Daylight Savings time...Why?

[steff bugielski]

I know what it is , what is does, when it starts, when it ends, but WHY did we do it in the first place?

[HOTW]

Supposedly to use natural daylight better but now it was chabged because of a bunch of lobbyists for the barbeque industry. An unexpected bonus was they found people turned on thjeir AC's earlier. People don't conserve electricity so I don't think its functional anymore

[Callieslamb]

It's so we can play outside longer in the summer.

[NickyBlade]

So kids don't have to walk to the bus stop in the pitch dark.

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by steff bugielski

I know what it is , what is does, when it starts, when it ends, but WHY did we do it in the first place?

Some info: Benjamin Franklin's idea http://www.webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/c.html

geo

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

My problem with Daylight Savings Time is that it doesn't go far enough. In the Fall, instead of "falling back" we should push ahead another hour. Getting dark by 6 pm in Texas is NUTS. It's even more NUTS in the Northern states where it gets dark by 4:30-5 pm. Since "TIME" is just an agreement as to what the clock will say, we should agree to have the most daylight hours available when the most people are awake and doing things. Having sunrise BEFORE the average person wakes up is a waste of good light - when you don't have to run artificial lighting. Yes, I can change the time I get up and when I go to bed, but nasty things like appointments, Church, etc get in the way.

[Harry Chickpea]

People get all uptight about daylight savings and the "forcing" of people into it. I find such nonsense hilarious. We didn't HAVE fixed times until the railroads demanded it. Before then, there were three basic ways that a day was determined - sunset, sunrise, and noon. If the day was over at sunset (Jewish tradition) you automatically had that side of "daylight savings time." If the day started at first light (Islam) then you had that side. Those who didn't want either of those figured when the sun was going to be highest in the sky, called that noon, and went from there.

You might as well argue over which side of the bread is up before you butter it. THe sun is goinna do what the sun does.

[mnn2501]

Originally Posted by YuccaFlatsRanch

My problem with Daylight Savings Time is that it doesn't go far enough. In the Fall, instead of "falling back" we should push ahead another hour. Getting dark by 6 pm in Texas is NUTS. It's even more NUTS in the Northern states where it gets dark by 4:30-5 pm. Since "TIME" is just an agreement as to what the clock will say, we should agree to have the most daylight hours available when the most people are awake and doing things. Having sunrise BEFORE the average person wakes up is a waste of good light - when you don't have to run artificial lighting. Yes, I can change the time I get up and when I go to bed, but nasty things like appointments, Church, etc get in the way.

Exactly - I get off work at 6 and when we swith back, it'll be dark when I leave work - crazy.
I'd personally leave us on DST all year long.

[Wags]

I would love it if we would just pick a time and stick with it all year. There are a few states that refuse to join in the nonsense so it is quite doable.

[malinda]

I wish they would stay at Standard (winter) time all year. I really miss the early morning daylight. In the past few years, DST has been extended and it just makes winter seem so much longer.

[Fowler]

Go to work at dark, get home from work at dark. I want daylight when I'm home dang it!!

[FarmboyBill]

HERES THE REASON FOR IT
During WW1 only one tractor had headlights. The Moline Universal. ALL the rest operated till dark unless they put add on lights to their tractors. The Dang Gummitup decided that DST would give farmers more daylight to farm with. Well, By WW 2. That was the same, as still VERY few tractors made from 39 onward came out with lights. Also, 1/2 the nations farmers still used horses and mules, and they had no lights,
By Koria, 1/2 the tractors used by farmers now had headlights, and only around 1/4 of the nations farmers used horses and mules. By Nam, 95% of all farmers tractors had headlights, and maybe only 1% still used horses and mules.

SO, By the mid 60s, There was absolutly no reason agriculially to keep on DST for its origional purpose. Some states dont have it, meaning that others dont need to. Got to start a Wall Street Movement to get things changed. Wait a minute. That aint doing any good either.

[Macybaby]

I wish we stayed on it. While I do like the morning light, I do chores in the evening and I hate getting home and having to do them in the dark. In WI, the timeline wasn't that far to the east, here in SD it's just a bit farther to the west. so that makes it almost an hour different than what I had in WI, and I love it.

In WI, it was dark when I got home at 6, here in SD it's just getting dark and if I work fast, I can get most of the chores done before it's night.

Even once we switch, I'm still spending an hour in the morning driving in the dark so mornings are the same, but I sure miss that extra hour of daylight in the evenings.
I just keep telling myself the days will start getting longer in less than two months!

[Fowler]

Originally Posted by FarmBoyBill

Got to start a Wall Street Movement to get things changed. Wait a minute. That aint doing any good either.

Let's start our own DST movement.....LOL

[Silvercreek Farmer]

It does save a some amount of energy as the evening lights are not turned on until later. I think the recent (2007) extension was for economic stimulus reasons, as in people will do more in the evening if it is still light out.

[malinda]

I feed all of my animals twice a day, so in winter, it's going to be dark. Fact of life.

In spring and fall is when DST really messes with me. My lights are going to be on either in the morning (with DST) or evening (with Standard time), so where is the energy savings? And in March, when it's still well below freezing, and we still have 3 or more feet of snow everywhere - at least without DST it was getting light earlier and earlier, and it just feels like winter is finally coming to an end. Now DST begins in the beginning of March and it's back to a cold dark winter for another month.

The only time DST makes sense is in the middle of summer, when otherwise the sun would be coming up at 4am and setting at 9pm. With DST, it's 5am and 10pm.

I once read that an old American Indian said, "Only the government would cut a foot off of the bottom of a blanket, sew it to the top, and tell you that you have a longer blanket."

[NickyBlade]

I think we should do away with time zones too... we're bright enough to have it be the same time all over the world. EST is -5 hours. So, school here would be 3am to 10am. business hours would be 4am to noon.

[mylala]

Originally Posted by FarmBoyBill

HERES THE REASON FOR IT
During WW1 only one tractor had headlights. The Moline Universal. ALL the rest operated till dark unless they put add on lights to their tractors. The Dang Gummitup decided that DST would give farmers more daylight to farm with. Well, By WW 2. That was the same, as still VERY few tractors made from 39 onward came out with lights. Also, 1/2 the nations farmers still used horses and mules, and they had no lights,
By Koria, 1/2 the tractors used by farmers now had headlights, and only around 1/4 of the nations farmers used horses and mules. By Nam, 95% of all farmers tractors had headlights, and maybe only 1% still used horses and mules.

SO, By the mid 60s, There was absolutly no reason agriculially to keep on DST for its origional purpose. Some states dont have it, meaning that others dont need to. Got to start a Wall Street Movement to get things changed. Wait a minute. That aint doing any good either.

That sounds good, however I highly doubt farmers didn't have enough good sense to adjust their day naturally with the sunlight, and had to have somebody tell them. I could imagine a farmer sitting in bed saying I would only get up if someone would change the time even though it's light outside.

[YuccaFlatsRanch]

One of the reasons (among many, like too many Liberals) I moved to Texas from the Seattle area was to get away from the very short, dark, cloudy, wet Winter days. Of course in the summer Seattle has LONG DAYS. Here in Texas our summer days are shorter, and our Winter days are longer than in Seattle. In the Hill country of Texas we have some of the longest days in the country. Only the southern third of Florida and the point of Texas is further south than the Texas Hill Country. Most people don't realize just how far south the Hill Country of Texas is. We are about 200 miles further south than San Diego. The closer you are to the Equator the more even your days are year round.

[HeelSpur]

Where's the savings, still gettin the same amount of daylight whether the clocks are set ahead or back.