Elimination or Extension of Daylight Saving Time

[inspirit]

I sometimes think about alternatives to the current daylight saving time system. One of them is to eliminate it. Another that I like even more is to adjust the time zones and their boundaries effectively making daylight saving time year round in some areas. Spring/forward, fall/back should not have to be set in stone. But if you have to have daylight saving time, I was thinking why not extended it until New Years Day (Jan 1st). Here are my reasons:

• During the period of about Sep 1st - Dec 25th, the rotation of the earth causes apparent solar time to run ahead of mean solar time with as much as 16 minutes time difference. Since we observe mean solar time, that means up to 16 minutes of daylight is artificially subtracted from each evening during this period. This may be even more pronounced if you are east of your time zone's meridian (often up to 30 minutes more). For example on November 6th 2011 in Augusta, Maine, at sunset it will be 4:59 PM apparent solar time. But according to Eastern Standard Time it will be only 4:22. 5:22 Daylight time is closer to the real time than 4:22. So it would make sense to offset this by extending Daylight Saving Time through to the end of this period.
• During the holidays between Thanksgiving and New Years it gives people an excuse to go home an hour earlier according to the sun because their clocks are set an hour ahead.
• That also means more daylight in the evenings during these dark months of November and December. Few people enjoy the sun going down and it getting dark before they leave to go home from work.
• The day after the first Monday in November is Super Tuesday in the United States. Currently daylight saving time ends on the first Sunday of November. That means that unless the first day of the year is a Monday, Daylight Saving Time will end before election day. Under the new system of extending Daylight Savings, on this evening the voting polls will always be open an hour earlier in respect to the sun, providing more light, and making it easier on people voting in the evening.
• Typically people that get time off for Winter Break will return to their daily lives some time in early January. During this break they most likely have been sleeping in on cold winter mornings, so setting the clock an hour backward at the end of this break makes going back to work/school less of an adjustment.
• The same could be said about people going back to work after New Years since the change of year would be celebrated officially one hour earlier at 12 AM Daylight Time which is only 11 PM Standard Time. That means getting home and getting to bed an hour earlier on New Years Eve.

While we're adjusting Daylight Saving Time, I also propose that it should begin the first weekend of Spring Break at around the end of March. That is hard since spring break is at different times from place to place, but the benefit of it is that you have the entire break to get used to the time change. That's better than having to adjust to waking up an hour earlier than usual after just one Sunday, especially when you have final exams the next week.

If Daylight Saving Time (also called Summer Time) were to be extended to more than 9 months of the year, then I also propose changing its name to Standard Time. Then make it an option for local governments to officially observer Standard Time year round. Areas that wish to set their clocks back during winter months between January and March would observe what would now be called Winter Time. Areas that don't want to observe the new Standard Time should ask to be reassigned to their most adjacent time zone.

I hope you enjoyed my proposal/musings about Daylight Saving Time reform. And don't forget to set your clocks backward one hour this coming weekend.

I am in Fairbanks, Alaska and it is dark during winter so for us I think we should have it eight months of day light savings.

[inspirit]

Alaska already has year round daylight saving time in most of the state. That's why they call summer daylight saving time Double Daylight time. So I wouldn't propose it for that state. But that's the exception not the rule.

By the way, how do you cope with total darkness in those months? That must be hard.

Originally Posted by inspirit

Alaska already has year round daylight saving time in most of the state. That's why they call summer daylight saving time Double Daylight time. So I wouldn't propose it for that state. But that's the exception not the rule.

By the way, how do you cope with total darkness in those months? That must be hard.

I am just and extra happy person

In Indiana we were one of two states that didn't have this utterly goofy idea for over 30 years. most of Indiana disagree with our all mighty governor and wishes he would just switch it back.

[inspirit]

I read about the controversy in Indiana. I absolutely agree that there is no need to observe daylight saving time in that state. It's already at the western most end of the time zone meaning that the clocks there already run ahead of apparent solar time as it is.

As for Alaska, four time zone meridians pass through the state. One of them at Juneau, one at Anchorage, one at Nome, and the last through the Aleutian Islands. Formerly these were known as Yukon Time (UTC-9), Alaska-Hawaii Time (UTC-10), Bering Time (UTC-11) and Aleutian Islands (UTC-12). The Yukon time was later renamed to Alaska time and now 99% of the state uses only one timezone even though it spans 3 time zone meridians. Alaska-Hawaii Time zone was renamed to Hawaii-Aleutian Time zone and included the Aleutian Islands.

So that's why areas like Fairbanks and Anchorage are ahead of apparent time by about an hour. and Nome is ahead about 2 hours. And during Daylight Saving Time yet another hour is added.

Looking at it from that point of view and from the point of view of renaming Daylight Time to Standard Time. It would make more sense to me if the state would observe Pacific Time (UTC-8) in SE Alaska, Alaska Time (UTC-9) in the central bulk of the state, and Hawaii-Aleutian Time (UTC-10) in west Alaska including the Aleutian Islands. But I've never even been to Alaska so I can't speak for the people there. :)

[inspirit]

I just read an article that explains that after a long history of disagreement, what finally brought all of Alaska into one time zone (with the exception of Aleutian Islands) has primarily to do with satellite television only broadcasting on one time zone schedule in the state. Haha. People were then quick to arrange their lives around the TV.