Have you ever wondered why in the winter when it naturally gets dark earlier, the United States sets the clocks back taking away an hour of daylight after work? Then in summertime we lose an hour of sleep even though there is plenty of daylight. The House of Representatives just passed a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, year around. The Washington Post responded with an article saying, “We’ve tried permanent daylight saving time before. It didn’t go well.” That was in the 1970s and also in the 1940s. People supposedly hated it. There is an enormous amount of support in Congress for stopping the clock switch twice a year. The problem is nobody can agree on whether to keep standard time or daylight saving time. With standard time we lose an hour of daylight on winter evenings when we most need it. We also lose an hour of daylight on summer evenings. Daylight saving time maximizes the hours of daylight after work, but at the expense of daylight in the morning. This is especially crucial in the winter when there is just less daylight to begin with, and school children must walk to school in the dark. That is essentially what killed permanent daylight savings time in the 1970s and 1940s. The following is from Washington Post:
The last time the U.S. implemented permanent daylight saving time, children carried flashlights on their way to school. Commuters traveled in the dark. Florida called a special session to try to change the clocks back.
The attempt, in 1974 and 1975, became unpopular with Americans quickly. Despite initial support to repeal “springing forward” and “falling back,” the populace fell out of favor after just a few months of dark winter mornings.
Except school-age children no longer walk to school. If you have ever had the misfortune of driving by a school at 8:00am in the morning or 3:30pm in the afternoon you would know that. Parents queue for blocks waiting to pick up their children, who are apparently too delicate to walk to school or back home in the afternoon. This is what I wrote four years ago:
Supposedly, getting up an hour earlier in the winter darkness proved deadly for some school children walking to school (ok, as an aside, kids no longer walk to school). It apparently proved gloomy for other people who had to get up in the dark and stormy night and get ready for work.
While 79 percent of Americans approved of the change in December 1973, approval had dropped to 42 percent three months later.
Everyone agrees that we all hate changing our clocks twice a year. It is especially difficult to lose an hour of sleep in the spring, but also inconvenient to lose an hour of daylight in the fall. The bill was at the urging of President Trump. That fact may reduce support and throw support behind permanent standard time. I vote for permanent daylight saving time.
Read more at the Washington Post: The U.S. regretted permanent daylight saving time in 1970s.
Goodman Health Blog: The US Tried Permanent Daylight Saving Time in the ’70s (and the ‘40s)
How about a compromise? Set summer clocks back 1/2 hour in the fall and then shift the half-hour to be the permanent hour.