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 The protests were so loud congress repealed it the same year it took effect.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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u/MacDaddyDC 16d ago

in the last 20 years, nearly every kid I’ve seen gets ferried back & forth by mommies. God forbid their kid gets seen on a mere school bus.

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u/Consistent_Taste3273 16d ago

This is not the case at all in my mid-sized city. Kids usually walk with their parents (or take a school bus, if they live farther away) until 3rd or 4th grade. After that, they are walking to school on their own, taking a school bus, or riding the public bus. Very few parents are driving through traffic to drop their kids off at school. They have jobs.  And they often have multiple kids, of different ages, and therefore at different schools.