did simplify things in many ways, so I would have no objection to just putting the whole world on UTC. Of course you'd still have the International Date Line to deal with ....

 

[scrabbler1]

Yea, but which way? Folks on the eastern side of a TZ would want DST all the time - Boston, NYC, Chi-town, Denver. Those on the west side want ST all the time - Detroit, TX, KC, SLC, PHX. Me, I say to h with the east side folks.

Closet_Gamer can speak for him/herself, but I think the 30-minute compromise refers to halfway between standard time and DST all year round.

 

[gauss]

I like the extra sunlight in the evening in the summer and the brighter mornings in the winter.

I am okay with resetting the few clocks that I have that don't have an auto-set.

-gauss

 

[audreyh1]

Gotcha!

I think the whole world do the time changes on the same days except the USA.

Yes - US changed the spring time to earlier a decade or so ago?

For a couple of weeks we have an extra hour of difference from aeurooe.

 

[kcowan]

Yes - US changed the spring time to earlier a decade or so ago?

For a couple of weeks we have an extra hour of difference from aeurooe.

The US extended it by a month but it was in 2007. Why were they extending it in modern times? No idea. Probably political?

Bush reasons

 

[COcheesehead]

I walk in the morning in winter and bike in the evening in Summer. I like the extra light. Most of our clocks, watches, phones, etc now auto reset the time. No biggie.

 

[mrWinter]

Where is the answer "I like it and wish it was all year long!"

Tha't the same as ending daylight savings all together, but just getting up earlier in the morning. That would be the most annoying solution if we ended up changing our timekeeping system such that all year long noon was no longer the time when the sun was highest in the sky. 200 years later a child asks their mother, "why doesn't the time of the day match up with the position of the sun in the sky?" to receive the answer: "because hundreds of years ago people had a hard time getting out of bed in the morning."

 

[H2ODude]

Indifferent except it's a pain convincing the dog that no, it's not time for dinner yet in the fall.

 

[Pellice]

I like DST because I am on the eastern edge of my timezone, and towards the end of May, the sun would start rising before 4:30 am if we stayed on EST. I've asked myself if there is a comparable problem for people at the western edge. I made a table:

COMPARISON OF APPROXIMATE SUNRISE/SUNSET TIMES IN EASTERN ZONE, DST AND EST
EASTERN AND WESTERN EDGES, APPROXIMATELY NYC LATITUDE

	SUMMER SOLSTICE			WINTER SOLSTICE
	Sunrise	Sunset		Sunrise	Sunset
	DST			EST
Eastern edge	5:30 AM	9:00 PM		7:15 AM	4:30 PM
Western edge	6:30 AM	10:00 PM		8:15 AM	5:30 PM
Standard time only	EST			EST
Eastern edge	4:30 AM	8:00 PM		7:15 AM	4:30 PM
Western edge	5:30 AM	9:00 PM		8:15 AM	5:30 PM

So I would argue that the western edge of a time zone is NOT particularly inconvenienced by DST at all - the most problematic issue for them is probably that 8:15 am sunrise in winter, which is a consequence of STANDARD time.

And I would also argue that the 4:30 AM STANDARD TIME summer sunrise at the eastern edge of timezones is MORE of a problem than any other issue. AND, the other problematic issue, that 4:30 PM sunset in winter, is again a consequence of STANDARD TIME, not DST. In fact, DST doesn't seem to be much of a problem at all.

OK, I *hope* I haven't made a mistake here. If I did, please feel free to correct and make me do a

 

[MRG]

Indifferent except it's a pain convincing the dog that no, it's not time for dinner yet in the fall.

+1

The sun being lower in the sky makes it more difficult to enjoy my 7AM coffee.

 

[gerntz]

I like DST because I am on the eastern edge of my timezone, and towards the end of May, the sun would start rising before 4:30 am if we stayed on EST. I've asked myself if there is a comparable problem for people at the western edge. I made a table:

COMPARISON OF APPROXIMATE SUNRISE/SUNSET TIMES IN EASTERN ZONE, DST AND EST
EASTERN AND WESTERN EDGES, APPROXIMATELY NYC LATITUDE

	SUMMER SOLSTICE			WINTER SOLSTICE
	Sunrise	Sunset		Sunrise	Sunset
	DST			EST
Eastern edge	5:30 AM	9:00 PM		7:15 AM	4:30 PM
Western edge	6:30 AM	10:00 PM		8:15 AM	5:30 PM
Standard time only	EST			EST
Eastern edge	4:30 AM	8:00 PM		7:15 AM	4:30 PM
Western edge	5:30 AM	9:00 PM		8:15 AM	5:30 PM

So I would argue that the western edge of a time zone is NOT particularly inconvenienced by DST at all - the most problematic issue for them is probably that 8:15 am sunrise in winter, which is a consequence of STANDARD time.

And I would also argue that the 4:30 AM STANDARD TIME summer sunrise at the eastern edge of timezones is MORE of a problem than any other issue. AND, the other problematic issue, that 4:30 PM sunset in winter, is again a consequence of STANDARD TIME, not DST. In fact, DST doesn't seem to be much of a problem at all.

OK, I *hope* I haven't made a mistake here. If I did, please feel free to correct and make me do a

Well if DST all year, western edge folks have a winter sunrise of 915 by your table. That might be a problem. But you chose not to list that effect.

 

[Pellice]

I didn't post because I wasn't arguing for that option (DST all year). Looking at my table, I am in favor of keeping the current system.

 

[gerntz]

China fixed the issue by having one nationwide time. With that, locals could operate their lives on the most convenient sun time for them regardless of what the clock reads. E.g., NYC folks could get up at 7 & start work at 9; SF folks could get up 10 & start work at noon. Sun exposure about the same.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Forgot to add that if the world went to UTC I think most folks on the US east coast would object to their clocks reading 12:00 noon at sunrise.

Well, it wouldn't be "12:00 noon", it would be 1200 hours. And all we would need to get used to is that normal business hours are 1400 to 2000 hours. It only seems weird because we're used to time being local; when we remember that, with UTC, we're talking about the GLOBAL time, it's not so weird. And with so many people teleworking across time zones, it would simplify not just international communication, but shipping and traveling. (I still dislike having to add and subtract the time differences when calculating my travel time across time zones. It's just weird.)

And after a generation of people are raised on UTC, they'll be talking about how weird it was that the old folks thought that changing the number meant that it was a different time depending on where you are on the planet!

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I like daylight savings time, changing the clocks gives me something to do in my retirement.

If we pledge to send you our fast/slow clocks to keep you busy, will you support UTC with us?

 

[scrabbler1]

I like DST because I am on the eastern edge of my timezone, and towards the end of May, the sun would start rising before 4:30 am if we stayed on EST. I've asked myself if there is a comparable problem for people at the western edge. I made a table:

COMPARISON OF APPROXIMATE SUNRISE/SUNSET TIMES IN EASTERN ZONE, DST AND EST
EASTERN AND WESTERN EDGES, APPROXIMATELY NYC LATITUDE

SUMMER SOLSTICE WINTER SOLSTICE

Sunrise Sunset Sunrise Sunset

DST EST

Eastern edge 5:30 AM 9:00 PM 7:15 AM 4:30 PM

Western edge 6:30 AM 10:00 PM 8:15 AM 5:30 PM

Standard time only EST EST

Eastern edge 4:30 AM 8:00 PM 7:15 AM 4:30 PM

Western edge 5:30 AM 9:00 PM 8:15 AM 5:30 PM

So I would argue that the western edge of a time zone is NOT particularly inconvenienced by DST at all - the most problematic issue for them is probably that 8:15 am sunrise in winter, which is a consequence of STANDARD time.

And I would also argue that the 4:30 AM STANDARD TIME summer sunrise at the eastern edge of timezones is MORE of a problem than any other issue. AND, the other problematic issue, that 4:30 PM sunset in winter, is again a consequence of STANDARD TIME, not DST. In fact, DST doesn't seem to be much of a problem at all.

OK, I *hope* I haven't made a mistake here. If I did, please feel free to correct and make me do a

A few points:

(1) The Eastern US time zone has widened (i.e. expanded to the west) over the years after it was first established in the 1930s. Therefore, the time difference between its eastern and western edges is more than hour, actually closer to 80 minutes. In Downing's book I mentioned in an earlier post, Michigan, for example, was in Central but wanted to be in Eastern so Detroit could be with New York in the same time zone.

(2) Could you post another table in your chart which shows the sunrise and sunset times in late March and late October, the fringe weeks of DST where the late sunrises are far more noticeable?

 

[Pellice]

And after a generation of people are raised on UTC, they'll be talking about how weird it was that the old folks thought that changing the number meant that it was a different time depending on where you are on the planet!

I think UTC might work. I'd support that over 1 time zone per country. What would be the downsides? Would starting times for work and school have to be adjusted to sync with daylight, the way DST does now? Would that carry costs? I tried thinking about it in terms of my house. I might have to adjust the heating and cooling, which works pretty automatically right now partly because DST does that for me.

 

[Bigdawg]

Needs another option: I don't care but just pick one zone and enough with the back and forth twice year. Pick one and stick with it, is my preference.

+100

 

[JustCurious]

Depends on who you ask.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daylight_saving_time

Depends on whom you ask.