By CAROLYN MARSHALL
I’m inclined to the ignore daylight-saving time switch. 60 percent of people polled dislike the daylight-saving time switch and those that like the “extra” hour seems oblivious that the “bonus” hour is only for one day. After that, schedules run one hour later. The “11 O’clock News” now comes on at what was midnight. Circadian rhythms slowly changing by minutes over a month need more than one 60-minute block to adjust.
Toddler and pets, who can’t tell time, are thrown off schedule. Daylight-saving time was made obsolete by incandescent lighting. It flies in the face of everything now known about schedules, sleep, and psychological stability. It does nothing for the growing season and was designed to extend daylight for factory workers enduring 14-hour days. It is obsolete to the point of causing dysfunction. 4 p.m. daylight is now 5 p.m. rush hour sun glare. Early risers may have to wait past 5:30 a.m. for the sun to come up. Winter light past 5 p.m. would have a beneficial effect on moods and safer travel on roads that cool and refreeze.
There are no stories giving credence to a threat of children standing at dimly lit bus stops. There is one story of a near miss involving sun glare. Last year a sleepy driver veered off a road and plowed deep into our sales office. If the co-worker manning it hadn’t been outside with a cigarette he would have been killed sitting at the desk. It’s arguable, but I suspect whether the daylight-saving time switch the night before contributed to the event.
Lets nuke daylight-saving time once and for all and adopt a civil, stable schedule. Introducing daylight average time, the half hour setting between the hourly jerk of daylight-saving time. 30 minutes goes by so quickly, I don’t think the “loss” of that daylight or darkness will be disruptive. People need and deserve stability of schedule to function at an optimal level.
Send daylight-saving time the way of iceboxes and gas powered streetlights. It’s time to stop the obsolete, abusive jerking of clocks back and forth. Split the difference and let people benefit from the overdue infusion of some stability into hectic modern lives.
