LQCs: More about DST and the effects on US states

Maps of how DST would affect US states, and commentaries.

Washington Post, 17 March 2022: How permanent daylight saving time would change sunrise and sunset times, subtitled, “Brighter winter evenings would come at the expense of darker mornings”

This has a cool map showing how late sunrises would be in areas of the US should DST become permanent. It would affect those in the north the most, I suggested in earlier post, as late as 10am in parts of North Dakota and Montana, and in all of Alaska. Of course, they’re *used* less daylight in the winter.

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Ars Technica: Permanent daylight saving time plan nets rare unanimous US Senate vote, subtitled, “Follows decades of studies, complaints, along with EU’s failure to finish similar plan.”

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One of my Facebook friends linked this:

Observable, 2 Nov 2019: Daylight Saving Time Gripe Assistant Tool

This is an interactive page in which you can set your “latest reasonable sunrise time” and your “earliest reasonable sunset time” and which, sunrise or sunset, is most important. And then it shows you a map of which areas in US should abolish DST, make it permanent, or make no change. With the default settings — 7am, 6pm, and equally — the map shows most areas should abolish DST. (Hmm, could the areas that indicate “always use DST” just shift their time zones…?)

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From 2017: The New Yorker: Can We Fix Daylight-Saving Time for Good?

And Vox, Brian Resnick, 15 March 2022: The Senate just voted to make daylight saving time permanent. Good., subtitled, “The case against changing clocks is less about later sunsets year-round and more about consistency.”

This piece also has maps showing sunrise and sunset times across the US, should DST be installed or not. The writer, Resnick, is advocating for consistency more than one way or another. In his final para, he echoes my comment from previous post:

But for those thinking “I don’t want later sunset times all year long!” or “I don’t want to start my day in the winter amid darkness!” know that it’s always been possible for our society to just … gradually change school or work start times depending on the season.

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One more. The Atlantic, Olga Khazan, 15 March 2021 [a year ago]: The Family That Always Lives on Daylight Saving Time, subtitled “A new bill proposes making daylight saving time permanent. But for one family, it already is.”

This was promoted by The Atlantic on Fb yesterday, with this text:

Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill to make daylight saving time permanent, though it has not yet become a law.

Last year, Olga Khazan wrote about the Richards family, who chose to remain on daylight saving time year-round. Most health experts, however, support ending daylight saving time, not making it permanent. Studies show that people get better sleep during standard time, because the bright morning light and the reduced evening light make falling asleep easier. In the winter, a shift to daylight saving time would mean the sun wouldn’t rise until after 8 a.m. in many places, which could make it difficult for people who need to get to early-morning jobs and classes, Khazan wrote.

Experts say the bigger problem for health is the changing of the clock, not the precise hour America ends up on. With the biannual time changes, said Scott Yates, an entrepreneur and advocate for “locking the clock,” “I always felt like I was getting this jetlag, without even having the benefits of traveling.”

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