Morning Poll: Daylight Saving Time

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by ARLnow.com November 4, 2011 at 9:30 am 2,975 55 Comments

Daylight Saving Time will be ending over the weekend, giving way to earlier sunrises and earlier sunsets.

On Sunday at 2:00 a.m., clocks will “fall back” to 1:00 a.m. The time shift will give bar-goers an extra hour of partying, will give others an extra hour of sleep, and will force Metro to stay open an extra hour.

Daylight Saving Time was originally created in order to save energy and to reduce the number of daylight hours people wasted by sleeping through in the summer. While popular with folks who work from 9-5 and who don’t like leaving work at dusk (the sun will set at 5:02 p.m. on Monday, and days will continue getting shorter until the winter solstice on Dec. 22), farmers, who have to wake up especially early during the summer growing season, typically oppose Daylight Saving Time.

This year, citing the stress and depression that occurs for some when when it gets darker earlier, Russia decided to ignore agricultural concerns and stay permanently in Daylight Saving Time (or “summertime,” as the British call it).

Should the U.S. consider doing the same?

Flickr pool by Mnemosyne2009

NittanyBallston

“giving way to later sunrises and earlier sunsets”

I think it’s “earlier” sunrises, unless they’ve figured out a way to shift the earth’s axis
- ARLnow.com
  
  Right, thank you.
drax

Can’t farmers just get up whenever they feel like it?
- CW
  
  I was about to post the EXACT same comment. It makes no sense – they set their own schedule and can get up whenever.
  - CW
    
    Also, why would they oppose it? Spring forward, add 1 hour. The sun comes up at like 5 AM in the summer WITH DST. Would they rather be getting up at 4?
- Nooner
  
  I was thinking the same thing.
- Farmer Ted
  
  Because they have to get up really early to do everything they have to–feed the animals etc. And if it’s dark, they can’t see what they’re doing.
  - drax
    
    Well, Ted, just get up an hour later (in other words, the same time you would if there were no DST).
    
    Duh.
    - Farmer Ted
      
      Look, I’m not really a farmer, I just play one on the internet. But there are good reasons farmers don’t like DST. I’m just not great at articulating them.
      
      I voted for keeping it as it is–not a morning person, need that sunlight to get me going.
  - Wobble
    
    Lame excuse. We’ve had electrical lighting for well over 100 years. If they don’t want to work in the dark, they can buy/turn on a light. And who says animals have to eat at the buttcrack of dawn anyway? They’re animals. They will eat whenever they are fed.
E-Ross

I have usually not enjoyed the time change, however, I hate waking up anytime before…8:00 and having it be mostly dark outside since they changed the dates to make it longer. The days get shorter, its the way it works in the winter, and even if we didn’t change our clocks back, the sun would still be setting around 5:15pm around the solstice. That being said, I think I’d rather have an easier morning now.
- Amen
  
  Agree 1000%. Who needs an extra hour at sunset? Most of us just want to get home and hole up with some food and TV in the wintertime. It’s not like folks are going to get in some cross-country skiing before bedtime due to the extra daylight.
  
  Morning darkness SUCKS, bigtime. Hate it completely. No getting around shorter fall days, but at least let’s not waste the daylight by having it in the evening, when the workd day is winding down.
  
  Is there any push to get it changed back to pre-2007?
Erin

I like the system now because I hate waking up in the dark (which is happening now when I get up at 7am)… I can handle leaving work in the dark, but waking up when its dark is just painful.
GCH_Now

DST is a quaint relic of the industrial age. It’s lost its significance in this age of global commerce, mobile workforce, alternate and compressed work schedules, flexwork, and telework. For anyone other than a 9-5 drone, DST is a nuisance for workers and a PITA for schedulers.
I’d rather junk the time zone concept and the DST kluge and move to a global time standard (UTC).
- Scrap DST
  
  I’m a 9-5 drone (more or less), and I’m against it too. It is RIDICULOUS that it should be completely dark at 7AM! Many folks are walking dogs or walking kids to the bus stop at that hour.
  
  When DST ended in September (decades ago) or early October, it was at least tolerable. But this has got to stop.
  
  Anyone know why Congress has set the “fall back” later and later over the years?
  - drax
    
    I like DST. I’m glad they extended it.
    - Scrap DST
      
      Why? You like getting up in darkness?
      - drax
        
        No, but I like having an extra hour of sunlight in the evening when the weather is nice alot better. It’s worth it. Getting up sucks no matter what. At least I can look forward to some outside time when I get home.
      - CW
        
        I’d rather have an extra hour now than when it’s 110 degrees out.
      - drax
        
        Oh, and when DST ends (as it must), going home in the dark sucks ten times harder.
      - Wobble
        
        I’d rather have my hour of sunlight when I am awake and in a good mood (done with work for the day), not when I’m groggy, cranky, and unable to appreciate it.
  - Steamboat Willie
    
    DST was extended as part of the 2005 Energy Bill, signed into law by President George W. Bush in August of that year.
    
    Link:
    http://www.timetemperature.com/tzus/daylight_saving_time_extended.shtml
charlie

this is a huge waste of money to undertake.
and it costs us phantom money — we never see it but it costs $$.
and monday’s commute is the WORST commute of the year — dangerous and dark.
- dk
  
  ITA. I voted for keeping DST year-round, but really I think we should just pick one and stick with it. The back and forth 2x per year is ridiculous.
Beth M

The poll doesn’t include the third option, which is going back to the schedule that was in place before 2007, when Daylight Saving Time was a few weeks shorter. The change was ostensibly to save energy, but most agree that it does nothing to accomplish this, since more energy is used for heat and light in the morning when it is darker at that time.

My personal issue with the lengthened Daylight Saving Time is with sending my children out to walk to school or to the bus stop in the dark. During the past two weeks, when it was still dark when it comes time to go to school, I’ve been driving my middle school daughter to the bus stop since it’s a long walk and she is (understandably) spooked walking alone in the dark. In houses like mine, Daylight Saving Time means a significant increase in energy/fuel use. In addition, we all have a harder time getting going in the am when it is pitch black outside. When we finally fall back, she will be able to go to the bus while it is light again, at least for a few weeks.
- nerd
  
  I Agree we should go back to how it was before 2007 – it was part of Bush’s “Energy Bill” but was done as a favor to lobbyists of sporting goods who apparently sell more stuff when the evening has more daylight. The system now really screws with International Airline schedules too. Europe still changes on the days we used to – so they have to accomodate that then the US changing 1 or 2 weeks later (or 2 weeks earlier in the spring). we should sync back up with Europe.
  - dork
    
    Although the change was included in the “Bush Energy Bill,” the DST provision was championed by Rep. Ed Markey, Democrat from Massachusetts.
    - Carl
      
      Which is why is sucks.
Smith

Arizona doesn’t participate. The farmers and legislators were worried that extra hour of sunlight would burn their crops.
- drax
  
  You know what? I can believe that. It’s Arizona after all.
- brendan
  
  hah.
Michael H.

The so-called “standard time” only lasts for 4 1/2 months of the year.

I’d like to see a single time system throughout the entire year.
- John Fontain
  
  Yes, let’s get rid of this nonsensical changing of the clocks all together.
  - CrystalMikey
    
    +1
    - NorthArlingTim
      
      + me too.
DCDirtDog

Change your clocks and your smoke alarm batteries…

http://www.usfa.fema.gov/media/press/2011releases/103111.shtm
outoftowner

We really still change our clocks for all 37 farmers still in the US?
Johnny Utah

daylight savings time has been a real pain in the ass for us IT Managers. A real pain in the ass.
- Zoning Victim
  
  How on earth can daylight savings time be a pain in the butt for IT managers?
  - Johnny Utah
    
    updating patches for windows with new information. And they keep changing the program which means new updates to install. The whole thing is stupid and dated
    - Zoning Victim
      
      Oh, so what you meant is while you IT managers are wasting time in useless meetings, the time change is a really pain in the butts of us developers and the network administrators. Haha, sorry Mr. IT Manager, but you walked right into that one and I couldn’t help myself.
      - oh please
        
        It’s a nerd fight!
      - Johnny Utah
        
        Uhh. I am responsible for patching servers/workstations too pal.
      - Zoning Victim
        
        Haha, that’s good, but you should ask for a job title that makes you sound useful. Very few of the managers where I’ve worked have the ability to patch a server (not that there are a whole lot of DST patches). I moved into management for a while, but I got so sick of sitting in meetings arguing about working instead of working that I went back into app dev.
Cherrydale Ken

I hate waking up for work when it’s dark out but I think I despise it being dark when I leave work even more.
Andy

I like seeing how many people and how many news organizations make the mistake of referring to it as “Daylight Savings Time.”
jslanger

I grew up in AZ–where we NEVER change our clocks at all. Its nice not having to deal with that.

And I personally would vote for the extra hour of light at night…but that may be that, at least before this year, I was getting to work at 5am ANYWAY, so I’d go to work in the dark, and then have to come home from work at 6 or 7pm in the dark too. It sucked.

But for people who have more normal (read: human being) hours, I can see the draw of having the light in the AM instead…
5555624

Option #4 — get rid of Daylight Saving Time altogether. I don’t really care too much about how long it’s going to be light out after dinner. (It’s always dark when I get up, so the mornings don’t matter.)
- Dan Jones
  
  I agree with @5555624. We should get rid of DST altogether. If coming off it makes people depressed, not having it at all (and perhaps, those people waking up earlier) would solve the problem. Shifting an hour off of real time was a stupid idea to begin with, and we’d be much better without it.
  - drax
    
    No, let’s keep it and enjoy more sunlight in the summer and ignore you two sourpusses.
    - 5555624
      
      Uh, the actual amount of sunlight does not change, so get up earlier.
Arlwhenver

I will breath a sigh of relief Monday morning when my 5-year old is no longer walking through the morning darkness to catch her school bus. This extension of DST has wreaked havoc for young children.
- R0bespierre
  
  This is “havoc” to you?
John Andre

Since my body runs on “natural” time, I would favor either standard time year round or a time change on the Sundays closest to the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. Absolutely no year-round DST, since I do not like these late sunrises and would prefer earlier sunsets. With year-round DST, the sun would not rise until 8:30 am around Christmas and New Years–and that’s too late!
Charles

What’s wrong now is that they waited too late in the year to change the time. It was dark too soon in the year, when leaving for work. The time needs to be changed on the second-to-last weekend in October.

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