IDEA OF THE DAY: THE DAYLIGHT-SAVINGS DEBATE
Early Sunday morning, clocks will fall back one hour when daylight saving time ends in most of the U.S. and Canada. But there is a movement to abolish the time changes in the future: More than 30 states considered legislation this year to make daylight saving time permanent, which would cause both sunrise and sunset to occur later in the colder months.
Advocates of making daylight saving permanent argue that the current arrangement pushes too much winter daylight to the early-morning when many people are asleep. They cite studies showing a rise in car crashes, medical errors and suicides related to the shifting time.
Supporters of the status quo respond: Winter mornings would become miserable. As two California state lawmakers wrote, “You’ll be getting your family ready for the day in the dark; your kids will be walking to school or waiting for the school bus before the sun rises.”
If you want to read more, we recommend this piece about New York City’s official clock master, who changes some of the city’s grandest clocks each year.
The New York Times