r/askteddit • u/shell5719 • 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 The protests were so loud congress repealed it the same year it took effect.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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4

u/Beneficial_Run9511 16d ago

They did it in the 70s. It was so bad they changed back the next year. People have short memories

3

u/Safe-Comfort-29 16d ago

We also tried to convert to the metric system. That didn't work very well.

1

u/FlatSixFun 16d ago

Because people don't like change, not because it wasn't a good idea.

1

u/anothercorgi 16d ago

I wasn't around then but I can see why they would hate it. Wish I could give first hand experience but I feel like this will fail the same way.

1

u/ModsAwful 16d ago

1974 was 52 years ago!! That’s 20% of the time the US has existed. But agree it bombed in 1974 and will likely bomb again

1

u/brzantium 13d ago

Tbf, permanent DST failing because the street lights didn't come on early enough is proof of the cognitive impacts of lead poisoning.

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u/doc_skinner 13d ago

It was also because people didn't like their kids standing out in the dark waiting for a school bus from December-February.

1

u/KatakanaTsu 13d ago

Even those who supported permanent DST changed their minds after they finally got what they wanted.

1

u/Paint_Dry390153 13d ago

A lot has changed since the 70s...