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California State Legislator Proposes Ending Daylight Saving Time (cbs8.com) 186

Legislation proposed in California "aims to repeal Daylight saving time and put California permanently on Standard time," reports a San Diego news station:

In November 2018, California voters passed Prop 7, a measure that would allow the state legislature to change Daylight saving time by either keeping it year-round or getting rid of it altogether. However, this measure also requires approval by the U.S. Congress if California were to opt for year-round Daylight Saving Time. So far, nothing has materialized.

"I am really, really passionate about this bill," said State Assembly Member Tri Ta, who added it is finally time to listen to the will of the voters. He has drafted new legislation that to do away with twice-yearly time changes. However, his bill would put the Golden State onto year-round Standard time: a move that would not require federal action. Oregon and Washington state are also considering similar moves [though Oregon's bill appears stalled]. "If my bill is passed, we do not need congressional approval," Ta told CBS 8, "so that's a win-win for everyone...."

Ta said that his bill has the support of the California Medical Association, as well as sleep experts who say Standard time syncs better with our natural clocks. "So why don't we go along with science?" Ta added. "That's what I believe." One things most people seem to agree on: it's time to stop changing our clocks, which research has shown leads to higher rates of accidents as well as increased health risks.

"While this new bill continues to work its way through Sacramento, Daylight saving time is still a go here in California," the article points out, "starting 2 a.m. Sunday, when we set our clocks forward one hour."

But USA Today adds that across the rest of the country, "Most Americans — 62% — are in favor of ending the time change, according to an Economist/YouGov poll from last year."
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California State Legislator Proposes Ending Daylight Saving Time

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  • Because like clockwork, whenever we participate in the ridiculous adjusting of clocks for no particular reason, someone comes along and gets our hopes up that the whole crap may finally end.

    It won't.

    Nobody really wants to end it. They just want to keep us from finally snapping and doing what I did ages ago: Refuse to participate and just come to and go home from work an hour later during Summer.

    • The problem is that a lot of systems need to also be adjusted. But I do hope they get rid of daylightsaving and go back to standard time only.
      • Like what? Pretty much all systems that auto-adjust get their information from some time server now. Everything else needs manual adjustments which is moot without the DST song-and-dance.

        You may want to check your watches every now and then without DST to see whether they diverge too much from the actual time since you don't get to do the time adjustment dance twice a year anymore.

        • Some systems use offline timezone database to change to DST based on what date it is.

          Linux has tzdata, Windows has something. If a system is EOL and there are no new packages and the repo is gone, some systems will use the old dates.

          Not to mention systems that aren't beeing updated automatically.

          I have some clocks that change based on date. No way to update them. Would have to adjust the clock 4 times per year to keep up with the old dst and new dst.

          Sure, might not be THAT many, but there are some.

          • by EvilSS ( 557649 )
            Don't forget Java, which ignores the system's timezone/DST tables and has its own. Found that out the hard way when Bush and congress fucked with DST start/stop dates.
    • I think I'll compromise. I'll stay on same schedule year round, but use a blend of the two.

      I'll go into work on winter time and leave work on summer time each day

    • It's supposed to like clockwork, but my cell phone did not get the message last night. It's still on standard time.

      The internet-set clocks are correct. Consumer Cellular dropped the ball. Or whoever they piggyback on did.

    • by Sique ( 173459 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @10:40AM (#64304155) Homepage
      You know what is really funny? As soon as you get rid of Daylight saving time one way or another, over the course of a year, you will get a popular movement to reinstate it again.

      Deal with it. Our sense of time is different in the summer compared to the winter, and the effect is more pronounced, if you go further north. You can ignore it. Then people complain about long dark hours in the morning during winter, especially if you opt for year round daylight saving time. Or people complain in the Summer, that they wake up too early because the Sun shines in their windows, while they waste the long bright hours in the evening for being too tired.

      Daylight saving time is a compromise. As such, it has disadvantages. But apparently, it is better than the alternatives, because every time it was abolished, it was reinstated again very soon. Let 1973 be a lesson to you.

      • The solution is obviously to get better ways to keep out the sun from your apartment. It worked great for me.

        • by Sique ( 173459 )
          If you want to live in something that is completely sealed off from the environment, you don't need Daylight saving time. So far, you are right.
      • by caseih ( 160668 )

        Not quite. 1973 saw permanent DST instituted. And it was universally hated and repealed the following year. Had Nixon got congress to abolish DST, there would have been widespread support and it would never have been repealed. That much is pretty clear. Keeping your time zone as close to solar time as possible, within reason, is fairly well-supported.

        Alberta had a referendum on permanent DST, and it failed in a landslide. Had the referendum been about abolishing DST the result would have been quite di

      • Daylight saving time is a compromise. As such, it has disadvantages. But apparently, it is better than the alternatives, because every time it was abolished, it was reinstated again very soon. Let 1973 be a lesson to you.

        Since its introduction, there has never been an instance in which daylight saving time (DST) was "abolished"—especially 1973. In 1973, DST was made permanent and semiannual changes back to standard time were abolished. Yes, 1973 was a lesson, but not the one you are claiming.

        Humanity

      • by mjwx ( 966435 )

        You know what is really funny? As soon as you get rid of Daylight saving time one way or another, over the course of a year, you will get a popular movement to reinstate it again.

        Deal with it. Our sense of time is different in the summer compared to the winter, and the effect is more pronounced, if you go further north. You can ignore it. Then people complain about long dark hours in the morning during winter, especially if you opt for year round daylight saving time. Or people complain in the Summer, that they wake up too early because the Sun shines in their windows, while they waste the long bright hours in the evening for being too tired.

        Daylight saving time is a compromise. As such, it has disadvantages. But apparently, it is better than the alternatives, because every time it was abolished, it was reinstated again very soon. Let 1973 be a lesson to you.

        This, here in the UK the amount of sunlight we get during mid winter is half that we get during mid summer. January has 8 hours whilst July has 16.5 hours.

        Daylight saving is designed to maximise how best to use that daylight. If we kept to BST (+1 GMT) all year long the sun won't be up until 9 AM, 8 AM would still be nearly pitch black, OTOH if we kept GMT year round the in June the sun would be up at 4 AM... not just creeping over the horizon, but pretty much broad daylight, it'll actually start getting

    • Nobody really wants to end it. They just want to keep us from finally snapping and doing what I did ages ago: Refuse to participate and just come to and go home from work an hour later during Summer.

      And the way they keep the masses from snapping, is by sustaining the tradition of mind-fucking us every 6 months about it, rambling on and on about how THIS year just might be The Year?

      Are we SURE Baron Munchausen didn’t invent Daylight Savings Time? Because I swear..

  • Woo hoo! (Score:5, Informative)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @04:50AM (#64303787)

    Ah, the Slashdot tradition continues. Twice a year, we all just post the same things we've posted on these stories here before. I especially enjoy the posts from people who think we should just move to UTC.

    Come on guys, don't disappoint me!

    • Let the whining begin! Oh the humanity! My life is ruined for the next six months. I'll never recover from this. This is too difficult. My life is flashing before my eyes.

      Here's the solution: get your ass out of bed and go outside. Any sunlight you receive will start resetting your internal clock. Follow your normal schedule based on the time of the clock, not what you feel.

      This is the same thing people who fly long distances are told to do when they arrive. Go outside and get in the sun (assuming y

      • Yeah we should all do some e tra bullshit twice a year to gain the benefits of clock changing, which were totally worth it.

        The ones such as... uhm... and.. uh... errr.. and that other one, too!

  • If this actually happens, it will be less than 5 years before we start wishing we could have it back.
    • by Targon ( 17348 )
      No, but some things may need their schedules adjusted based on when the sun comes up. Many jobs can't be done in the dark, so they already have their schedules based on when it gets light and when it gets dark every day. Schools might have their school days shift based on, "is it dark when the kids have to go get on a school bus?" for example.
      • Why change bus schedules? We went in heavy rain, snow, fog, smog, and everything else but dark is unbearable?

        My kid can damned well get her ass up when it's dark to go to school if that's how it goes. It's not like kids today know what the sun even looks like, anyway.

        For years I got up in the dark to go to work along with millions of others. Boo hoo.

        • Why change bus schedules? We went in heavy rain, snow, fog, smog, and everything else but dark is unbearable?

          My kid can damned well get her ass up when it's dark to go to school if that's how it goes. It's not like kids today know what the sun even looks like, anyway.

          For years I got up in the dark to go to work along with millions of others. Boo hoo.

          Well, while people use the "think of the children" meme, there are more reasons than having the little larvae standing in the dark.

          One of the strangest things (I'm not saying you said this) is that there is a sizable number of people who think tht DST was just an invention that serves no purpose - you can see it in so many of the comments here.

          I gots to - I simply gots to dish out a little truth here. Pls forgive the pedantry, I think a lot of the naysayers need it

          Daylight savings time was invented

        • Winter will be unchanged. There will be no going to school in the dark any more than there is now. Winter is the normal time. Summer is daylight savings time. If we don't switch to daylight savings time in the summer, there will be many hours of sunlight before most people wake up. Wasted sunlight, so to speak. The purpose of daylight savings time is to get us all up a bit earlier (zulu time) in the summer so we can enjoy more of the daylight.
  • by timelorde ( 7880 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @07:29AM (#64303907)

    Don't the best compromises make everyone unhappy?

    Just move the clocks half an hour, once, and stop there.

    Solved it!

    • Re:Let's compromise (Score:5, Interesting)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @08:44AM (#64303971)

      There's nothing more retarded than 30min timezones. Here's looking at you Central Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran, and OMG I just realised the desert sand and dehydration makes people do stupid things.

      Quick, go get a glass of water!

      • There is a desert in Newfoundland, Canada?

        What is your theory for them? Proximity to Francophones?
        I'm looking at you Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon.

      • There's nothing more retarded than 30min timezones. Here's looking at you Central Australia, India, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iran, and OMG I just realised the desert sand and dehydration makes people do stupid things.

        Quick, go get a glass of water!

        DST was born of the same idea that led us to those 24 hour time zones.

        Just an attempt to adapt the time on the clock to local conditions.

        A lot of us - myself included - use UTC time at times, when we're dealing with people and actions on a global scale. 1200Z is 1200Z across the globe. But that day/night thing makes us need to shift to the 24 time zones because if you want to do business during the day with someone across the globe, you prefer to do it during their daylight hours.

        So the desire to ha

      • There's nothing more retarded than 30min timezones.

        Allow me to introduce you to the 45-minute timezones:
        - Australia Central Western at +8:45
        - Nepal at +5:45
        - Chatham Island (New Zealand) at +12:45/+13:45

        • In defence of the Australian Central Western timezone, the only government that officially recognises it is the Shire of Dundas, which happens to have a population of 0. Yes that's right, zero. Why? Because Australia that's why, STFU and grab another stubby and a prawn off the barbie.

    • Want to make everyone unhappy? Here's a proposal:

      Make sunrise at 06:00, sunset at 18:00, every day. Adjust the number of seconds in a minute each day to compensate.

      After all, as posted elsewhere in every one of these DST topics on slashdot, everybody has a smartphone, so as long as their phone is programmed to automatically adjust, what difference does it make if it's nonsense.

      • Want to make everyone unhappy? Here's a proposal:

        Make sunrise at 06:00, sunset at 18:00, every day. Adjust the number of seconds in a minute each day to compensate.

        After all, as posted elsewhere in every one of these DST topics on slashdot, everybody has a smartphone, so as long as their phone is programmed to automatically adjust, what difference does it make if it's nonsense.

        You are roughly describing time when everything was local. Noon was when the sun was at its highest.

        But in a world that was expanding beyond the local, we ended up needing some sort of coordination. Things like trains needed to have some idea of a schedule, and without one, with only local time in force, who knew what time the trains were coming in, and worse, one bad calculation could end up in a disastrous collision. What is more, the speed at which we could travel showed anyone paying attention that

    • >"Don't the best compromises make everyone unhappy?"

      Yes and no. But the correct "compromise" is the allow the States to do what they want, as designed. States can already choose the insanity of changing time twice a year or permanent Standard time all year. They have had that one choice for decades.

      States now just need the ability to choose permanent Saving (summer) time all year. Almost half the States already have passed legislation to do it (permanent Saving/summer time) as soon as Congress "allow

  • by davide marney ( 231845 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @08:27AM (#64303935) Journal

    Let's think of this like developers. We are all familiar with cruft, scope creep, and technical debt. DST is all three.

    We all know that as long as the same executive team remains in place, technical debt just won't be repaid. The only time we'll get a chance to go back to formula is when new executives come on board, they fire all the old line managers, and bring in an entirely new crew to run the place.

    Cruft is an enormous problem with modern forms of government because the core government management team never changes. Yes, the figureheads are swapped out routinely, but they don't get to bring in a new team. Government administrations have only the appearance of change, not the reality.

    What we need, I think, is to create some kind of event that forces government to require that DST is laid to rest. The real problem is what cockamamie thing might be created in its place. What we want is a clean break, to just remove DST entire. Hm.

    Thinking.

    • Thinking.

      If you have such a need for an end to DST - just use Zulu time. One time the entire world, and no accommodation for wiled swings in day/night differences. No time zones. Midnight is the same moment worldwide. If I call a meeting at 1450 Z, it doesn't matter if it is light or dark out, it is one specific time the world over.

      Time zones are part and parcel of this silly adjustment to time. Why should if be 4 different time zones across the USA - that is exactly the same kind of thinking as DST, I do take

  • by Trevin ( 570491 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @08:30AM (#64303941) Homepage

    The linked survey from last year shows that about half of respondents who want to eliminate the twice-yearly time change want permanent Daylight Savings. It also shows that a little more than half prefer to start their day when it’s light outside than when it’s dark. That’s a contradiction; it tells me that a significant portion of the population doesn’t really know how time works. You can’t have it both ways.

    • The linked survey from last year shows that about half of respondents who want to eliminate the twice-yearly time change want permanent Daylight Savings. It also shows that a little more than half prefer to start their day when it’s light outside than when it’s dark. That’s a contradiction; it tells me that a significant portion of the population doesn’t really know how time works. You can’t have it both ways.

      A significant portion of people are clueless, sad but true. In my area, there are pretty wild swings in day/night length. So If you don't have a clock change, you'll be getting up at around four in the morning during the summer, and four hours later in the winter.

      When we evolved, everything was local. When was noon? When the sun was at it's zenith. So it changed every day. And living on a sphere? Noon everywhere .

      I would wager that our clueless friends think that the big swings in day night length are

  • If you live nearer the equator, Daylight saving s time is useless, It's stupid, and only stupid people like it.

    If you live in the northern/southern temperate zones, where there are rather large swings in day/night length, it makes very good sense, as getting light at 4 in the morning, or dark at 4:30 in the afternoon is perhaps not optimum. So you adjust the time of day to make the living and working conditions align more with people liking to work in light, and relax and sleep in darkness

    Further North

  • A few countries on this planet insist upon doing their DST transitions at midnight local time. Never mind the weird concept of the date itself not just time of day moving back to the previous day when DST ends.

    There are hilarious consequences such as 00:00 not existing. I distinctly remember not being able to physically enter the date of DST transition because the start of that day did not exist. The day starts at 01:00 and the software assumed date by itself is 00:00.

    To make matters worse mktime() is bo

  • ...in the way bad ideas live forever
    Once it becomes established, people plan their lives around it
    Even though many would love to see it gone, others fight hard to keep it, because change would be a major disruption to their schedules and routines
    Of course, it it never existed and someone proposed it for the first time, it would have little chance of adoption

  • What this bill actually provides for is ending DST for clocks costing less than $950, those being the clocks that must be adjusted manually every spring and fall. Clocks costing more than that are mostly on smartphones, and so adjust themselves automatically.

  • I heard part of that is kids getting hit waiting for the bus, but that may be purely anecdotal.

    If anyone's looking for a conspiracy, the ski industry lobbies heavily against it.
  • by groobly ( 6155920 ) on Sunday March 10, 2024 @01:43PM (#64304583)

    California is like 1000 miles north to south. (Also from south to north.) The alleged advantage of DST is to align standard work hours more auspiciously to the period of daylight. The amplitude of the change in daylight hours between summer and winter is more pronounced at the north end of Calif than the south end. What's good for the goose might not be good for the gander.

  • Daylight savings is annoying and causes problems. Why should we end it? Just because it would make life better? Daylight savings time builds character.

  • Nothing like repeating history:

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com... [smithsonianmag.com]

    The crazy thing is that everyone cites "studies" siding with their side of the argument. But there's no clear indicator of changing clocks are good or bad.

    I can't find it now, but there's a view of the US with areas where DST is most appreciated. This works out to be in the north-east of each timezone - because they get the morning shift and extended daylight in the summer. Compare that with population densities, and New England and Chicago

    • by Bahbus ( 1180627 )

      Doesn't matter if there is anything good or bad about it. It's just stupid. There are no real benefits to doing it. Farmers never needed it. Businesses don't need it - doesn't matter if it's global or in the arctic. Any appreciation or benefit people think they are getting from shifting the clocks, they're just making bullshit up.

      Personally, I am considering turning all the automatic DST stuff off at this point and sticking with this time on my own. You wanna deal with me, then you can do it on my time - li

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