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Why Not Keep Daylight Saving Time Year Round In Florida?
November 1, 2020
Florida Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio say the practice of “falling back” as Daylight Saving Time (DST) is an antiquated process that should come to an end.
Most recently, in September, Rubio and Scott introduced legislation that would keep the United States on DST through November 7, 2021. The bill failed but if it had been enacted it would have prevented the United States from “falling back” to Standard Time, and Americans would have avoided changing clocks in March 2021 when the United States typically springs forward to DST. Rubio and Scott introduced the bill in an effort to provide one year of stability for families who are already dealing with enough change with virtual learning, work from home, and other disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
n March 2019, Rubio re-introduced the Sunshine Protection Act, legislation that would make DST permanent across the country, excluding Arizona and Hawaii. The bill reflects the Florida legislature’s 2018 enactment of year-round DST; however, for Florida’s change to apply, a change in the federal statute is required. More than 10 other states, including Delaware, Louisiana, Maine, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, Arkansas, Alabama, and Wyoming, have passed similar laws, and dozens more are considering. In 2018, California voters overwhelmingly passed a proposition to authorize the state legislature to move to permanent DST.
“As families across the nation prepare for yet another disruption to their daily routines this weekend, I want to remind Americans that we have another option — to stay on Daylight Saving Time,” Rubio said. “More daylight in the after school hours is critical to helping families and children endure this challenging school year. Studies have shown many benefits of a year-round Daylight Saving Time, and 7 in 10 Americans don’t want to change their clocks. I urge my colleagues to work with me to make this Sunday the last time our country ‘falls back’.”
“After months of uncertainty and staying indoors amid the coronavirus pandemic, all of us could use a little more consistency and sunshine,” Scott said. “I was proud to join Senator Rubio to introduce legislation that would keep Daylight Saving Time year-round, and I hope our colleagues join us to pass this common-sense bill.”
According to Scott and Rubio, permanent Daylight Saving Time:
effects of making Daylight Saving Time permanent for the nation:
· Reduces car crashes and car accidents involving pedestrians: better aligning daylight hours to drivers’ standard work hours’ increases visibility, according to the American Journal of Public Health and the Journal of Safety Research. Also reduces the number of vehicle collisions with wildlife by 8 – 11 percent by shifting normal traffic patterns to an hour off from nocturnal wildlife’s behavior.
· Reduces risk for cardiac issues, stroke and seasonal depression.
· Reduces the number of robberies by 27 percent, according to a 2015 Brookings Institution because of additional daylight in the evenings.
· Benefits the economy, according to a study by JP Morgan Chase, which found that there is a drop in economic activity of 2.2 percent – 4.9 percent when clocks move back.
· Reduces childhood obesity and increases physical fitness, according to studies published by the International Journal Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity and the Journal of Physical Activity and Health, children see an increase in physical activity during DST. The Journal of Environmental Psychology found that DST increased pedestrian activity by 62% and cyclists activity by 38% because of additional daylight.
· Benefits the agricultural economy, which is disproportionately disrupted by biannual changes in time by upsetting the synergy between farmers’ schedules and their supply chain partners.
· Reduces energy usage, a 2008 study by the U.S. Department of Energy found that during the 4 weeks the U.S. extended daylight savings from the 2005 law, there were savings of about 0.5 percent in electricity per day. Later studies have also shown that the energy savings are minimal but a small savings does occur.
Comments
63 Responses to “Why Not Keep Daylight Saving Time Year Round In Florida?”
please keep dsl hate getting dark so early fl has a lot of things to do and everything can stay open longer
Leave Standard time alone. The days get longer naturally. It is now dark at 630 am today and tomorrow will be the same when the kids take the bus. It was finally light outside at 630 am for the last 2 weeks and light outside at 7 pm. The kids will be late to school for next couple of months.
Lets make March 14, 2021 the last time we change the clocks !! let the people of the Sunshine state enjoy more sunshine !
Let’s stop changing the clocks once and for all. I love spring forward because it stays lights outside. I hate fall back and it gets darker earlier. Let’s just not keep changing our clocks. Just pick one Florida and make it permanently.
Permanent dst is the answer school start times can pushed later and still get out at same time. More evening light is more important and majority supports it. Lets do it. Having the time natural doesn’t matter as much anymore.
Please change it to permanent Daylight Savings Time. Changing the clocks twice per year is unhealthy mentally and physically, as it disrupts our sleep cycles. Our economy in Florida also depends on sunshine for those who play outside. For those concerned about the children, there would be more time to play outside and get the extra exercise desperately needed by our children.
Since Floridians voted some years ago to keep DST in place it seems ridiculous that we must have Federal approval to put it into action. That said, this is such a SIMPLE thing to get done, another thing we can’t get our elected officials to agree on and be done with it. PLEASE, it is depressing when “fall back” happens. Just when the weather is getting nicer in the evening to go outside for any reason, it’s too dark. Can’t walk or run safely, do yard work when it’s cooler, etc. DST should happen next year and we should stay with that time ongoing. Thank you.
We would love to have more daylight later in the winter and we support the sunshine protection act.
I really don’t care which one we adopt as permanent, but please select one and and get it passed.
Yes I agree!
I believe our vote in Florida wanted to keep daylight saving time.
Please make that change permanently!!
Keep standard time. I need he sunrise to walk outside and wake up! I hate dark mornings and kids going to school in the dark.
WE KEEP GOING THRU THIS. EITHER KEEP THINGS AS THEY ARE OR MAKE
STANDARD, NOT DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME, YEAR-ROUND. DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME DURING THE WINTER MONTHS WOULD MAKE THE MORNING HOURS TOO DARK FOR CHILDREN GOING TO SCHOOL AND COMMUTERS. THIS SHOULD NOT BE JUST ABOUT THE EVENING HOURS. LET’S BE SENSIBLE ABOUT THIS.
PLEASE pass this bill. I want DST year round! I hate getting home from work in the dark. VERY DANGEROUS!!!!! Cannot do any outside chores. Have to wait for the weekend. Who needs an extra hour of daylight in the morning? Most of us are still sleeping and this daylight is wasted. Most people are awake between 5:30 PM and 6:30 PM. How many people are actually awake at 6:30 AM? PLEASE MAKE DST PERMANENT. Thank you.
Yes , PLEASE keep it!!
Is so depressing the Fall Back.
“Standard Time follows the natural course of the sun at any given latitude and is the solution that should be aimed for.” This is taken from website for Center for Environmental Therapeutics, Search domain cet.org/daylight-saving-time-or-standard-time/https://cet.org/daylight-saving-time-or-standard-time/ I would like to keep it on Standard Time. Please continue to get the NATION not just Florida on a permanent time.
I wish we could be on DST year round. The extension of daylight into the late afternoon by one hour helps with after school activities and is less depressing.
The time change impacts people’s health and in the WRONG way. Please move to DST. Why do we have to wait for other states who may be having to wait for us!? It is ridiculous. Put it on the ballot, let Floridians vote for Florida DST and be done with it. Do any of our elected officials have the umph to accomplish this?
I agree that we should stay on DST it seem most of you people do like the ideal and he can help with a lot of things..
So please pass in to law at least in Florida,
PLEASE leave the time alone. It is physically and mentally exhausting to “spring forward “. I look forward to “fall back” every year. Standard time is “normal time”.
Daylight Savings Time is not normal and throws everything out of wack. Kids, animals and adults have trouble adjusting to the time change. Check out the accidents after DST goes into effect. How is productivity at school and work? Most feel some sort of “jet lag”.
You start out having the sun come up as you go to school and work to darkness in the morning. Try getting kids to bed an hour earlier or get up an hour earlier. Once you get to May the sun is up earlier and stays up later. In the north ( grew-up in the Midwest) the dark is part of slowing down for the winter.
We have lighting indoor and out. We are not saving candles or electricity.
Nothing stays open later.
You are going to have the same amount of daylight and darkness regardless of the clock.
I appreciate the attempt to set the time, but I feel it should stay Standard Time.
I have never liked the Fall Back it is depressing and my body takes almost a week to adjust, wish all year be the same.
We the people voted on this 3 years ago and was a yes, 3 years later still in this mess, if we the people of Florida want this changes why is has not been done, you se stars seating in the senate don’t get it with the folks that need to take medications it messes up everything, fools get this pass as we Floridians voted for this.
More day time in Florida? Are you serious?
Leave the SDT forever here, we don’t need sun until 8pm all year long. My daughter goes to bed at 7:30 and she asks why she goes to bed if there’s still the sun out. That’s nonsense! Day is day and night is night. Please respect nature!
Please give us the time alone. We don’t want to set our clocks nack. We need daylight.
PLEEEEEASE, just pick one! I haven’t slept since the change and it gets harder every year..:(
Every year our family and all our friends cry about the clock rolling back in fall. It totally disrupts our lives. You leave to go to work in the dark and come home on the dark.. it’s like living in Alaska!! Can’t play with the kids, dogs outside because it’s dark… going for a walk isn’t safe and forget getting outdoor chores done during the week.. it all has to wait for the weekend. Now add COVID, that in itself is depressing with all the isolation, now take away a bit of afternoon sun and just give me the antidepressants!! There are actually seasonal antidepressants for folks that live in the north who sustain so much snow they are locked inside… looks like Florida residents will need it soon because it’s pretty sad down here right now! PLEASE SIGN THE BILL SO WE CAN MOVE OUR CLOCKS BACK WHERE THEY BELONG AND KEEP OUR SANITY
Turn it one way the other, but let it be after that! It wrecks the body & mind for 2 weeks twice a year after each time change. If the people are for it, why doesn’t legislature approve it!!
Most everyone I knows hates it getting dark so early. It seems we are using more electricity…what a waste. It’s downright depressing leaving work in the dark, as well. Afterwork errands have to be done in darkness and glaring car lights.
One thing that I really miss when daylight savings takes effect (which doesn’t save any daylight for me!), is that I can no longer cut my lawn or do yardwork after work..I can only do it on my Saturday and Sunday off from work…my relaxing weekends are stolen. I would truly love to not have daylight savings. Please add your name to the petitions on change.org to abolish daylight savings.
When my family moved to Florida in 1956 I was 11 years old. We had Standard Time all year long. While doing my first enlistment in the Air Force, the government came up with the foolish idea of having Daylight Time for six months out of the year. The DST people kept trying to make it last longer and longer. Now they want to take away Standard Time totally. BAD MOVE!!! Take it from someone who has lived on the year ’round Standard Time system. Standard Time is a much better system. People feel better when in sync with what nature provided. The ideal system would be to observe Solar Time; however, Solar Time is no longer an option due to modern high speed transportation and communications. The closest thing to Solar Time is Standard Time. Standard Time needs to be the standard.
I like like like FALL BACK. KEEP it all year. I enjoy the evening hours. It is easier for children to do their homework. ruthssnd@gmail.com
I was hoping it would have been on the Nov 2020 ballot and I would have voted NO to time changing. We already lose an hour of daylight in the fall to Mother Nature’s seasonal changes, and then another hour of daylight with changing time. I hate having to adjust to the “Spring Ahead.” just as much, if not more. We feel more tired for weeks after the time change. Let’s leave it to Mother Nature and quit the man-made changes.
I used to hate working the midnight shift in fall and working an extra hour for free….I also found that just one hour messed with my daughters sleep patterns when she was young. I am all for not changing the clocks.
Put the decision to vote.
Let people decide.
YES YES YES, NO MORE DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME, THE PLANTS DONT KNOW TO SLEEP OR WAKE UP….SEASONS ALONE CHANGE THE SUNS DIRECTION ON THE EARTH, IT NEEDS NO HELP…….
OH FOR GOODNESS SAKE YES! Been begging for it for years!
I go through a period of confusion that is annoying!
We do not need it in Florida! Period!
Thank you very much!
Martha Lee Hennemann
This is true that the original plan with DLS was to give women working in the factories during WW2 enough time to get home to tend their gardens.
I am pretty sure we voted for this to happen in Florida and it passed but I never heard of anything becoming of it other than it had to be approved by someone else.
It does not matter if you leave it on day light saving time or standard it still going to be dark by 5 or 5:30 it winter time it happens every year the time stay day light saving want change it and it a stupid idea
We tried it for 16 months in 1974-75 and it was a disaster!
.. See
We have already voted on this issue several years ago. Let us not forget that it is congress holding it up.
Setting the clocks back is no longer wanted by many. We need more time during the day not where it’s dark by 4:30pm. Everyone hates it. Depression is at an all time high during these times. Let’s Vote or something!!
Crazy.
Who would think REMOVING an hour would lengthen the day?
Must be Common Core Math.
Or politicians. They already take our money and claim it’s for “the better good”.
Why should the clock be immune from them?
Indian say “crazy white man cut one foot off bottom of blanket and sew it to top of blanket thinking this will make blanket 1 foot longer”. Crazy white men! Crazy white man does the same thing to a day. Still 24 hours to a day! Crazy white man
1st: the idea of spring forward and fall back is not longer needed for the majority. This philosophy was to help farmers to have more time to tend to their farms.
2. Kids can get up and go to school in the dark just like we used to have to. It helps prepare them to go to work in the dark as adults and not manipulate the schedules to suit them.
3. No offense meant but if it’s not one disorder it’s is another that can be effected by changes. We need to do what’s best for the majority.
4. I personally could care less on the time change. It helps me as a full time worker outside the home & as a non-profit farmer/rescue to have enough time to care for the animals at the sanctuary before it gets too dark. Either way I am in the dark either in the AM or the PM. So it doesn’t matter.
5. I think we have much more important things to be concerned with at this time.
Please make that change the permanently!! It’s not healthy!! To change the time fall back!!! It’s depressing!!! Especially in the Sunshine States!
Please pass day light saving just look at what it would do for the youth
@ Kodiak……exactly. It kills me so many people thinks that it makes more daylight, hence the day longer. I would say amazes, but stupidity doesn’t amaze me anymore.
More daylight in the pm. Stop messing around get it done.
Daylight hours keep seasonal effective disorder at bay for those of us who struggle with it. If you work 8 to 5 you only see sunlight on weekends because it’s dark after work. It’s terrible.
Just leave it whatever way doesn’t leave kids standing in the dark waiting on school buses!
Only a democrat would say cut the top off a blanket and sew it on the bottom, and think it makes it longer
The senators should be filing the bill to only apply to Florida, where they represent Floridian constituents. Trying to apply Florida voters’ will to the entire nation is nothing more than a political stunt.
Hmmmmm,, now I can’t help but wonder what role the utility companies have in this? Somewhere along the way, somehow, its increasing their profits you can rest assured!!
LEAVE IT AS NATURE INTENDED!!!!
Daylight savings time is not natural. Mornings should be light and evenings should be dark.
I prefer to leave it as it is, but more importantly, I would want ALL states to either make the change, or not. My son lives in Mobile, my daughter is in Houston. All three of us are on the same time zone, all the time. I like it that way………….leave it alone, unless ALL states make the change.
Need to leave this time change alone
Each time DST comes along, the politicians want to make it permanent, or not enact it. I just wish they would choose one or the other and leave it all year long! We aren’t saving daylight…the days are the same length! It is just another mind-trick to keep people happy!
I wish the Federal government would get their thumbs out of their butts & do their job & pass this statute. We voted for this time change (and passed) 2 years ago; yet still changing the clocks.
I believe our vote in Florida wanted to keep daylight saving time it’s safer folks that work all day need. More light to achieve things to do after work .i thought it passed in fla. What happened do votes not count any more. Thankyou George G Hager
NO!!!!! Leave the time alone!!!!! Unless we don’t “spring forward”, falling back brings more structure especially with those who have children. Just leave it alone.
I wouldn’t care which version of timekeeping we were on; just pick one and stay there.
I wish we didnt do fall back time