# Semi Annual Daylight Savings Time Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 12, 2011, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405 "2011-03-12T13:27:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![DHMO](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecc23a/32.png) [@DHMO](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DHMO)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/41 "2011-03-13T08:30:00Z")
The whole premise of DST is shit. They sold it as a way to “conserve energy.” By having more daylight in the evenings, when everyone is up, there will be less energy wasted on room lights and such. _Bullshit!_ How about, instead of screwing with everyone’s clocks and messing up people’s sleep schedules for some pie-in-the-sky feel-good program, we actually implemented a program which would have a marked, positive effect, and would be opt-in to boot, no involuntarily forcing people to do something they hate. Flex-Time. Since we (the Government) can force businesses, individuals and everyone else to comply with a half-baked idea like DST, why not allow flex-time? If you want an extra hour of daylight in the evenings when you get home, get up an hour earlier, and leave the rest of us alone. If most (or at least many) people have this option, to come in to work or school earlier (or later), the goals of energy conservation will be attained at least as well as they are under DST. But as a side benefit, the traffic at rush hour will be spread over a much longer time, meaning your commute will be much shorter. This will save untold thousands of gallons of gasoline each day. This will ameliorate the pollution emitted, as well as the greenhouse gasses discharged into the atmosphere. And, since there will not be such a massive crush of traffic at two short times in the morning and evening rush hours, the pressure to widen existing roads or construct new ones will be abated. Because traffic will flow more smoothly, there will be fewer accidents, and less road rage. But the benefits don’t stop there. If you have a doctor’s appointment, or have to drop the kids off at school, or any of a thousand other tasks, you no longer need to take time off from work, or call in “sick,” just move your flexible schedule to accomodate the task. Productivity will improve, as well as worker morale. There will certainly be disruptions as flex time is implemented, but nobody seems to be very concerned about the massive disruptions DST causes, and will continue to cause, to no apparent purpose. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/42 "2011-03-13T08:39:14Z")
I hate the time change because it means I have to change my medicine schedule. Being an hour off really does have an effect. It’s similar to the farmer’s complaint. People laugh and say that the farmer is not really waking up earlier. But he is, relative to anything that does not have to do with farming. Farmers don’t live in isolation from the rest of the world. An obvious example: They used to wake up at, say, 6:00, two hours before their kids go to school. Now they wake up at 5:00, three hours earlier. Society tells us that it is the school that is remaining constant, so therefore the farmer is waking up earlier. When things scheduled by the natural clock and things scheduled by the legal clock diverge, it can mess up schedules. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/43 "2011-03-13T09:55:05Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > I voted “No, get rid of it” and commented “DST is the tool of the Devil” but I could have also voted “Yes, let’s have it all year round.” > > I couldn’t care less about extra sunlight. What I hate is having to change the damn clock (which changes my daily schedule). Pick one and stick with it, I don’t give a shit which. That’s my view. I wouldn’t care if sunrise ended up at 3pm by the clock, as long as the clock would stay still. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/44 "2011-03-13T10:10:13Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > The first day after we set the clocks forward is one of my favorite days of the year! I love that first late sunset. It is one of the sweetest days. The second being the summer solstice. > [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](#): > > I can’t get very worked up about it. Maybe that’s because I live in 2011 where all of my clocks except for one change themselves. This. I have a dozen clocks and a watch. I have to change the watch and the clocks on my bathroom vanity, microwave, on top of my piano and in my car by hand. All totalled this requires perhaps 75 seconds of my time. It takes far more time changing the batteries in my smoke detectors than it does to change the clocks. ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/45 "2011-03-13T11:51:23Z")
> [@kapri](#): > > You have DST in Norway, too? I didn’t realize that. Yes. Because the rest of Europe does, and we have to stay in the Central European time zone, apparently. Doesn’t mean I have to like it. Fella bilong missus flodnak says, “I love it when it stays light an hour later!” flodnak says, “But you have to put up with me getting up an hour earlier.” Fbmf says, “Okay, you’ve got a point, but I still think it’s worth it.” No respect. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/46 "2011-03-13T12:13:12Z")
Daylight saving time is as stupid as sewing a different label on your jeans to claim you’ve lost weight. Just because it says you’re a 38 doesn’t mean you’re not still a 40. Just because you say it’s now 8:10 AM doesn’t mean it’s not 7:10 AM. I’m particularly amused at people who say ‘I couldn’t get up early for the summer; I’m not a morning person’. Guess what? You just **did** get up early, and will for the next few months! ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/47 "2011-03-13T12:36:07Z")
Okay–and I’m serious now–now that we agree that DST is moronic, what can we do politically to see that it gets dropped? Is there an organization that has the abolishment of DST as its objective, or do we have to form one? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/48 "2011-03-13T14:35:17Z")
In case it wasn’t mentioned upthread, it’s Daylight **Saving** time. **Not** “Savings”. I find it silly. Last Friday it was finally light enough in the morning for me to leave for work without turning on any lights to find my way around the house. But now with the change, it’ll be dark again on Monday AM. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/49 "2011-03-13T15:11:08Z")
> [@\_mostly\_Harmless](#): > > I know I’m gonna sound a little radical here but I think we should not only get rid of the unnecessary and burdensome Daylight Savings debacle, but also throw out time zones along with it. And good riddance to both. > > Why is it so important for people to have the sun at its highest point at _exactly_ 12 PM? Who cares? > > Not me, that’s who. So you are also ready to have the date change in the middle of the day in most of the western hemisphere? Because that goes along with abolishing timezones. if everybody everywhere on Earth uses UTC then the date changes in the early afternoon on the US west coast and around dinner time on the US east coast. Most folks might find that kind of hard to adjust to. For exmple: When your haircut appointment is at 3pm on Tuesday, does that mean the day which was Tuesday when you woke up and is really Wednesday by 3pm, or the day which is Tuesday in the afternoon but was Monday when you woke up? And thinking in dates instead of days of the week doesn’t help. An appointment on the 15th could be either the 15th in the morning which is the 16th in the afternoon, or is the 15th in the afternoon which was the 14th in the morning. Anyone who deals with UTC time now is already used to this issue. But looking at Americans’ whole-hearted embrace of metrification after 40 years (i.e. NOT!), I doubt your \*no timezones \*idea is gonna get much traction. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/50 "2011-03-13T15:19:00Z")
What does that mean, move it back to 6 months? Isn’t it already at 6 months, since we spring forward in March and fall back in October? ---
**Author:** ![Nadir](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nadir/32/7302_2.png) [@Nadir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nadir)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/51 "2011-03-13T15:37:31Z")
Moving an arbitrarily-defined man-made contrivance called “time” back and forth does not save anything, much less daylight. Nobody has ever justified this asinine practice in any practical way whatsoever. For every person who prefers more light in the evening there’s another one who would rather have it in the morning. It is absolutely stupid. At least some people in the U.S. (Arizona and Hawaii, for example) have recognized this and declined to participate. It’s about time the rest of the world got around to it, as well. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/52 "2011-03-13T16:34:40Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > What does that mean, move it back to 6 months? Isn’t it already at 6 months, since we spring forward in March and fall back in October? That would be six months if you had standard time from October 1 to March 31. But it’s the second Sunday in March, and the first Sunday in _November_, at least here, so it’s closer to 8 months of daylight saving. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/53 "2011-03-13T16:35:52Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > What does that mean, move it back to 6 months? Isn’t it already at 6 months, since we spring forward in March and fall back in October? DST starts Sunday, March 13, 2011 It ends Sunday, November 6, 2011 It is 238 days long, or 7 months, 24 days excluding the end date. That’s a lot longer than 6 months, by my calculations. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/54 "2011-03-13T16:46:41Z")
> [@Uncle\_Jocko](#): > > Who are these people who want it all year round? Would you really enjoy not having sunrise until 9 am in the winter? That’s crazy talk! Yes, year round. I work 2-10 p.m. ;). ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/55 "2011-03-13T17:28:37Z")
I’m in one of those northern climes that it’s apparently ideal for (which is why Arizona, far to the south, doesn’t. Doesn’t explain those crazies in Saskatchewan though) and I don’t see the purpose in it. The rest of the world (ie the non-human part) do just fine on the same time all the time, why not us? Not as vehement as other Dopers that want to do away with it (no “depths of Hell” and all that 🙂 ) but it’s pointless nowadays imho. Maybe I’m a bit more anti this year because this year it means that my birthday is only 23 hours long. ☹ I never had that problem back when the clocks changed in April! ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/56 "2011-03-13T18:03:06Z")
> [@dhkendall](#): > > Doesn’t explain those crazies in Saskatchewan though There was yet another article in the Toronto Star the other day, and I have to say this is really starting to get on my nerves - every time someone mentions Saskatchewan and DST, it makes the prairie dogs sound like a bunch of hillbillies. Take a look at the map - the time zone goes right through the middle of the province because Saskatchewan didn’t exist when Stanford Fleming drew up the zones. So, given the choice between having Yorkton and North Battleford in two different zones, or picking one that really doesn’t work for the other half of the province, they stay with standard time year round. In a province where agriculture is such a central feature to the culture and the economy, it is the sensible solution. Nothing crazy about it. Hell, in my opinion, they’re the sensible ones; it’s the rest of the country that adopts delusional behaviour about time for 7 months of the year. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/57 "2011-03-13T19:15:17Z")
Tomorrow we get to go to work while our bodies still insist it’s an hour too early. I propose that the day after we’ve set our clocks forward be called “Stupor Monday”. ---
**Author:** ![Nadir](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nadir/32/7302_2.png) [@Nadir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nadir)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/58 "2011-03-13T19:36:16Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Tomorrow we get to go to work while our bodies still insist it’s an hour too early. Try doing it today in between 12hr shifts. That’s _really_ fun. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/59 "2011-03-13T20:56:27Z")
> [@dhkendall](#): > > Maybe I’m a bit more anti this year because this year it means that my birthday is only 23 hours long. ☹ I never had that problem back when the clocks changed in April! But you’ll get it back in the Fall! Oh wait, you won’t. Maybe you can celebrate your missing hour in the second 2:00 am to 3:00 am period this November. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2011, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405/60 "2011-03-13T21:21:43Z")
I hate it for all the other reasons above, and because of the _constant bitching_ every six months about it. I’m on the 45º here, and we get 8 hours of daylight in the winter and 16 in the summer, so it’s immaterial what time the sun comes up. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/semi-annual-daylight-savings-time-thread/574405.md?page=4)