I support this, but I predict that if it becomes law it will be quickly reversed. Kids will be walking to school in darkness and that will cause an avalanche of stories about how unsafe this all is. Happened before in the seventies, in 1973-1974 when I was a junior in high school, and I think it will happen again.
This is so dumb… if daylight standard time becomes “standard” … then standard time will be supplanted by a new “standard”…
-why not just wake up an hour earlier?!
If they wanted to make something permanent, it should have been the standard time, not the savings time. I, too, recall the attempt in the 1970s, and I recall the reports on upticks in accidents and other problems impacting the kids who spent the first hours at school in the dark. But I almost knew if they ended changing the clocks, they would do it this way.
Those of us of a certain vintage recall the winter of 1973-74. Year round DST was one of the Nixon era measures to conserve petroleum. Another was the 55 mph speed limit. Another was federal subsidies for mass transit. Another was CAFE standards for vehicles. (New York added a regulation that you could only purchase gasoline every other day, which day depending on the last digit of your license plate). And, yes, we were all going to school in the dark of night. There was a run on reflector tape for winter coats. A buddy of mine had these armbands you could slip on.
Kids have never ben in the dark before?
IMHO the change should be to Standard Time permanently and not Daylight Savings Time. Why? My reason is very selfish. Because I go out to jog 7 kilometers in the morning and I like doing so as the sun is rising. Keeping Daylight Savings Time permanent will necessitate changing my workout routine from < morning jogging / evening stationary bike or rowing machine > to < morning stationary bike or rowing machine / evening jogging >.
Seriously, however: because of school children waiting for school buses in the morning, a permanent change to Standard Time would be best, but too many spoiled rotten adults who sleep late in mornings (and usually don’t bother to get up and jog that gelatinous fat off their lazy bodies) want extended evening sunlight. Yeah, I am a judgmental SOB. My wife has other words for me in Tagalog. 😉 Nevertheless, I am selfish for my granddaughters. Too bad if no one likes that.
Not at 8:00 AM in Central Illinois.
Congress has these diversions in lieu of producing a proper budget and putting an end to the tsunami of federal borrowing. Back in 1973, that set of issues was present but on a much smaller scale. In regard to the energy sectors, they were engaged in policy theatre rather than address the issues which had been erupting, because addressing the issue would have meant making explicit costs which were theretofore kept obscure. That would have meant offending vested interests and, moreover, people who are marks for demagogues.
I must be one of the few who don’t mind the clock changes twice a year. As someone who wakes up at 5 AM most days (off or not), I don’t cherish the idea of it still being pitch dark when I am getting my classroom set up in the mornings for 2-3 months. But… Congress gotta Congress, I suppose.
The South Fayette elementary and intermediate students don’t start school until 9AM. There is no chance they will start school in darkness. The middle school students were picked up.in my neighborhood at 7:45 and start at 8. They would not spend much time in the dark.
The high school students get picked up before 7. Their day ends at 1:58. They have been going and will go to school in the dark, but they have to live with it.
If so ething has to go, I would prefer standard time to go. My full time “career” is nearly over, so it really won’t matter to me much anymore, but early sunsets are something I find depressing.
In September, it gets dark right around 7 before the autumnal equinox. If it was dark at 6 it would be worse.
Classic bureaucracy.
Get a request, implement it wrong on purpose, blame requester when everything goes bad.
Sandy O’Seay
“Kids have never ben in the dark before?”
Not in traffic.