On 2026-02-20 13:58, Doug Ewell via tz wrote:
I was there, and still remember (even at 33-some degrees north latitude) the
unusually and disruptively late sunrises. It’s important to note that the main
argument that succeeded in cancelling the year-round DST experiment was the
deaths of eight children in Florida — Florida! — who were struck by cars while
walking to school in the dark. Everyone who argues for permanent DST today
either wasn’t there or has conveniently forgotten history.
Americans who argue for permanent DST tend not to commute to work during the
affected morning hours, and tend not to have young children who walk to school
during the affected hours, so the argument becomes “this would be good for ME;
I don’t care what’s good for you.” Furthermore, they seem to have an
unrealistic sense of how much evening daylight would be recovered. We all love
8:30 pm sunsets in early summer, but that is simply not going to happen in
winter, unless one moves somewhere that is both near the equator and
significantly skewed from sun time (say, Casablanca).
I don’t think the half-hour proposal is ideal. I think it has a better chance
of being adopted than the others, while not being as bad as permanent DST.
Even at 51N 114W +1km we have parents complaining about how difficult it is to
gets kids to sleep in summer, as at this latitude we get 18 hours daylight
aroundt midsummer so do not benefit from DST.
We would benefit more from moving a zone or a half west, as our boundaries are
110-120W/7:20-8:00: the centre is denser and urban, the east is rural, the west
is mountainous and less populated.
--
Take care. Thanks, Brian Inglis Calgary, Alberta, Canada
La perfection est atteinte Perfection is achieved
non pas lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à ajouter not when there is no more to add
mais lorsqu'il n'y a plus rien à retrancher but when there is no more to cut
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
