Republican senator renews push to make daylight savings permanent

www.theguardian.com Republican senator renews push to make daylight savings permanent

James Lankford cites a veteran as partial reason for recommitting to Sunshine Protection Act, which has already passed in Senate

Archived version: https://archive.ph/QhlaG

58 comments

I don't care whether they remove it or make it permanent so long as they just fucking pick one and stick to it.
- I want them to keep it alternating and nt stick to it.
  
  Daylight savings time saves 366 lives a year from traffic accidents alone Coate and Markowitz which while isn't that much is still worth the inconvenience.
  
  Also, 201 5 paper from the Brookings Institute claims a 7% drop in crime, when they extended by 4 weeks, we saved 60 million dollars. If we account for indirect costs like those of murder, rape, we get 246 million saved (Popular Mechanics)
  
  Basically more light is good
  
  "transition periods in daylight saving time regulations are linked to a rise in total mortality and should be avoided in the interest of general well-being."
  
  - National Library of Medicine
  
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7084938/
  
  "Spring DST transition acutely increases fatal traffic accident risk by 6% in the US"
  
  - A Chronobiological Evaluation of the Acute Effects of Daylight Saving Time on Traffic Accident Risk
  
  https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(19)31678-1?
  
  "sleep disruptions during the Spring transition cause suicide rates to rise by 6.25 percent and all DoD to increase by 6.59 percent."
  
  - Saving Light, Losing Lives: How Daylight Saving Time Impacts Deaths of Despair
  
  https://www.gc.cuny.edu/sites/default/files/2021-07/Saving-Light%2C-Losing-Lives-How-Daylight-Saving.pdf
  
  So, there's data supporting DST costing lives, saving lives, and not having any impact either way. I cherry-picked a few to illustrate the former, which paired with yours make for a more complete picture.
  
  Overall, estimates on the lives lost side appear to be numerically higher; so taking ALL of it at face value, getting rid of DST would save more lives.
  
  I'd vote to chop it if saving lives is your chief concern.
  
  Basically more light is good
  
  Cutting a foot of fabric off the top of a blanket and sewing it onto the bottom doesn't result in more blanket.
  
  Permanent standard time is better for health, and the switch also kills people every spring and fall
  
  It's not more light though.
Omg, please for the love of everything, get rid of the time change.

I don't care which way they pick, just get rid of it. It's absolutely useless.
Fucking do it already, damn!
Compromise and make DST permanent but 30 minutes ahead.
- Please not a .5 difference lol. Add the hour or take it away, but not the .5 please.
  
  Ok, let's compromise. Half the year we can add the half hour and half the year we take it away. For the farmers or something
  
  Even better, nobody likes getting an hour less sleep but everyone likes getting an extra hour. Just move the clocks back one hour each year!
  
  Be thankful you're not living in Nepal - they use UTC+5:45
- So we can be 8 hours difference from India instead of 8 and a half.
Jesus Christ a Republican I agree with, what year is it?!
- An election year.
California, Oregon and Washington has all passed laws to do it, like 5 years ago, but it keep getting stalled. Should happen in like 10 years.
- They keep getting stalled because they proposed bills to remain on DST instead of not participating. To remain on DST requires US Congressional approval and the bills were ignored and were never brought up to vote.
  
  Washington is looking at putting forth another bill to stop participating in DST altogether since that only needs to pass the state legislators and Governor sign-off.
  
  I'd prefer to stay on DST permanently, especially on the summer solstice where the sun sets super late and you can enjoy summer. In the end, I just want to stop dealing with the fuckery of DST.
- Probably because they tried it in the 70s and everyone hated it so much the switched back.
“As funny as this sounds, several years ago, I was walking in a Veterans Day parade, and a veteran … that was watching the parade, an older gentleman, gets up from his lawn chair – he actually walks into the parade route, shook my hand and said: ‘Before I die, would you end daylight savings time?’” Lankford recounted.
“He said: ‘I hate it. I’m in my 80s. I want you to get rid of daylight savings time before I die.’”

...

Lankford’s bill would eliminate the time change by making daylight savings time apply year-round in the US.

So basically Lankford is bragging that he wants to do exactly the opposite of this (probably fictional) constituent actually wants. They don't grow 'em too smart in Oklahoma.
- End or make permanent, the effect is basically the same in terms of convenience.
  
  Standard time is better for health (and makes more sense from a practical standpoint)
  
  Any arguments about sunlight, etc, are all nonsense because all you have to do is change your schedule if you insist on that
  
  I would loathe permanent DST.
  
  I work construction and for the past decade or so the General Contractors have only been paying the electricians to install "life safety" lighting. Basically, it's enough light to navigate the hallways and especially the stairways. We are on our own to light any other areas. This is why nearly all construction workers now wear headlamps, it's dark as shit in most of the site.
  
  So, we just had the DST change obviously and now I have to use my headlamp for about an hour every morning even if I'm next to a window. The latest sunrise in Denver would be something like 0815 if we were on permanent DST. That's two full hours every morning for at least a week stumbling around with a damn headlamp.
  
  Detroit's latest sunrise would be 0850, I think. That's insanity. I feel for the people that are stuck in the 8-5 office grind and want to walk their dog after work but damn it would be a huge PITA for anyone who works at 0600. I don't know if I could take it.
- Republicans LOVE to use vets as a prop when it's convenient.
  
  They'll also stab vets in the back if they're convinced doing so would own a lib or two - see: republicans block PACT act, denying healthcare to veterans in an effort to spite the blue team.
Doesn't seem to be a popular opinion but I like what we've got. Daylight savings is great in the summer when the days are long enough to keep it light the whole time I'm awake. But personally the idea of waking up for work in the winter and having it still be dark for 2 hours is terribly depressing. The sunset moving from 4:30 to 5:30 is not gonna make a huge difference in my ability to utilize sunlight in my day. Edit: Not a great look to downvote people for stating their opinion, people.
- The time changing twice a year causes enough stress that heart attacks spike 25% on the Mondays following the change.
  
  Even my dogs hate it.
  
  I know there's data about this but I still can't quite understand it. How is the time change any different from getting a little busier than usual one night and missing your bedtime by an hour? I can't see how a single hour could possibly cause such drastic health effects.
- I mean, you're wrong because you're treating the times that work etc start & stop as somehow written in stone. So that deserves a down vote. We could have our schedules flex with the Sun if we wanted. Instead of flexing our labels of Sun positions to match our desired work start time labels.
  
  So instead of shifting the clocks twice a year, shift our schedules by about 2 minutes every day to match the changing sunrise? Sure that sounds a lot easier.
- dont take the down votes personally, stating your opinion online risks people disagreeing. That's all the down votes mean is people saying they disagree. it's not a great look to add an edit complaining about downvotes. if they hurt too much maybe move to an instance that doesn't have down votes like blahaj.zone, i find it very peaceful to not be able to see downvotes and let's me worry less about stating my opinion on things.
  
  also yeah I disagree with your comment but I can't downvote from Blahaj ;)
  
  I have no idea if "feddiquette" is a thing but "downvote poor quality comments, not opinions that you disagree with" is pretty fundamental to how downvotes should be used. My feelings remain unhurt but I will call out shitty behavior.
These shitbags always do the opposite of what's right. Fuck daylight savings time.
I'd never vote for him, but damn I do respect Langford. The guy has zero fucks going against his own party.
Don't do it. Daylight savings time saves 366 lives a year from traffic accidents alone Coate and Markowitz which while isn't that much is still worth the inconvenience.

Also, 201 5 paper from the Brookings Institute claims a 7% drop in crime, when they extended by 4 weeks, we saved 60 million dollars. If we account for indirect costs like those of murder, rape, we get 246 million saved (Popular Mechanics)

Basically more light is good
- https://sleepeducation.org/resources/daylight-saving-time/
  
  As a non-scientist who didn't read the article you linked, I think it's less about the shift and more about the increased total hours of sunlight during the summer months that diminishes crashes and break-ins. Shifting the official time doesn't have any effect on total sunlight, that's caused by the Earth's tilt. I'm glad I had no reason to drive the last few days, because the shift messes with my tiny brain.
- If it was that awesome with a 4 week extension, just imagine the possibilities of extending it year round! Just like the article says.
- Why do you say "Don't do it." And then say a bunch of things that agree it would be good? This proposal is advocating for making daylight saving time permanent.
My body is already adapted to the seasonal change, don't fucking start changing shit around!

58 comments