Clocks Forward in USA. Good or Bad

[Jaxx]

Been reading in Washington Post about the Day Light Saving Bill, trying to get through Congress. Many folks now believe its outdated and the twice a year altering of clocks should end. Now here in the North of England, we enjoy loooong summer nights. Still daylight at 10.30pm. Resulting in easily getting in a four hour ride after work, without the need to carry lights. That's one plus, although depending on the nature of work people do, there can be many negatives? As keen cyclists (I presume we are?) What are your views? With the USA been so large it doesn't effect everyone the same, what out there, are your opinions on the bill passing? Good thing or Bad?

 

[harryS]

We're 40 miles from the east border of the Central Time Zone in the US and 700 miles south of London's latitude, which is about 500 miles south of the North of England? I need DST to simulate what I used to remember as the endless summer days of my youth. They never existed though. Sunset here happens at 8:30 PM in mid July,

Give me 18 hours of daylight. I get depressed in early December when it's 6PM and it's too cold to do anything, and even if it were warm, it's too dark. If I cannot have that, then year round DST, which I believe is the bill introduced by Senator Rubio, is fine by me.

 

[J.R.]

The dairy industry here in the country has issues with the change in both spring and fall. Humans take the schedule hit. Apparently cows don't want to be early or late. I love daylight savings time. Spring forward!! And never fall back.

 

[ebikemom]

There's talk of this in my state, too ...

 

[Deleted member 18083]

The dairy industry here in the country has issues with the change in both spring and fall. Apparently cows don't want to be early or late.

Today's ride took me to where dairy cows outnumber people 25 to 1. The cows and their ebike-riding visitor cared only for where the sun was in the sky not for where nine-to-five workers would prefer it to be.

 

[Jaxx]

We're 40 miles from the east border of the Central Time Zone in the US and 700 miles south of London's latitude, which is about 500 miles south of the North of England? I need DST to simulate what I used to remember as the endless summer days of my youth. They never existed though. Sunset here happens at 8:30 PM in mid July,

Give me 18 hours of daylight. I get depressed in early December when it's 6PM and it's too cold to do anything, and even if it were warm, it's too dark. If I cannot have that, then year round DST, which I believe is the bill introduced by Senator Rubio, is fine by me.[/QUOTE

Here in Yorkshire, July sees the birds singing at 3.00am, daylight by 3.30'ish and it lasts until 10.30pm. This time of year, it doesn't get properly dark. Look into the NE. sky and you can still view the light. In the 50's before Dr. Breeching decided to axe the majority of branch lines, that served thousands of small towns, villages and resorts, British Rail would put on evening excursions to seaside resorts. If you lived within an hour of the coast? You could join up with thousands of families in crowded rail stations, having a few hours holiday midweek. Children would play on the beach, parents and grandparents esplanading along the front, and all having "fish n chips" It helped to keep the community tight and solid, that worked for each other. Now forever gone.

 

[JRA]

There is the old Indian who wisely said that the white man is the only one that thinks you can cut one foot off a blanket and sew it to the other end and call it a longer blanket

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Daylight savings time is at best deeply silly and at worst just plain stupid.

By definition there is always exactly one hour of clock/sun skew between the eastern and western borders of any time zone, so if DST were so magically effective in some way one would think that we'd always see some of the effects somewhere.

My own personal experience as a technologist is that Daylight Savings Time makes a lot of otherwise simple things deeply complicated. The simple fact that one day per year has 23 hours and one day per year has 24 hours alone has probably broken more computer systems than anything else in history.

Long ago I got yarded into consulting for this company that owned several dozen gas station mini-marts across several states. We were chasing this mysterious problem where all of the stores had reported a noticeable 3-5 percent decrease in sales on one particular day. Upper management was convinced this was evidence of embezzlement or fraud, and their software people, vendors, and consultants like me where furiously working trying to figure out what the hell had happened.

Well, that day happened to be that day in Spring when you jumped clocks forward, so it was a 23-hour day. So assuming reasonable traffic it was plausible that day would come up a little short.

 

[Jaxx]

Daylight savings time is at best deeply silly and at worst just plain stupid.

By definition there is always exactly one hour of clock/sun skew between the eastern and western borders of any time zone, so if DST were so magically effective in some way one would think that we'd always see some of the effects somewhere.

My own personal experience as a technologist is that Daylight Savings Time makes a lot of otherwise simple things deeply complicated. The simple fact that one day per year has 23 hours and one day per year has 24 hours alone has probably broken more computer systems than anything else in history.

Long ago I got yarded into consulting for this company that owned several dozen gas station mini-marts across several states. We were chasing this mysterious problem where all of the stores had reported a noticeable 3-5 percent decrease in sales on one particular day. Upper management was convinced this was evidence of embezzlement or fraud, and their software people, vendors, and consultants like me where furiously working trying to figure out what the hell had happened.

Well, that day happened to be that day in Spring when you jumped clocks forward, so it was a 23-hour day. So assuming reasonable traffic it was plausible that day would come up a little short.

Did they report increased sales the day clocks went back?

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Did they report increased sales the day clocks went back?

I was long gone by then, so I can't really say.

 

[Jaxx]

I was long gone by then, so I can't really say.

Most situations can be summarised by statistics. In my experience, they tell the true story.

 

[AlanDB]

Now that I am retired DST doesn't make much difference to me. I just follow whatever schedule I feel like for each day's activities. But when I was working I did appreciate having the extra hour of daylight after getting off work.

 

[6zfshdb]

DST can indeed be a hot button issue depending on where you live and what you do. Many people I know would prefer to stay on DST year round. Now that I'm retired, the change isn't that much of an issue. My only complaint is the inconsistency of where DST is observed. I travel frequently and changing time zones is always an issue.

Here in the center of the eastern time zone, the big objection to remaining on DST is child safety. In fall and Winter, school buses would be picking up and transporting children to school in complete darkness.

 

[Jaxx]

DST can indeed be a hot button issue depending on where you live and what you do. Many people I know would prefer to stay on DST year round. Now that I'm retired, the change isn't that much of an issue. My only complaint is the inconsistency of where DST is observed. I travel frequently and changing time zones is always an issue.

Here in the center of the eastern time zone, the big objection to remaining on DST is child safety. In fall and Winter, school buses would be picking up and transporting children to school in complete darkness.

That's always been the argument in the UK. Dark school mornings.

 

[Al P]

They could split the difference by just adding a half hour to Standard Time and keep it all year.

 

[john peck]

An Injun once told me daylight savings time is like cutting a foot off the top of a blanket & sewing it back on the bottom
to make a longer blanket.

 

[City Commuter]

It doesn't make sense, simply because, one things got nothing to do with the other.