Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
In tropical areas DST is pointless (even from a proponent's perspective), because there isn't any distinctly lighter period of the year, which DST is designed to take advantage of, plus there isn't any distinct summer warm season to start with. Another area that doesn't need it from any perspective is high latitude climates, where a person has all the daylight they could possibly want to begin with. Why fiddle with the clocks when you already have constant daylight? Therefore DST seems to be a curse of the mid-latitudes.
All of this debate about what times people wake up and their lifestyles demonstrates the disadvantages of making time and individuals' schedules a collectivized, political issue. It would be much better if civil time followed the natural, logical system of noon=12:00 and if the people (employers, employees, etc.) could make their own decisions about how to meet out their schedule and lifestyle.
As for DST, another thing I've noticed is that it would be better if the time of year that the clocks switch was correlated with day length instead of temperature. As it is now in the U.S. and Canada, March to November is the DST period, which correlates to the 8 warmest months. It would be better if a program designed to redistribute the sunlight* was instead correlated to the 6 brightest months, which would be April through September.
*A not-so-subtle reference to "redistributing the wealth"
Quote:
Originally Posted by owenc
No matter what was done, i'm sure that we'd get complaints and i'm sure it wouldn't work out thats why I think its better that governments arrange timezones rather than local authorities in the USA. Just look at the way it is in chicago and those types of places, thats just down right stupid. In the UK we are forced to do the timezone that they pick .
Actually in the U.S. the federal government is in charge of the time zones, via the Uniform Time Act which sets out the time zones, and regulated by the federal Transportation Department. The Uniform Time Act also dictates the times of year when they "Spring forward" and "Fall back". The only authority the states have is to choose whether or not to observe DST (Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that don't observe it), and they can submit proposals to the federal Transportation Department to change time zones.
Last edited by Patricius Maximus; 09-16-2012 at 03:06 PM..
Here in Seattle under the current system, we have sunrises and sunsets near the summer solstice at about 515am and at about 9pm, give or take several minutes depending on just how close to the solstice it is.
Winter under the current system gives us sunrises at nearly 8am near and sunsets before 430pm near the winter solstice.
I voted for year round DST because I love the post 9pm summer sunsets around the solstice (and think a sunrise close to 4am would be ridiculous (unless I lived events farther north!)) but I think that going to a year round compromise time half way between the two would be fine too.
Year round standard time would just create summers that are too bright too early and also too dark too early. In winter it doesn't matter as much to me although I would still like the extra bit of light in the evening than in the morning.
All that said though I do LOVE the seasonal daylight swings and couldn't imagine living somewhere with close to equal daylight times year round! I just really hate having to adjust the clocks and having to get used to THAT change twice every single year!
Oh I was also going to say didn't Russia recently adopt a year round DST? How has it been working out for them so far?
So cold lovers prefer standard time whereas heat lovers are fine with DST.
A lot of people seem to hate late morning sunrises. Personally I love them, I prefer going out and taking the bus to school when it's pitch black. Feels right in winter.
From what I've read, the civil time is widely ignored in western China because it is so ridiculous (sunrise close to 10 AM in December with a 9 hour day length!). Most people there conduct business using local time.
From the poll it appears that the overwhelming majority here want to switch to one time or the other year-round (standard and DST are pretty much tied).
In tropical areas DST is pointless (even from a proponent's perspective), because there isn't any distinctly lighter period of the year, which DST is designed to take advantage of, plus there isn't any distinct summer warm season to start with. Another area that doesn't need it from any perspective is high latitude climates, where a person has all the daylight they could possibly want to begin with. Why fiddle with the clocks when you already have constant daylight? Therefore DST seems to be a curse of the mid-latitudes.
All of this debate about what times people wake up and their lifestyles demonstrates the disadvantages of making time and individuals' schedules a collectivized, political issue. It would be much better if civil time followed the natural, logical system of noon=12:00 and if the people (employers, employees, etc.) could make their own decisions about how to meet out their schedule and lifestyle.
As for DST, another thing I've noticed is that it would be better if the time of year that the clocks switch was correlated with day length instead of temperature. As it is now in the U.S. and Canada, March to November is the DST period, which correlates to the 8 warmest months. It would be better if a program designed to redistribute the sunlight* was instead correlated to the 6 brightest months, which would be April through September.
*A not-so-subtle reference to "redistributing the wealth"
I agree about very low latitude and very high latitude places. DST is completely and utterly ridiculous for a location such as Barrow, Alaska for instance.
From what I've read, the civil time is widely ignored in western China because it is so ridiculous (sunrise close to 10 AM in December with a 9 hour day length!). Most people there conduct business using local time.
Makes sense, but what about things like television (not that it matters much to me)? Do they all watch local TV?
As far as barrow is concerned they could use whatever timezone they liked.
Well at the equinoxes just about everywhere on earth has near equal lengths of day and night for a few days on either side and that includes Barrow so a time zone with solar noon being closest to actual noon on the equinoxes makes sense. But for the rest of the year I can see it mattering less and less.
Hahaha That's nice to think about me Indeed, I knew Urumqi had such awesome sunset times throughout the year, but as you said, the climate is too crappy to even consider relocating, though summer looks quite gorgeous there.
For what it's worth, if you take solar time into account when grading climates, my overall "real world" favorite would be Dakar with both its A-grade, warm, sunny climate AND year-round DST. Singapore performs very well in that category as well, with its earliest sunset at 6.51pm
Hahaha That's nice to think about me Indeed, I knew Urumqi had such awesome sunset times throughout the year, but as you said, the climate is too crappy to even consider relocating, though summer looks quite gorgeous there.
For what it's worth, if you take solar time into account when grading climates, my overall "real world" favorite would be Dakar with both its A-grade, warm, sunny climate AND year-round DST. Singapore performs very well in that category as well, with its earliest sunset at 6.51pm
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
That's nice to think about me 
Indeed, I knew Urumqi had such awesome sunset times throughout the year, but as you said, the climate is too crappy to even consider relocating, though summer looks quite gorgeous there.
