Daylight Savings Time arrives: Time for the annual debate
It's that time of year again: time to debate whether Daylight Savings Time is good or bad.
Debate away. Just make sure to set your clocks ahead one hour tonight — and consider a cup of coffee in the morning to compensate for the lost sleep.
Michigan, like most of the nation, observes Daylight Savings Time, which extends daylight later into the evening.
Here's more information on the history of DST, courtesy of the U.S. Naval Observatory:
Starting in 2007, daylight time begins in the United States on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November. On the second Sunday in March, clocks are set ahead one hour at 2:00 a.m. local standard time, which becomes 3:00 a.m. local daylight time. On the first Sunday in November, clocks are set back one hour at 2:00 a.m. local daylight time, which becomes 1:00 a.m. local standard time. These dates were established by Congress in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, Pub. L. no. 109-58, 119 Stat 594 (2005).
Comments
Cory
Mon, Mar 12, 2012 : 1:39 p.m.
c'mon now, the Department of energy says that we're saving billions of dollars a year by turning the lights on an hour later at night. All the Prius-driving eco-nazis in A2 and yet no one has said "Yes! This is a good idea! I don't even have lights in my treehouse, and nobody else should have them either!" Ok, I'm joking about the treehouse, but frankly in this day and age we're not seeing a whole lot of gain from DST, but we're seeing a lot of accidents and deaths from heart attack and whatnot. Plus we've got to have additional complications with all of our new clocks (which means they're more expensive). I know my pre-congressional-change alarm clock is now wrong 4 times a year when it tries to automatically update to the old system. And frankly, instead of turning my lights on an hour more at night, now I turn more on in the morning because it's still dark out. So it's a failed experiment. Thank you very much Ben Franklin, but it's time to pass this 19th-century technology by.
Hmm
Mon, Mar 12, 2012 : 1:22 p.m.
I wish it stayed DST all year long. So what if you miss an hour of sleep do your really care when you have all that extra daylight in the evening? In June, July, August no one complains, but in March it's like you're taking their first born or something. Give me longer daylight hours in the spring and summer any day of the week
Tru2Blu76
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 7:23 p.m.
56% of respondents in this poll do not like daylight saving time. Majority rules: lets tell Congress to fix this ONE SCREWUP they got us into. Perfect timing (pun intended): this is an election year - make revocation of daylight saving time an election issue. But beware: there are certain businesses which will lobby to keep it. And we all know that companies "out vote" us just about every week of the year.
DBH
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 8:55 p.m.
Yes, let us be certain Congress hears from these United States of America that they need to revoke DST based on the opinions of less than 400 voters on AnnArbor.com. Truly, a representative and statistically valid sampling.
Ron Oblander
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 5:33 p.m.
Someone needs an editor, it is DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME not savings
mw
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 1:29 p.m.
Daylight savings time better matches daylight hours to people's schedules (aren't you awake a lot more hours after noon than before?). Daylight before 7:00 AM is pretty useless to most people, but daylight after work and school is precious -- it allows us to get outside (and stop staring at a screen).
Bornhere
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 12:49 p.m.
Come on Annarbornews.com it's Daylight saving time not savings
slug
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 10:41 a.m.
On a side note..... isn't interesting how the number of clocks needing to be changed in the house has decreased over the years? It used to be a ritual going around changing all of them and it would take forever. Now, I think I had two, and all of the rest changed themselves! Progress?
Harley B. Rider
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 2:44 p.m.
My $20 desk clock gets its time info over the air (Atomic Clock?), yet one still has to manually change the time in a car - even the "luxury" brands. I am still manually changing 17 time pieces (watches, cars, oven, coffee maker, etc). What a pain twice a year. PICK ONE OR THE OTHER AND LEAVE IT FOREVER!
slug
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 10:38 a.m.
Since there are so many people voting 'Yes' above I'd be curious to hear why anyone likes going through this twice a year. It serves no practical purpose anymore - get rid of the hassle. There are plenty of people who are affected by this who get up on Sunday mornings. ugh.
Ignatz
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 10:04 a.m.
I don't really care if it's DST or not. Let's just keep it the same all year long. There are increased dangers of heart attacks and automobile accidents in the days following the "spring forward" and for what? There's no real gain in our increasingly complicated lives.
David
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 12:47 p.m.
We can't "keep it the same"...the merchants want that extra hour of primetime in the evening to sell their wares...the real reason we have Daylight Saving time. An hour in the morning means nothing to them.
Nacho
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 7:21 a.m.
That's what you call more info on the "history" of DST? Totally wasted someones five minutes writing this article. Debate what? Whether it's "good" or "bad"? Come on.
arbormike
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 1:26 p.m.
Totally agree. I laughed out loud when I read the 4 year "history" of DST. Isn't it several hundred years old? Come on!
ribs1
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 3:43 a.m.
Only the government would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket, sew it to the bottom, and have a longer blanket
jcj
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 3:33 a.m.
The time change has not saved 1 minute of daylight! There always has been and always will be x number of minutes of daylight each day depending ONLY on what time of the tear it is!
jcj
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 8:37 p.m.
johnnya2 I never said I was against it. Quite the contrary. I am for it. I do wish they would not have changed the date. Too many kids now have to wait for the bus in the dark again. "more hours to do things like gardening, mowing their lawn, golfing, taking their children on bike rides, walking with their significant other, going to the pool and all the other activities" Not many will take advantage of these opportunities for another month at least!
johnnya2
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 3:14 p.m.
It has made the daylight at times that people USE them. During the spring/summer a person who works a 9-5 type job has more hours to do things like gardening, mowing their lawn, golfing, taking their children on bike rides, walking with their significant other, going to the pool and all the other activities a vast majority of the world enjoys doing. If you give me daylight at 3 am, it does me no good since I would be sleeping. I think this is just another issue for people to find a reason to complain when there really isnt one.
jcj
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 3:33 a.m.
time of year
chucklk
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 2:47 a.m.
I'd like to save daylight all year long. Let's not bother going back to EST this fall.
Hmm
Mon, Mar 12, 2012 : 1:24 p.m.
Me too!
ribs1
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 12:51 a.m.
You don't have to lose an hour of sleep. All you have to do is reset your clocks tomorrow after you get up. Then you only lose an hour of lunch.
Dog Guy
Sat, Mar 10, 2012 : 11:51 p.m.
"On the day the LORD gave the Amorites over to Israel, Joshua said to the LORD in the presence of Israel: 'O sun, stand still over Gibeon, O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon.'" (Joshua 10:12 NIV) With DST, politicians once again have eliminated that middleman, the Lord, and directly commanded the cosmos to stand still.
jayroo
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 1:32 p.m.
Nice story bro
lefty48197
Sat, Mar 10, 2012 : 11:45 p.m.
In Arizona, they don't use daylight savings time. At 5:30 AM, the sun is high in the sky and blazing hot during the summer. What a waste. Workers should be on the job working as soon as there's enough daylight. If they start at 7 or 8, it's already starting to get hot.
Tru2Blu76
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 7:16 p.m.
The decision tree begins when you decide where you're going to live. Living in a hot (water short) region when the climate is getting hotter should be adequate motivation to leave. NOT suggest that there be a regional mishmash of time zones based on climate.
jns131
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 4:51 p.m.
They compensate the Amish in Indiana by not having DST. Go figure why we have to suffer as well.
ribs1
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 3:38 a.m.
You could just start work earlier and pretend it's 6:30, or an hour earlier than what everyone else thinks it is.
David
Sat, Mar 10, 2012 : 11:25 p.m.
Hello? By now your copy editor should have discoverrred that it's "daylight saving time" (not "savings"). Please consult the New York times for tips on better grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
tdw
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 11:53 a.m.
Is it safe to assume " discoverrred " was intentional ?
DBH
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 2:40 a.m.
See <a href="http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/daylight-savings-time.html" rel='nofollow'>http://www.timeanddate.com/time/dst/daylight-savings-time.html</a> for a brief discussion of the two options.
Davidian
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 2:04 a.m.
Let me guess....you're a professional writer and you have never made a mistake in your life, and people are beating down the doors to pay money to read your articles.
actionjackson
Sat, Mar 10, 2012 : 11:34 p.m.
Most publications, including New York use "daylight savings time"
gallery69
Sat, Mar 10, 2012 : 10:44 p.m.
I'm tired.
Jeff Gaynor
Sat, Mar 10, 2012 : 10:13 p.m.
For me the question is, "Was it wise to extend the period of DST, earlier in the Spring, and later in the Fall?"
jns131
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 4:50 p.m.
If Arizona and Indiana can get away with this, why can't we?
jcj
Sun, Mar 11, 2012 : 12:27 a.m.
Agreed Jeff. The question should have been... Should DST Never be Be the way it was Be the way it i Never much thought put into the poll questions! I wish they would ask us what we think of their poll questions!