The Humour Club discussion

Yes or no?

It's 'saving,' not 'savings' actually.

PRO: It was approved and signed into law by Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

CON: It was modified by George W. Bush. It was never adopted by Arizona, probably because it wasn't carrying proof of citizenship.

Historically, 3 largely respected presidents to 1 fool and a state of paranoia --- the PROs have it.

It's fiddly to remember, but apparently it saves lives. The different versions of daylight and double daylight savings mean that fewer pedestrians and cyclists are killed or injured.

With daylight saving we do more of our travelling in the natural light which means fewer accidents where darkness is a contributory factor.

The science is not entirely clear-cut. There is some evidence that accidents go up in the Spring but reduce in the Autumn/ Fall. And there are different effects depending on how far north/south you are of the equator. For example, in the UK when this is discussed there is nearly always an argument that the North of Scotland has very different needs from London and the South of England.

But on the whole, the consensus is that daylight saving has a net beneficial effect on road safety. There are calls in the UK for double daylight saving, where we turn the clock forward one hour and then two. This would almost certainly save more lives (ROSPA estimates more than 80 lives and 220 serious casualties), but it might be too complicated for the public to accept.

Will wrote: "It's fiddly to remember, but apparently it saves lives. The different versions of daylight and double daylight savings mean that fewer pedestrians and cyclists are killed or injured.

With dayligh..."

I must grant, Will, that your argument does have some validity, but it's location specific and not universal.

For example, on average New York City traffic kills two pedestrians a day. DST has had no impact on this figure any more than that ridiculous law about not driving on the sidewalk.

Well, that's the funny thing about time. We tend to get the same time in the city as we do in the burbs and the countryside. So while daylight saving might not do much for New York city, it is almost certainly saving lives elsewhere in the same time zone.

That's why policy makers have to look at total net beneficial effects and not simply the effect on a single place or person.

In a nutshell, that's why government is so damned difficult. An individual can look at a law and say "Pah! That sucks! It doesn't do anything for me." Meanwhile a Government (of any political persuasion, in any country) has to make laws which benefit the greater good.

We don't have it in Arizona. When it's 85F before the sun even comes up, DST doesn't really help much!

Jay wrote: "It's 'saving,' not 'savings' actually."

Fixed - thank you!

I love it! It's light at 5:30 in the morning (though the chirping early birds are hell if you're trying to sleep late), and stays light until nine at night. If one of your hobbies is sitting outdoors with a book, you can't beat this time of year.

If you want me to come into work an hour early, I'm fine with that. Just leave the !@#$% clock alone. I miss Hawaii, the other state besides AZ that doesn't do that crazy "stuff".

I'm Canadian, so I'm in the "grumble and do it anyway" crowd on this one. I have to say, though, I get a bit tired of my kids' mounting frenzy as the time change nears ("Will I be tired?" "Will I miss the bus?" "Will I get a zit?" "Will I survive this apocolypse?"). It's way more drama than I can handle when I'm trying to remember how to change the time on the microwave.

Brenda wrote: "I'm Canadian, so I'm in the "grumble and do it anyway" crowd on this one. I have to say, though, I get a bit tired of my kids' mounting frenzy as the time change nears ("Will I be tired?" "Will I m..."

So much for the adaptability of youth.

My dog has some trouble in the fall when we switch back again as his "stomach clock" tells him it's time to eat, but the kitchen clock disagrees.

Yeah, kids are weird that way. Mine lived in 1/2 a house with no kitchen and two barely functioning bathrooms for months while we were renovating. No Problem. But move the clocks ahead? Wow. The world is ending...

Hawaii, and to large degree AZ, don't need it. Hawaii is close enough to the equator that their days are pretty much the same length year around, so what would be the point? DST definitely has an impact in the northern states, but for better or worse I'm never quite sure. Though at this time of year, when even on DST the sun is blazing in before 6, while I'm trying to be asleep, I am just as glad it's not 5 a.m. And long evenings are nice.

What's really nice, of course, is just being at the summer solstice :)

Like Melki, I love having more time to be outside -- but, alas, these days for me that's only in theory. I do find it odd that Daylight Saving time lasts 8 months while Standard Time lasts only 4.

But, if you want to read a funny, but true, book on the subject, check out Spring Forward: The Annual Madness Around Daylight Saving Time by Michael Downing. I bought it after a lively discussion in the post office with a gentleman who insisted the bar-be-cue makers had large numbers of lobbyists pushing congress to extend DST. (Turns out they do!) It's a much more controversial subject than many might think.