Why do we still have Daylight Savings Time?

[Brian Fein]

These morons need to quit screwing around with the clocks and just have Daylight savings time be "the time."

What's the reason we need the sun to go down at 5 PM in the winter time?  Just to make everyone more depressed?  Its ridiculous that its not even 6:00 right now and its pitch dark outside.  Way to ruin perfectly usable hours.

I don't get the need to keep swapping around.  Like anyone likes "standard time" - just leave it in daylight time all year and quit screwing with it.

[Landshark]

These morons need to quit screwing around with the clocks and just have Daylight savings time be "the time."

What's the reason we need the sun to go down at 5 PM in the winter time?  Just to make everyone more depressed?  Its ridiculous that its not even 6:00 right now and its pitch dark outside.  Way to ruin perfectly usable hours.

I don't get the need to keep swapping around.  Like anyone likes "standard time" - just leave it in daylight time all year and quit screwing with it.

I totally disagree here.  I say let Standard time be "the time".  I absolutely love this time of the year!!  It's dark by 6:15, which means on weekends and school breaks, I can go shrimping or shark fishing earlier (nighttime boating activities).  Additionally, I saw the switch to Daylight Savings time as nothing but a major inconvenience.  We would lose an hour of sleep for a day in the spring.  Then my kids would have to walk to school in the dark for a while.  Also when they were little, putting them to bed was a challenge as the sun was still out at 8 pm, just like putting my grandkids to bed in the summer is a challenge now.

[Spider-Dan]

The reason why we go back to standard time is because the population doesn't have much of a stomach for having children walk to school before the sun comes up.  In Cleveland today, dawn was at 6:35 (EST) and sunrise was at 7:04.  In January, dawn isn't until ~7:20 and sunrise isn't until ~7:50.  On fulltime DST, you'd have kids walking to school in the dead of night.

Think Of The Children™

[Buddhagirl]

These morons need to quit screwing around with the clocks and just have Daylight savings time be "the time."

What's the reason we need the sun to go down at 5 PM in the winter time?  Just to make everyone more depressed?  Its ridiculous that its not even 6:00 right now and its pitch dark outside.  Way to ruin perfectly usable hours.

I don't get the need to keep swapping around.  Like anyone likes "standard time" - just leave it in daylight time all year and quit screwing with it.

I've been running in the evenings after work. Walked out of the office today and it was dark. No desire to head out for my run. It's depressing.

[Brian Fein]

Get the kids some flashlights.  Everyone wants longer daylight at night. 

[Spider-Dan]

Sorry, if the safety of The Children is at stake, it's basically a dead issue.  People in this country will agree to all sorts of crazy laws if they are told that The Children are at risk.  (This is why most new anti-piracy laws are being wrapped in the flag of "stopping child pornography.")

[SportsChick]

Not all parts of the county follow daylight savings and those areas are a-ok

[dolphins4life]

I welcome it because my skin is taking a beating from the sun

[mecadonzilla]

Anyone ever ask folks in Arizona or parts of Indiana what they think of a lack of Daylight Savings Time?

Just curious.  Never heard it from the horse's mouth, so to speak.

[Spider-Dan]

Not all parts of the county follow daylight savings and those areas are a-ok

Right, but that's not what Brian is talking about.

He's talking about Daylight Savings all the time.  And while full-time Standard results in some earlier nights (and ridiculously early dawns) during the summer, full-time Daylight results in pitch-black mornings during the winter.  One of those is a bigger deal (for parents, anyway) than the other.

[Brian Fein]

Simple answer: start school an hour later. Why does it need to end at 3pm? If its such a concern, run school from 9 to 4 (or whatever) and save the parents some after-school care money.

[Landshark]

Simple answer: start school an hour later. Why does it need to end at 3pm? If its such a concern, run school from 9 to 4 (or whatever) and save the parents some after-school care money.

Because typical high school athletic practices last for a minimum of two hours.  If school ended at 4 pm, the kids would be getting out of practice at 6 pm, which is dinnertime for most families.  Also, a lot of kids have after school jobs and they typically start at 4 or 5 pm.

Additionally, high school usually starts first and ends first, so the parents are counting on it staying that way so the older sibling can look after the younger one when they get home.

All that being said, your point is a good counter measure to the time change in terms of kids walking to school in the dark.  It doesn't, however, address the issue of putting the little ones to bed in the summer and the sun still being up.  That is a major pain in the rear for a lot of people.

[Brian Fein]

Oh, I only hear a lot of boo-hoo complaining.  Dinner after 6:00?  Going to bed when its light out?  WAA!

Suck it up!

[Spider-Dan]

What's the reason we need the sun to go down at 5 PM in the winter time?  Just to make everyone more depressed?  Its ridiculous that its not even 6:00 right now and its pitch dark outside.  Way to ruin perfectly usable hours.

Oh, I only hear a lot of boo-hoo complaining.  Suck it up!

I agree.

[Brian Fein]

For the record, most of this post is tongue-in-cheek.

I do think that the constant time-switching is annoying and I personally hate standard time.  I don't know if kids walking to school in the dark is an unavoidable problem.  Maybe parents might have to take responsibility and drive their kids to school.