Tired of changing clocks, how about we change the system?

Reporter's note: Next Saturday night (March, 10) most of us, if we remember, will be changing our clocks one hour ahead as we "spring forward" into the start of Daylight Saving Time (DST) for 2018. It's a ritual observed among some 70 nations including most of North America and Europe and spotty in much of the rest of the world. There are a couple of notable exceptions in the U.S., including Arizona and Hawaii, and one Canadian province, that opted out of implementing DST.

Reviewing my notes I found an opinion piece I did in 2015, blustering about how little support I hear for DST and wondering why it still persists. The short answer is: Daylight Saving Time (DST) still persists in the U.S. because it's the law and, literally, would take an act of Congress to get rid of it. Despite the fact that 74% of people polled about DST favored stopping it, it's a policy not easily removed.

So with a more hopeful approach this year, still wondering how to stop this crazy clock switching madness, I decided to see what kinds of efforts are being done to stop DST. I found a whole bunch of websites with rantings against DST and some sites where people had launched legitimate processes to get rid of DST. Here's a bit of what I learned about the efforts to eradicate Daylight Saving Time in the U.S., a policy opposed by a large majority of the people.

DST began in the U.S. in 1916

Even the ancients dealt with the need to modify sleep times during winter. Eventually devices to accurately measure time were in place but the idea of 'saving daylight' came later. An Englishman first got the idea of switching clocks to 'summer time.' His idea was to move clocks ahead 20 minutes on each of four consecutive Sundays in the spring, then reverse the four-week process in the fall.

World War I made the idea of DST a reality. First Germany instituted it as part of a war effort to save energy. Many of the western allies followed suit, and the U.S. did the same in 1916. Interestingly, U.S. farmers were some of the most vocal opponents, one writing, "...dew doesn't evaporate at a specific time, cows typically aren't too keen on an earlier milking... and those darn roosters sure can't tell time." Though DST was officially abandoned in 1919, no clear time system evolved. Cities, states and varying businesses used whatever timekeeping worked best for their purposes. Transportation systems, particularly, suffered as they had to deal with all the different times in use.

In 1966 the Uniform Time Act was passed by Congress and signed in to law. States could still opt out, which Arizona and Hawaii did. Political subdivisions began to start and stop DST on their own schedules. In 2007 the last significant piece of time legislation set the current start date for DST as the second Sunday in March and running through the first Sunday in November.

The benefits and problems with

Daylight Saving Time

Whatever one's position on DST, there is some science backing up both benefits and disadvantages with the existing time policy. One benefit ,verified by several studies, showed a reduction in crime during longer daylight hours. While the exact percentages of decline varied by crime, especially for robbery, rape and murder, one study showed that a three-week extension of DST by Congress in the fall reduced the costs attributable to crime by about $250 million. Do the math and you see the potential savings over the long haul. A spike in crime, when early daylight shortens at the start of each spring on DST, could not be shown. Even the often stated fear that children at bus stops in the early morning dark were more likely to be abducted was never demonstrated. Researchers concluded that daylight tends to reduce crime, arguing for later sunsets throughout the year, not just in the summer months.

But the negatives of switching clocks back and forth twice a year outweigh the benefits. A multi-year study of the work place by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (like OSHA for mines) found that on the Monday after clocks 'fall back' there were more workplace injuries reported than any other day of the year. And, those time change related injuries tended to be more serious and added 68 percent more workdays lost to injuries.

Similarly, a 2015 study of traffic fatalities concluded DST was responsible for 17 percent additional deaths in the fall. When clocks are set back the loss of an hour of sleep and one hour less of daylight takes its toll on drivers headed home after work in the fall. Over 10 years researchers found 302 highway fatalities were related to the effects of time change in the fall, with a loss of $2.75 billion to the nation's economy.

Finally, there are a number of independent studies that show time changes negatively affect our health. One of the advocacy groups for keeping later sunsets and not changing the clocks twice a year cited studies that discovered loss of children's ability to focus in school, lower worker productivity and poorer worker safety as noted above. Numerous adverse health impacts result from earlier sunsets as well as negative effects on business activity.

A plan by EndDaylightSavingTime.org

I found several groups working to get rid of Daylight Saving Time. That usually involved some sort of a petition signing, online, to ask Congress to pass the change and have it approved by the President. I found at least one website promoting a petition signing that had already folded after obtaining only 200 signatures in a year.

One of the best websites was EndDayLightSavingTime.org, created by Anthony Boldin in 2017. The site offers a history of DST, shows results from independent studies of the adverse and beneficial effects of DST and explains how the process to remove DST will take time. Boldin is from the Milwaukee area, an author and entrepreneur. His specialty, before taking on DST, was helping launch several new enterprises. His reason for throwing so much energy into the fight to eliminate DST is simple: "if you believe in something, you should do something about it, not just talk about it."

His plan is simple to understand. One, stop changing the clocks twice every year-lots of problems solved already. Second, once the law is changed to eliminate DST, the first year do not reset clocks in the fall but keep daylight saving time year round. This allows the benefits of the later sunsets both in the winter and in the summer.

Take a look at Boldin's website and, if you feel he's on the right track, sign his online petition. He's already attracted some other collaborative groups (health and safety advocates, for example) that are willing to partner for the eventual push to get Congress to change the DST law.

One final action possibility: with both a House seat and a Senate seat up for election in Montana this year, how do the candidates running feel about DST? Just because 74% of the people are opposed doesn't mean anything will happen, but it would be helpful to know how the people who will be going to Congress fell about DST.