A Plan To Fix Daylight Savings Time By Creating Two National Time Zones 545
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "Allison Schrager writes in the Atlantic that losing another hour of evening daylight isn't just annoying. It's an economically harmful policy with minimal energy savings. "The actual energy savings are minimal, if they exist at all. Frequent and uncoordinated time changes cause confusion, undermining economic efficiency. There's evidence that regularly changing sleep cycles, associated with daylight saving, lowers productivity and increases heart attacks." So here's Schrager's proposal. This year, Americans on Eastern Standard Time should set their clocks back one hour (like normal), Americans on Central and Rocky Mountain time do nothing, and Americans on Pacific time should set their clocks forward one hour. This will result in just two time zones for the continental United States and the east and west coasts will only be one hour apart. "America already functions on fewer than four time zones," says Schrager. "I spent the last three years commuting between New York and Austin, living on both Eastern and Central time. I found that in Austin, everyone did things at the same times they do them in New York, despite the difference in time zone. People got to work at 8 am instead of 9 am, restaurants were packed at 6 pm instead of 7 pm, and even the TV schedule was an hour earlier. " Research based on time use surveys found American's schedules are already determined more by television than daylight suggesting, in effect, that Americans already live on two time zones. Schrager says that this strategy has already been proven to work in other parts of the world. China has been on one time zone since 1949, despite naturally spanning five time zones and in 1983, Alaska, which naturally spans four time zones, moved most of the state to a single time zone. "It sounds radical, but it really isn't. The purpose of uniform time measures is coordination. How we measure time has always evolved with the needs of commerce.," concludes Schrager. "Time is already arbitrary, why not make it work in our favor?""
Daylight Saving Time (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Do Some Homework Allison (Score:5, Informative)
Blah, blah, blah...She obviously doesn't know if they're minimal, because she doesn't know if they exist. You can love or hate it, but at least if you're going to argue for one side or the other, present some fucking facts.
The fact is that multiple studies have tried to document the extent of the alleged savings, and the conclusions vary from 0.18% at the high end, to an even more minuscule increase at the "low" end of the savings. Therefore her statement that "actual energy savings are minimal, if they exist at all" is a completely accurate summary of the facts.
Re:Daylight Saving Time (Score:4, Informative)
I still am not accustomed to the time changes, and am quite annoyed at the completely unnecessary practice.
That's your opinion. I on the other hand, much enjoy an extra hour of daylight during the summer. The nuisance of changing clocks is nothing compared to the benefit of longer barbecues and football games. The energy savings are debatable, the welfare effects are substantial.
"It's a deception !" I hear you say, why don't we stick to Summer Time so that we have an "extra hour" in the evening year-round? Because unlike summer when sun rises before most people wake up, during the winter a dark morning would affect allot of people.
Think of Summer Time as a way to reallocate an hour of "unused" light from the early morning to the evening. We can't do it all year long (because in winter there's no unused light), but that does not mean we shouldn't do it when we can and make the best of an imperfect situation.
Re:I'm not going through this again... (Score:5, Informative)
If it cost $5B in expenses, that means somebody enjoyed $5B in revenues.
Broken window fallacy. [wikipedia.org]
Re:Daylight Saving Time (Score:3, Informative)
The simplest thing is to leave it alone. All this hand wringing "oh they'll go to school / come home in the dark" bullshit doesn't go away unless you have really dumb ideas like double "savings" time. Every bloody year there are the same bullshit reasons for having gone forward in the first place and how we should stay there.
Lest it be forgotten the whole thing started as a crap solution to "farmers have to work in the dark" in fields where lighting wasn't available. This no longer applies. It was dumb then and to conflate with "think of the children" makes it worse.
Re:Daylight Saving Time (Score:3, Informative)
It already is dark on winter mornings *after* the clocks go back to normal so your argument is based in fallacy. You get about 17 days grace (assuming a high 40s to low 50s latitude) after the change before it is just as dark as it was before.
Re:Daylight Saving Time (Score:4, Informative)