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Probably the biggest barrier to ending daylight saving time is... do you go to year-round winter time or summer time? And that's kind of the upside of daylight
by jcranmer 5y ago
Probably the biggest barrier to ending daylight saving time is... do you go to year-round winter time or summer time?
And that's kind of the upside of daylight saving time: in winter, when days are short, you really want to get the daylight in the morning not in the evening; but in summer, when days are long, you want to move the extra morning daylight to the evening. So DST is kind of a compromise where we suffer the negative results of the changeover to get the positive results of morning light in winter and the positive results of extra evening light in summer.
- culopatin 5y agoThe one that puts the sun where it belongs at 12
- asoneth 5y agoI'd prefer one that fixes the clock to sunrise and lets noon and sunset drift rather than fixing noon and letting sunrise and sunset drift. I could also try and get my coworkers to move our meetings earlier in summer so I can leave work by 3, but for some reason changing a "clock" seems to be more effective than getting people to buy into summer hours and winter hours.
- WithinReason 5y agoWhere is that?
- Mindless2112 5y agoClosest to zenith, I presume.
- culopatin 5y agoLol I meant the time that better aligns with the position of the sun relative to where you stand.
- jedberg 5y agoFor most people, that's never. But standard time would be closer more often than daylight time. The bigger question is why? Now that we have electric lights, why do you want equal daytime before and after noon?
- _ph_ 5y agoWell, that is the very definition of noon. Which is handy, as the noon point doesn't move around much (a few minutes) over the year, while in northern latitudes the time of sunrise and set can move by several hours across the year. Noon has no special meaning beyond marking the middle of the daylight. All times are expressed relative to that and of course there is full freedom how to set up common time points like star of office hours, start of school etc.
- readmorebooks 5y agoNoon is generally not midday for most people. Far more stores are open at 7 PM than are open at 5 AM. Far more people are still up at 9 PM than are waking up at 3 AM. And the "9 to 5" song would center the day at 1 PM. It seems that in general society has decided hours after 12 PM are more useful than hours before 12 PM. It's far easier to just change the clocks to have 1 PM be midday, keeping DST year round, than to change society.
- isolli 5y agoI wonder if it was ever so. Did noon mark the middle of the day in traditional societies? If so, when and why did it change?
- soco 5y agoI for one don't care about daylight in the morning - I like to sleep that part of the day.
- NelsonMinar 5y agoFlip a coin and pick one. Either alternative is better than switching twice a year.
- hardtke 5y agoCalifornia voters actually passed a referendum to move to year round DST, but federal law only allows year round standard time. I think most people prefer the idea of year round DST.
- logfromblammo 5y agoCould always move from Pacific Daylight Time to Mountain Standard Time.
- pishpash 5y agoCould also change working hours, same thing. Why is it even a debate?
- junar 5y agoStates can't unilaterally decide that either. Federal law[1] determines which state is in Pacific/Mountain/etc. zones. [1] https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CFR-2003-title49-vol1/CFR-2003-title49-vol1-part71 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CFR-2003-title49-vol1/CF...
- bluGill 5y agoI don't care - I'll adjust my life to what works. This past year I've had phone calls with people in India, Australia, and Germany (I'm in the US) There is no possible reasonable timezone for all of us, but I made each one work.
- jedberg 5y agoWhy do you want daylight in the morning in winter? Now that we have electric lights, we have pretty good control over our indoor lighting situation, and even our outdoor lighting.
- jcranmer 5y agoThere's a couple of reasons: * There's some evidence that light is useful for the biological process of waking up and keeping people wakeful in the morning. Anecdotally, if it's a particularly cloudy day when I wake up, I am far slower to get going in the morning versus if it's a very sunny day. * If you live in a region that is afflicted by snow and ice in winter, you want the sunlight to help with warming up pavement and melting snow and ice [in conjunction with road salt]. This use in particular isn't solved with artificial light.
- Ekaros 5y agoAlso it is very dark in areas with winter when there is no snow. Specially if it is raining. Having sun actually up helps quite a bit.
- chrisseaton 5y ago> Why do you want daylight in the morning in winter? Well why do you want it in the evening instead? There's only so much daylight. I'd rather get up and start the day with some sunshine.
- jedberg 5y agoOur society is built around evening activities. People work during the day and socialize at night. Socialization is easier when the sun is out.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- kylecordes 5y agoStop switching. Stay on Summer Time. Why stay on summer time? Because this routes more available daylight to the evening, which most often (for the bulk of people) is used as personal time, family time, everything other than work and school. We already give up so much to those institutions, I could not possibly support sacrificing another hour of daylight to them.
- chrisseaton 5y agoI don't understand why people need sunlight for after-work activities though? Unless your hobby is calibrating sun-dials what are you doing?
- watwut 5y agoBecause we want to be outside on the sun. And before work there is a.) dark anyway b.) time pressure to finish that activity for work/school.
- chrisseaton 5y agoI guess I don't get what activities people are doing that need the sun. Sports pitches for example have floodlights. When I run in the evening I carry a torch. Where I live a bit further north it's going to be dark unless you shift the day by like three hours. We manage to do things after work just fine.
- rurp 5y agoSome sports aren't played in areas with big flood lights, and many people don't live near that kind of infrastructure at all. It's totally fine if you aren't interested in those activites, but it's a little weird to me that you seem unaware that they even exist and millions of people like to do them.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- __turbobrew__ 5y ago> when days are short, you really want to get the daylight in the morning not in the evening That is your opinion which many do not share. As long as it is light out by 9am I don’t care.