The Washington Post has an article on extended Daylight Saving Time beginning this year entitled Clocks’ Early Spring Forward May Bring About a Few Falls. It mainly focuses on the technology related headaches caused by the change. For example, airline schedules will have to be revamped, particularly with international flights. And, in certain situations, failure to get the time right could have severe consequences — the focus again being on airlines. There is a brief mention at the end about the increased morning darkness the expansion will entail.
Daylight Saving Time will begin on March 11 this year. Last year it began on April 2.
In case anyone is interested the sunrises and sunsets for Indianapolis are about 1 hour later than the ones mention for Washington D.C. on March 11th.
Washington D.C. 7:04 am 6:46 pm
Indianapolis 8:03 am 7:47 pm
It is absolutely amazing that these morning sun bandits can still get away using energy consveration as justification for their evil deeds. It has never been proven that shifting the clock has saved 1 btu. The 100,000 barrels the medicine men claim they will save each day must be snake oil.
Jim B.,
Excellent post.We both know your statements are true but one thing I’ve learned through all of this is that the DST and pro Eastern time crowd never let the truth get in the way when it comes to this issue.I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard if were on DST and especially Eastern time having extra light in the evening will save energy lowereing electric bills of course this is complete nonsense but I guess if they say it enough someone will believe them.
Phillip,
Most of the value of propaganda comes not from its plausibility, but its relentless repetition.
Braden Robinson,
You said it!!
Jim B. Excellent point on the energy savings. In the late spring-early summer when the sun rises around 5 am on DST (4 am standard), there probably is some energy saving. This applies to Chicago and an Indianapolis and Louisville that are on CENTRAL time. For the most part all of this extended DST and push for EDT is saving nothing. People in the large cities are already on the road well before 7 am heading to work. They are using plenty of energy at 6am, so making it dark then for an evening hour achieves, as you said above, nothing.
I wonder what drives the chambers’ infatuation with EDT? For two hundred years people have been moving out of that time zone. The center of population keeps moving west with a slight bend to the south. If the time zone were left at the 82 30′ line it would really show a distinctive decline over the years, in percent of population under Eastern Time. Ditto for the what is truly a non-issue of “we must be on DST”. Two locations in Anglo-America still aren’t. Arizona and Saskatchewan.
People and businesses don’t move out of Arizona, they are clamoring to move there. DST is not an issue.
Saskatchewan was a poor and somewhat impoverished province 30 years ago. Today with the tar sands, huge minerals deposits, including the biggest producer of Uranium, the province is wealthy. DST surely is not an economic issue there, either.
One could use inductive reasoning to say not being on DST helps your economy. But really it is more like Phillip and Rocky have posted on the DOT docket, CDT/EDT is irrelevant to commerce.
The chamber of commerce infatuation with daylight saving was well documented in “Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time” by Michael Downing. The fast food, golf and candy businesses all seem to sell more of their respective products under DST. Traditionally big oil supported DST because they believed (and they had the data) that people got out and drove more when it was light after work, though they have been quiter recently, having discovered that looking “green” helps their public image. The “energy saving studies” have all exclusively focused on electricity usage and have not examined how much more gasoline was used because of DST.
The Chambers have loved wrapping themselves in the flag, or presenting themselves as conservationists, on this issue, but it is all about getting into our wallets. Perhaps they should just claim encouraging waste is good for the economy.
This is a link to the results of a survey the Chamber sent out to some of its members.
http://www.indianachamber.com/newsdetail.asp?ID=3044
The only benefit any one mention was that it was now easier to coordinate their activities with others. The Rushville store owner made the point that before they had to open their stores near Ohio an hour early when that state observed DST. I don’t think he realizes that all their stores are now opening an hour earlier.
No one claimed a better bottom line or a energy savings or more leisure time.
Perhaps the most under appreciated innovation of 19th century America was the time zone system. Originally used by the railroads for their scheduling purposes it soon became accepted world-wide. Almost everthing we do today is governed by the clock. Modern society would be impossible without a uniformed time system. The Super Bowl kick-off at 6:25 EST is a case in point.
The concept is very simple. 24 hours in a day and 24 time zones around the globe. The zone system was a compromise between practicality and sun time by which each location set their clocks to noon or 12 o’clock when the sun was at its highest. In theory everywhere inside a zone is no more than 30 minutes from sun time. The problem with the system is where do you place the boundaries between the zones. Step across a line and your watch is an hour off. That is why I believe the boundary between eastern and central should be returned to the Ohio/Indiana border. There are only 3 such boundaries intersecting the lower 48 states and it makes no sense to have one pass through Indiana.
Lou please don’t give us that convenience of commerce stuff. The 1961 ICC ruling did not truly benefit Indiana’s commerce because it separated Anderson, Elkhart, Ft. Wayne, Muncie, Indianapolis and Richmond from Evansville, Columbus, Bloomington, Lafayette, Kokomo, Terre Haute, Gary, and South Bend. It is obvious that this ruling was not made by the career professionals at ICC but by their politically appointed masters who had yielded to lobbying pressure.
Jim B’s comments above bring up many interesting points,although they may not all be agreed on.
Standard Time was at first optional but was made mandatory in with Standard Time Law of 1918. DST was originally a moveable TZ that could be adjusted to the seasonal shifting of sunrises and sunsets.The problem was that some areas of the country benefitted more by DST than others,depending on geographic placement in TZ ,but now DST is almost universally mandatory,and no one can opt out. But opting out was causing confusion because time is expected to be easily predictable from all sides.Indiana particularly was so confusing that state officials left Indiana TZ maps available in the rest stops of the Tollway color-coding counties indicating which system they observed.I have several of these maps.They changed over time trying to be more explicit and clearer.Also some counties changed systems. The time where one is, is never confusing , looking from the inside out.Those Hoosiers who maintained Indiana wasn’t confusing just werent aware of the issues,or others who maintained that outsiders should ‘just figure it out’ were shortsighted. The current confusion is because the system is still new and that it is still being debated.
Many may disagree with me, but what I have learned from the TZ debate in Indiana the last 2 years is that where the TZ line is drawn is much more important than what time it is, or when the sun rises or sets. People seek to be together,and the dispute is about with whom they want to be united.