Please, quit messing with time!
By far, the dumbest idea Ben Franklin ever had was daylight savings time. Those that know me well are probably expecting this rant. I do it every time we start “springing forward” or “falling back”. This silly tradition is pointless. Let’s think about it for a minute. What is the point of having a universal measurement of time, if you are going to mess with it twice a year? It’s not even like we have a set date to mess with time. Congress can arbitrarily change it based on whatever whim they have.
Most of the original reasons for daylight savings time are long gone. We don’t have kids working in fields anymore and we don’t have to worry about oil laps and candle sticks in the evening. Instead, most excuses for modern daylight savings time are rooted in the green movement. They claim that daylight savings time saves energy. But did you know that the root of this claim is based on an over 30 year-old 1975 Department of Transportation study? Wait a minute, what is the DOT doing studying energy savings? When you think “energy saving” is the DOT the first government agency that comes to mind? They have a hard enough time maintaining our road systems in working order. the next year, in 1976, the National Bureau of Standards disputed the DOT’s claims and said any energy savings was insignificant. Obviously, this report was swept under the rug. Again, let’s think about this. Sure, a few less lights are turned on in the evening, but doesn’t that mean a few more are turned on in the morning? In addition, anyone living in a southern state can tell you, more daylight in the summer evenings means more demand on running the A/C. You don’t tend to crank the A/C in the morning, but you do after the house has baked in the sun all day. This seems to support the “insignificant” energy savings claim and go further to possibly putting more demand on our energy grid. So do we continue to mess with time for “green” reasons, or could this be a money maker for power companies?
The real damage done during time change is to our internal clocks. This is manifested in things like traffic accidents. Many claim that time change allows more daylight in the winter mornings for kids to catch the school bus and more light in the summer evenings for kids out playing. Some studies back this up. However, current studies show a spike in pedestrian traffic fatalities in the weeks after the “fall back”. In addition, the New England Journal of Medicine has reported that traffic accidents spike after the “spring forward” as people adjust to the loss of sleep and their internal clock being knocked off their rocker.
So honestly, is all this really worth it? Why not just pick one and stick with it?
