This week’s poll question on VandaliaRadio.com is about Daylight Saving Time. Some probably want it to go away, but some choices probably wouldn’t be as good as you might first think.
This weekend will be the end of Daylight Saving Time for the season, meaning we will “fall back” one hour on Saturday night. This will lead to more daylight in the morning for the remainder of the fall and into the winter and lead to sundown being an hour earlier. Daylight Saving Time has been with us for a while, it became a policy across the country with the Uniform Time Act of 1966. At the time it was stated that if a state wanted to opt out, it had to be the entire state. Today, just two states–Hawaii and Arizona–do not participate in DST. And, back in 2005 as part of the Energy Policy Act we extended DST to its current length by adding more time–with DST currently running from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November.
Earlier this year, the U. S. Senate passed the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make DST permanent–but the measure was never taken up in the House. And, while many would seem to be in favor of year-round DST, that has already been tried and didn’t go so well. Back in the 1970s during the energy crisis, Congress enacted a trial period of year-round DST beginning in January of 1974 and running until late April in 1975. But, after traffic accidents involving school children in Florida, their Governor asked for it to be repealed and public support of the measure went down significantly. One factor with year round DST would be the fact that for a good amount of the winter months, sunrise would be after 8 am—meaning that schoolchildren would be getting on the bus in the dark.
So, the poll question this week asks which you prefer—keep changing time twice a year, permanent DST or permanent standard time. The poll question is on the right side of the webpage.
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