I remember during the first OPEC embargo, around 1974 or so that we had double daylight savings (looked it up, actually base time was advanced 1 hour, plus DST change when scheduled)--felt weird to be going to high school that early in the morning...
Now for the scientific reason to not have daylights savings time:
ABC News (Australia):
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Stanley Coren, from the University of British Columbia, decided to see whether the change-over, into, and out of, daylight saving, had any effect on traffic accidents. He and his team had access to the data on some 1.4 million accidents that were reported to the Canadian Ministry of Transport for the years 1991 and 1992. They looked at the accidents that happened on the Monday before the changeover, and the Monday immediately after.
They found that when Canada went into daylight saving in the springtime, there was an 8% increased risk of accidents on the Monday after the changeover.
But when people had one hour's extra sleep (when they shifted out of daylight saving back into normal time), there was an 8% fewer risk of traffic accidents.
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A Canadian Research Report:
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Coren (1996c) attempted to confirm this finding using accidents other than those associated with vehicle operation. He did this by looking at every accidental death in the US reported to the National Center for Health Statistics for the years 1986 through 1988. Since over 80% of accident induced mortality occurs within 4 days of the accident, data for analysis was restricted to the first 4 workdays in the weeks preceding, immediately following, and one week after, the DST change. While he found a significant increase in deaths following the spring shift (6.6%) he could not confirm the fall rebound, which only showed a nonsignificant (1.5%) decrease. Other studies that have used traffic accidents have found the increase following the spring shift to DST but have also failed to find any decrease following the fall time change (e.g. and Hicks, Lindseth & Hawkins, 1983; Monk, 1980).
...
U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Center for Statistics and Analysis. This data base maintains full records on all traffic accidents in the U.S. that result in fatalities in the participating states. Thirty-three states participate... The data set available to this researcher went from 1986 through August 1995. There were a total of 366,910 traffic deaths during that period. ...This 17 percent increase is larger than that observed in previous studies. The same analysis conducted for the fall DST shift, however, produces an insignificant reduction in traffic deaths...
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Or, maybe not...
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In 1995, Ferguson and several colleagues published a study in the American Journal of Public Health that showed fatal accidents decreasing in the weeks after the switch to daylight saving time in the spring, and increasing after the change back to standard time in the fall.
During daylight saving time, the study showed, the extra hour of sunlight typically occurred during peak traffic periods and cut the number of fatalities even further. The biggest reduction was in the number of pedestrian deaths, because drivers were better able to see people walking in the street.
Though daylight saving time does make it darker in the morning, fewer people tend to drive that early, so there was not a corresponding increase in fatalities before dawn, the study said.
Far from viewing daylight saving time as dangerous, the study's authors recommended switching to it year-round, a move they said would have saved more than 900 lives over the five-year period they studied.
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Quick US history of DST:
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History
1784: The idea is first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in an essay called 'An Economical Project.'
1918: Daylight time is formally adopted in the U.S. It has been used in many European countries since World War I.
1942: During World War II, President Roosevelt instituted year-round daylight time, called 'War Time.'
1966: By this time, most Americans are observing daylight time based on local laws and customs. To establish consistency, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act: daylight time would begin the last Sunday of April and end the last Sunday of October. Any state could exempt itself from daylight time by passing a state law.
1974: President Nixon signs the Emergency Daylight Saving Time Energy Conservation Act on Jan. 4, 1974. Clocks are set ahead one hour for a 15-month period ending April 27, 1975.
1986: Congress amends the law so that daylight time would begin earlier, on the first Sunday in April.
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I don't really like DST--it is probably a big conspiracy by the barbeque industry to sell more supplies. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
But, of course, none of the above has ever stopped congress from passing another law:
April 7th, 2005: Congress looks to tack on one month to DST at begining and end
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"The more daylight we have, the less electricity we use," said Markey, who cited Transportation Department estimates that showed the two-month extension would save the equivalent of 10,000 barrels of oil a day.
The country uses about 20 million barrels of oil a day.
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Well, this will save 0.008% of our oil use per year. Gads--get the government off of my back. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
Here is an article that says we will save
1% in electricity usage for a few weeks--before it is dwarfed by the summer use of airconditioners.
Just as an FYI... Here is an active look (from
www.caiso.com -- the folks that brought us the California rolling blackouts a few years ago) at how much electicity is using during the current 24 hour period. I still am trying to see how much power is wasted by street lights. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
Note: If I did this correctly, this is a live image that is updated with every reload.
-Bill