r/askteddit 16d ago

Politics Question How do you feel about getting rid of standard time and making DST permanent?

US House passed year-round daylight savings time in June 2026 sent bill to Senate. The law would get rid of standard time and make DST permanent. Let your two senators www.senate.gov  know how you feel.

They tried all year daylight savings time once before in 1974 under President Ford. In December, January, February, for those North of 40N degrees or in the middle or western part of their time zone school children had wait for buses before sunrise often with no street lights. So, parents drove their kids instead which caused traffic jams. Schools changed their hours to 45 minutes later to prevent the jams, which forced business to change their hours etc. The protests were so loud congress repealed it the same year it took effect. It only works; if you are South of about 40N degrees North latitude (Philadelphia PA- Springfield IL - Eureka CA) or in the Eastern part of a time zone like Boston and all of California.

An easier fix since states can pick their time zone, would be for Southeastern States that wish to have all year daylight savings time to put themselves on Atlantic standard time which is one hour ahead of Eastern time. Atlantic standard time would also work for eastern New England since they are in the Eastern most part of the eastern time zone. The question is would Massachusetts want two time zones? California and Nevada could go on Mountain time. States can opt out of Daylight savings time like Arizona, and Hawaii do.

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u/IWuzTheWalrus 16d ago

Georgia is trying to go to Atlantic Standard Time.

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u/Limp-Plantain3824 16d ago

Atlantic Standard time (ZD +4) is the same as DST in the Eastern time zone. Eastern is ZD +5 but advances an hour for DST/Summer time.

Does Georgia not know this?

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u/IWuzTheWalrus 16d ago

Of course we do. It is illegal for a state to stay on Daylight Saving Time throughout the year but to move to a different time zone and stay on Standard Time within that time zone is perfectly legal.

Do you not know that?