Andrew Yang Policy on EXTEND DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ALL YEAR

[Sherman A1]

Daylight Saving Time, or DST, was implemented during WWI to decrease energy utilization. While modern technology (specifically, AC units) makes the energy savings a wash, there are a lot of other benefits to the extended daytime hours.

While mornings are darker, evenings are lighter for longer. This leads to:

Increased exercise and outdoor activity
Lower crime, as the amount of time people are out in the dark decreases
Increased economic activity, as people are more likely to shop at night when it’s still light out
Fewer traffic accidents, as it’s easier to drive in sunlight

Additionally, removing the transition between the different times would:

Decrease traffic accidents that result from people being tired
Alleviate the increase in heart attacks seen following the time change
Prevent us from needing to reset our clocks (a minor annoyance, but an annoyance!)
Prevent us from being late to work (or exceedingly early, depending on the season)

https://www.yang2020.com/policies/extend-daylight-savings-time-all-year/

[Celerity]

2. great idea, the EU may do this, and if not th whole thing, many countries

Daylight Savings Time Is Actually a Good Thing
DST messes with your schedule a couple days out of the year, but in turn it offers you a sunnier life. And who doesn't want that?

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a18011/in-defense-of-daylight-saving-time/

Daylight saving time, or DST, starts for 2019 this month. All across the country (with a few notable exceptions), people will be moving the clocks forward an hour in the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, March 10.

Besides making the world seem like a darker place, one annual effect of this event is a huge proliferation of articles proclaiming that DST is a garbage idea that needs to end. It doesn't really help anyone, they say, but it does throw off sleep schedules around the country. As a result, even more states and cities are considering bills to do away with DST.

What these articles and arguments tend to ignore is that DST is a bizarre idea in the best way possible: It is a human attempt to force our lives to fit the natural world in a more sensible way, to #lifehack ourselves into a pattern of living that benefits our minds and bodies. DST is both a rebellion against the clock and an acceptance that we are all slaves to the clock.

It is amazing that anything this wacky, this totally loopy, ever actually took hold, and it's even more amazing that it's not just accepted but the norm. And the reason it became the norm is because, though it certainly isn't perfect, it is extremely hard to argue that DST on the whole does more harm than good.

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[marybourg]

3. In AZ we have to stay on standard time

so that people who work outdoors in the summer can have the light in the mornings to start work early when it’s cool.

[MarvinGardens]

4. DST works *because* we switch every year.

By staying on it year round, we'll lose its benefits. Let me explain.

I like DST, and I dislike the time change as many do. But in the long run, if we stay on permanent DST, people and businesses will adjust their schedules to reflect an unchanging year-round clock, just as it was when there was only standard time. So what I'm saying is that year round DST is not really a solution to anything, any more than year round Standard Time.

I expect that after a few years of it, you'll see more and more businesses with summer and winter hours. Schools will want to keep the same hours, and after enough kids get hit at bus stops in the winter, they will switch to the equivalent of winter hours for the entire school year.

My daughter's school bus picks up at 7:55 am. In the dead of winter, sunrise in in my town is 7:43. If we switch to year round DST and the school keeps things as they are, then the clock will say 7:55 when her bus arrives, but it will really be 6:55 in solar or standard time, which is 48 minutes before sunrise. It will be almost as dark as night. After enough kids get hit, I expect that the school board will move the school start times to one hour later for the entire school year. Her bus will come at 8:55, and the school day will run from 9:45 to 4:20, with her bus dropping off sometime after that. The school let-out will overlap with more commuters coming home, causing more problems with afternoon traffic. For parents who plan their day around the school calendar, this will erase the benefits of DST that we currently enjoy for about half the school year, and will increase traffic problems.

The only way year-round DST will "work", is in a top-down authoritarian society where the government tells every business when to open and close, and how to structure their shifts. This is how China is able to have a single time zone for the whole country, and of course it causes problems there. In a free society, our hours are set by a patchwork of private business, local school boards, and government offices. Hypothetically, if we tried to force the whole US to Eastern time, after a few years, folks on the west coast would be going to work at 10:00 or 11:00am clock-time, to avoid starting their days hours before sunrise. Thus, the benefits of a single time zone would be lost.

In the same way, we'll lose the benefits of year round DST in a few years. We might as well go to year round Standard Time and save a few school children's lives, if we really want to keep our clocks the same. Or better yet, let's keep what we have. It works just fine.

[yonder]

5. I like DST and would like to see it adopted year round, BUT

IMO you make a very good argument to keep it as it is. I don't think I could argue otherwise. Well done.

[MarvinGardens]

6. Thanks!