LockTheClock

Fix Daylight Saving Time for good!

“I’m in favor of DST!” “I’m against it!” These two views may not be different

I talk to people about Daylight Saving Time all the time, probably more than any other human on earth.

When I do, however, I always have to be careful, because everyone has an opinion about it, and they often sound conflicting, when really they aren’t.

For instance, what does it mean when someone says they are against Daylight Saving Time?

It could mean that they like it to be darker — relative to the time on the clocks — earlier in the summer. It could mean that they like the extra daylight in the summer, they just don’t like the time change where they have to Spring Forward. It could also mean that they don’t like suddenly having it be dark when they come home from work in the fall.

They are all valid points of view, but different. I’ve tried to explain it with words forever, and then the incomparable Kirk Anderson came up with this cool graphic that does it much better:

DST-terms

I think this makes it clear that if you want to take a position on DST, you’ll want to actually take two positions:

  1. Do you want to change the clocks twice a year?
  2. If not, which time zone do you want to be in, Standard or Daylight Saving Time?

If you have clarity on those two questions, then you’ll be able to figure out what you do want.

By the way, you may be asking what I want. I’ll tell you: No more clock changing, and for Colorado I think year-round DST works best. For many other states, especially ones like Nebraska and Michigan that are on the western edge of their time zones, they may opt for year-round standard time. Whatever they want is fine with me.

The best thing for all of us would be to just stop doing the thing that is deadly, and that’s changing clocks twice a year.

National Turn Off Your Alarm Clock Day – Official Information

The Monday after the “Spring Forward” Daylight Saving Time clock changing day is officially also “National Turn Off Your Alarm Clock” day.

Who says it’s official? This site does!

National turn off alarm clock day

That makes it at least as official as National Popcorn Lovers Day, which is different from National Popcorn Day.

(I love popcorn as much as anyone, but really, can’t the popcorn people and the popcorn lovers people get together?)

Official Instructions for your workplace

So, the question I know you are asking is this: “How can I convince my boss to let me sleep in on that Monday?”

The answer there is easy. It’s all about safety, and I wish I was joking around about this, but I’m not.

On the Monday after the time change, here’s what science tells us will happen for sure:

So, really, your boss would be a moron to make you get up early, only to risk that you are either going to have a heart attack, have a stroke or get in a car accident. The absolute best case scenario is that you’ll make it to work and be totally unproductive.

If your boss looks at you funny and says you must be joking, you can show him this post, or just this picture:

No-joke

So, enjoy your popcorn (lovers or otherwise) day and be safe on the Monday after Daylight Saving Time.

2017 Guide for Legislators about Daylight Saving Time

As of this morning there are now about 24 states that are considering some modification to Daylight Saving Time.

Given that two (Arizona and Hawaii) don’t participate in the clock-changing madness twice a year, that means half the states that have legislation brewing to ditch it.

That’s the good news, and it is indeed great news.

The bad news is that every single one of those bills is doomed. Every one.

I wish it wasn’t the case, but it is. (Here’s a post on the legislative tracking site, BillTrack50, about why.)

In short, no state can act on its own. The federal government controls the time, and the controlling law is that we have uniform time zones. If one state does its own thing, the time zones are no longer uniform.

Sunrise-dst

What Can Be Done?

Luckily, there is something that legislators can do! It’s actually easier than passing a bill, it’s passing a resolution. We’ve got model resolution language right here. Or you can look at the version that passed in California.

While typically resolutions don’t do much, this one will because it will give a chance for your state to join together with California and all the other states who will be passing this resolution.

Then, as the leader of this movement, I’ll make sure that all those resolutions get delivered to Washington in a way that will make it hard for the people that matter in this to ignore.

So don’t lose heart that a bill won’t work, you’ve got another tool in the toolbox!

Background

The rest of this post is an updated version of this post, updated with the latest research.

History

Rich and complicated history. Enacted first by Germany during World War One. Adopted by Great Britain and then the U.S. shortly after.

Since 1966 controlled by federal government. Only changes allowed by the Department of Transportation have been to increase uniformity and to lengthen DST portion of the year.

Legislative Background

Many states have attempted to alter their own time zone, but the efforts typically get derailed when they learn of the control by the federal government.

Why is this effort different?

We are not asking for a law to be passed, simply a resolution. There are no binding commitments, no un-funded mandates, and no attempt to challenge the federal authority.

The resolution (full text here) simply states that it is the sentiment of that legislative body that all of the U.S. move to permanent Daylight Saving Time. Some states may want to remain in permanent standard time, and they can request that in the text of their own resolution.

Objection: “In our state the resolution is typically used just to honor citizens, etc.”

Nearly every state is like that, but that’s OK. This is an unusual problem, so it requires an unusual solution, and there are plenty of times resolutions have been used to send a message to a targeted audience. In this case the audience is the Federal Department of Transportation.

Will I face political trouble if I introduce/support this?

All of the polls (here’s one) show at least a two-to-one preference for a stop to the clock changing.

When a lawmaker in Arizona proposed that his state — one of only two that were grandfathered into the 1966 law and don’t have to change twice per year — begin changing with the rest of the country, he was so flooded with negative comments that he immediately and publicly withdrew his proposal.

Though not organized on this issue, traditional TV broadcasters have been against permanent DST because they want people to stop playing outside in the early evening and go home to watch television.

Is there any partisan angle?

No! 

The resolution that passed in California was sponsored by a Republican, but it passed both chambers controlled by the Democratic Party nearly unanimously.

If you are looking for a partisan angle, Republicans can say that they are trying to reduce government intrusion into private lives. Democrats can say that it will help the environment.

What is the science behind supporting this resolution?

Recommendation

This resolution has zero fiscal implication, wide popular support and no complicated legal consequences.

With so little risk and so high of a possible reward, I recommend that you introduce or support this resolution as soon as possible.

Hey Journalists, “Time” Is Serious. Please Treat It That Way.

It’s time for journalists to start taking Daylight Saving Time seriously.

I’ve been the leading activist on ending the clock-changing mandate for a couple of years now, and one of the things I do is monitor every story that comes out about DST.

Look, I was a journalist for a long time. I know how easy it is to think that Big Issues like the state budget deficit or entitlements or whatever are the ones that everyone SHOULD be reading because they are Important.

But if you pay any attention at all to actual readers, nobody is reading those stories. 

What they read, and what they care about, is issues that they can understand, and when it comes to politics they want to read about things that they think can actually be fixed.

Daylight Saving Time is just such an issue.

In the last couple of weeks I’ve seen two particularly egregious examples.

The first comes from Curtis Haring of Utah Political Capitol. 

It’s dripping with ugly sarcasm. Example: “… the unbearable burden of having to spring forward and then fall back every year.” 

Several points:

  1. You, Curtis, don’t get to decide what’s Important, and what’s not. 
  2. Dozens of people die because of the time change (heart attacks, traffic accidents, workplace accidents, etc.). Your words are just cruel to the surviving families.
  3. You story makes it seem that those working on this are doing it to the exclusion of all else. That’s just wrong. In all 50 states there are hundreds of bills. They all get their due. The state legislators working on this just want to fix something that the government does that’s clearly broken. That’s why they ran in the first place, to fix stuff.

Perhaps most upsetting to me is how this story chastises Rep. Norm Thurston. I haven’t met him, but looking around online it’s clear he’s an honorable guy trying to do the right thing. You point out, correctly, that previous efforts on this topic have died, but then you lay in to Rep. Thurston for the sin of trying again with a different tactic.

Trying something new is to be applauded. You, Curtis, seem only interested in gridlock.

Shame on you, Curtis Haring. Shame.

And kudos to Rep. Thurston. I look forward to the progress that your new thinking will bring to this issue!

Example two

Here is another one that is not so upsetting, but is way more pathetic. Hey, Brett Barrouquere, I know time is tight for reporters, much so more than when I was one. Still, that’s no excuse to write, “Nearly all of the United States – except Arizona and Hawaii (because they want to be different) – observe Daylight Saving Time.”

In fact, Arizona and Hawaii want much more than to just be different, what they want is to not have to change the clocks twice per year without a good reason to do so, and so they were able to keep their time zones because they were in place before the Uniform Time Act of 1966. Also your flip “yes, that’s a real thing” about that act is unbecoming of a reporter talking about federal law. It makes sense that the government is involved in the setting of time. Would you rather that we go back to a time when every town in the world set the clock how it wanted?

If people in the 1800s could figure out that uniform time is needed for transportation by train, certainly you could figure that out, too, Brett, here in the 21st century.

Message to reporters

In short, if you are a reporter thinking about covering this, you should know that this is a serious policy issue.

It certainly has its fun and funny sides, and I celebrate those as much as anyone, but I do it with respect for the policy implications that simmer under the surface.

Fixing the time does not have big-money interests behind it, so it’s left to us — a band of citizens, part-time legislators, and other activists —  to make the case. If this was a good or bad thing for Monsanto or the Trial Lawyers, etc., you better believe that it would have lots of great lobbying being done and you would not be so flip or so dismissive.

The future, the old saying goes, does not have a lobbyist.

In this case, however, it does. It has me, and it has the will of the people.

I’ll be watching and calling you out by name if you don’t treat Daylight Saving Time like the serious issue that it is.

Great DST Progress, But How To Coach Friends?

I just looked around, and can say these seven things very clearly:

  1. I have been blogging about Daylight Saving Time for more than two years, and am now pretty much the leading voice on this admittedly very niche issue.
  2. In October of 2014 when I did a piece for CNN, I was seen of something of an oddity.
  3. In the years since, I’ve seen a ton of research come out about how bad the clock changing is.
  4. I’ve also seen a lot more bills proposed around the country. (All but one died, see item 6, below, on that.)
  5. There’s also been a noticeable shift in public opinion, based on Fall Back memes, Spring Forward memes, and just the media coverage in general.  
  6. One state (a big one) had a Republican sponsor pass a resolution that I promoted in a very Democratic legislature, showing how bipartisan this issue is.
  7. Now I’m seeing a bunch more state legislators trying to get something done. I’ll list some of them below, but it’s very encouraging.

The problem I have is this: Legislators keep trying to do a thing that I totally support in the underlying spirit, but that I’m quite certain is doomed to failure. That leaves me with two questions:

  1. How do I tell people that I support them, but that they should try something different?
  2. How do I get the word out to legislators before they introduce a (doomed) bill that there’s a better way?

I really need help on both those points. If you have suggestions, please contact me.

DST-sun-setting

Is the sun setting on Daylight Saving Time clock changing? These Canada Geese think so!

 

In the meantime, here’s what I’ve seen in terms of bills being introduced for the 2017 legislative session:

  • Wyoming. From the one story about this bill, it’s clear that the main sponsor, Rep. Dan Laursen, agrees with the overwhelming majority of Americans that the time we are in doesn’t matter as much as it’s important to stop changing the clocks twice per year. He apparently first proposed that Wyoming stay in Standard Time all year long, but ran into a buzz saw of opposition. Where year-round Standard Time might be good for some states (like Nevada), for Wyoming year-round DST seems to be best, and will certainly have the least opposition.
  • New Jersey. This one is kind of inspired, tragic, and wonderful all at once. The sponsor, Shirley Turner, is proposing a resolution calling for extending Daylight Saving Time by a week or two in the fall, making sure that it comes after the election, and not before. The fact that the time change came just before the last election was hard to miss this year. Her resolution says that in more dignified tones. It’s a wonderful resolution, avoiding the trap of thinking a bill or law that applies only to New Jersey would do any good. But it’s tragic — I think — because it just takes something terrible (the time change) and nudges it forward a small bit rather than  just eliminating it. Still, good for Sen. Turner for proposing something, rather than just doing nothing. And good for her for proposing a resolution that can get passed without much opposition.
     
  • Missouri. The Show Me state has a track record of trying to do something about DST. This bill modifies the tactic I’ve seen from Rep. Mike Kelley before of saying that Missouri will only go to permanent DST if two adjacent states also pass a law saying that they will also go to permanent DST. Similar bills have failed in the past, but maybe this year? The problem, as always, is that even a group of three states will almost certainly not be allowed to switch by the federal government. 
  • Texas. This bill is like so many other doomed bills that have gone before. It will fail, unfortunately, and even if it did pass, the Feds won’t let one state act alone under the Uniform Time Act. Hey, Sen. Menendez, I’m happy to jump on a call with you to help talk about what can work!
  • Connecticut. (No bill filed yet, but news here.) This is the first time I’ve seen any action from the Nutmeg state, so welcome to the fight, Kurt Vail! As you’ve already seen, this is a great way to get press and get your constituents talking. If one report is true, even you don’t think you’ll be able to get your bill out of committee. You are probably right. But there is a DST resolution you can get passed that will help a great deal. If California can pass it, you can, too! If I can help, just contact me.

A few other states have some early indication of action, including a reprise of past failed efforts in New Mexico and Massachusetts.

In Utah, where bills have failed for years, one state representative is proposing an official statewide vote that would allow people in Utah to voice an opinion. Sounds great! Go, Norm Thurston, go!

Good News on DST

Overall, this may seem like a lot of bad news, but really just the fact that there’s so much news is good news. There’s also been more research that I’ll be updating soon, and a LOT more press coverage, some good and some stinky, but all interesting. I’ll be covering it all.

In short, the momentum is swinging in the direction of fixing the killing aspects of the time change. With a bit more effort, I know we’ll get there.

Fall Back DST memes

Hey, welcome readers! This post is from 2016, and while it’s still funny, there’s lot’s more fun stuff. The easiest way to see it all may be just to use this DST Memes tag.

In the spring I presented a collection of memes about the “spring forward” DST clock changing insanity.

I know we get an extra hour of sleep this time, but it doesn’t feel like it. I’m all goofed up already, and I’m really dreading the sun going down before I get out of work on Monday. 

Turns out, I’m not alone. I need to go update all my research posts, and probably write a couple of new posts. Just a bit of the new reports out this year:

But to help you get through the day, especially an extra long day waiting for the election to be over, I present to you these memes that you can use however you like.

Good luck getting through the next few days and weeks.

 Trump-clock-changing.009

Dst-car-clock-meme

 

On-sunday-set-your-clock-back-one-hour-on-tuesday-be-careful-that-you-dont-set-the-country-back-50-years-132ba

Kids-Daylight-Savings-660

Daylight-savings-memes-5_1446487316913_26107815_ver1.0_640_480

Its-pitch-black-out-what-time-is-it-is-it-midnight-its-5-27-pm-1446435185

Much-worse

Screen Shot 2016-11-06 at 6.12.09 PM

Reasons to Keep Changing The Clocks Back and Forth for #DST?

This election year in the U.S. has been rough, and as I mentioned, the “fall back” change comes in the middle of the last days of the election, meaning it will be one hour longer than it needs to be.

It’s only an hour, but even an hour is an eternity this year.

One of the reasons this year has been so hard is that the two presidential candidates are so different. People really can’t understand how anybody could support the other side.

That’s why I thought this article in the HBR was so helpful. It provides ways of helping people who support Trump an exit-ramp so that they can avoid supporting him without being “wrong” for supporting him in the first place.

I was thinking about that this morning when a friend posted a picture from an annual tradition that he has.

Lakeview

Every year on the last day of Daylight Saving Time, he and some other faithful go for the last sunrise that comes at a reasonable-enough hour, and take in the sunrise, and then they head into the Lakeview Lounge. This is a throwback drinking establishment that opens at 7 a.m.

So I suggested to my friend that this tradition will have to change, or at least evolve, if we can get rid of changing the clocks back and forth for #DST.

He said only, “Don’t do it.” (The guy was busy drinking at 7 a.m., so I didn’t expect a long answer. 😉

But he’s got a legitimate point of view. Taking away the clock changing would take away a fun annual event for him.

Are there other arguments in favor of changing the clocks twice per year? I really haven’t heard any. I’ve heard from lots of people that like either year-round DST or year-round standard time.

But other than my friend and his desire to have a once-a-year cocktail at 7 a.m., I haven’t heard of anyone who likes the clock-changing aspect of DST.

Have you?

Let me know on on our Facebook page, on Twitter by tagging me.  

 

Fixing DST Just Took A Huge Step, Even If The Media Missed It

Look, I was a reporter for a long time, I get it. It’s hard to do a story substantially different than what everyone else is doing.

So let me make it really easy for everyone:

The cause of fixing Daylight Saving Time clock changing just took a ginormous step forward with the passage of a resolution in California calling for an end to changing the clocks twice per year. The California resolution is based on the model DST resolution I first published in February of 2015. 

If you look at the coverage of the work of the state legislature, the resolution passing may seem like something of a footnote to the news that a bill failed.

But the bill, as readers of this site know, was doomed long, long ago. That it died last week is not news. It was dead before it was introduced, it’s just that the people who saw the body moving around thought that it had a chance at life. It never did. 

The big news is that the resolution passed when the bill failed.

Now typically a resolution has no power, it’s just an honorary thing. That’s what makes it powerful! We now have proof of what I’ve been advocating for a long time on this blog: Legislators are going to have a tough time passing a bill that will probably violate Federal Law, but they’ll have no problem voting for a resolution because they think it will have no power.

But this resolution is special. It has a hidden superpower. This resolution is The Little Train That Could.

Just look at the votes this resolution got from the very handy Bill Track 50.

DST-vote-history

It was essentially unanimous in every single vote. Here is an issue that nearly everyone agrees on, regardless of party. Any legislator who has ever asked constituents about it will tell you that it is a huge issue that brings up great passions.

There was only one vote against the resolution in the California Senate from a guy named Jim Nielsen, who is the senator from the agricultural community of Gerber, in the north-central part of the state. Lots of agriculture there, and good for Nielsen for standing up for the farmers, even if he may be a bit off on the facts.

“Our crops have gotten accustomed to that. They’ve in fact been bred to deal with that longer harvest season,” Nielsen said while arguing against the bill. “Don’t fix something that’s not broken.”

He said that in his arguments against the bill, and his side won the day and they did kill that doomed bill.

Crops, meanwhile, may have been bred for a longer season, but DST doesn’t have anything to do with seasons, only with the hours in a given day.

But, while Nielsen’s arguments against the bill may have worked on the bill, they didn’t carry over to the resolution. There were 17 “no” votes on the bill, but only one “no” vote on the resolution, from Nielsen.

(Sen. Nielsen, if you are reading this… Most people think that DST was put in place to help the farmers, but that’s never been true. In the excellent book, Seize The Daylight, the author, David Prerau, dug up the history that farmers were against the change when DST was first proposed, but the big business interests in Boston claimed that the farmers liked it. I see here that you come from agriculture, so you know better than others that real farmers work from before sunrise until after sunset, no matter what the clock says. I understand your desire to represent agriculture, but you’ll do it best by helping the sons and daughters of farmers to have more daylight after school to be able to help out on the family farm while there’s still some daylight.)

(Oh, one other thing, Sen. Nielsen… DST is — in fact — “broken.” It was started by the Germans during WWI and it’s bad for kids, victims of crime, people with bad hearts, productivity, the environment… the list goes on and on. DST is broken, indeed.)

 

What’s Next for the DST Resolution?

So, now that this historic resolution has passed in California, what happens next?

Well, the only official thing that happens is that this resolution will get sent to Congress and the President.

Unfortunately, getting Congress to do anything right now is pretty much impossible.

So, I will personally make sure that the other state legislatures are aware of this.

But to win this fight, I may need some help.

  • If you are a citizen concerned about this, contact your local legislators and let them know that if they want to pass a resolution that can really help fix things — a resolution that already passed in California with huge bipartisan support — they can do that.
  • If you are a teacher, consider doing a unit on DST, and deliver the results of your students’ research and this model resolution to your legislature if you visit the state capitol, or if you have a legislator visit your class.
  • If you are a journalist, consider doing a story about this movement. Your readers care about this issue, and are interested in real solutions.

The legislators can write the resolution however they want, but they are certainly welcome to copy the model DST resolution from this site, or the California resolution, or they can start from scratch. As long as the intent of the resolution is that the legislature and the state express a desire to end DST clock-changing, it will do the trick. If you think the people of your state for one reason or another want standard time year-round, you are welcome to advocate for that, but for nearly every state you’ll find that year round Daylight Saving Time will always be the most popular. Looking at the maps as much as I have, I really think only Michigan could potentially make the case that they’d be better off staying in Standard Time, which would essentially mean they’d join the same time zone as Wisconsin when the country switches to permanent Daylight Saving Time.

The only thing that I think is off about the California proposal is that it lacks an instruction to send the approved copy to the other states who have yet to pass such a resolution. Right now that’s all of them, except for Arizona and Hawaii, which are grandfathered in to staying on the same time year-round. But as I said, I’ll be doing all I can to make sure the other states all know about this resolution.

 

Change is hard. It takes a time and work, but thanks to Representative Jay Obernolte, the Assembly and Senate of California, it will be just a bit easier to push for change that can make a difference for the entire country.

Is this the beginning of the end for DST clock-changing?

The California legislature took a huge step toward fixing Daylight Saving Time Monday, and nobody really understood it.

Well, with the exception of readers of this blog.

A committee of the California Senate heard two proposals related to DST. Both passed, but only one of the proposals got any press.

That one is a bill, a well-meaning bill I’ve written about before. It passed out of the Senate committee, but from there it heads to another committee, and from there maybe to another committee and maybe to the floor of the Senate, where it will need two-thirds to pass. If it gets that, it will need to do the whole thing again in the California Assembly and then it will go to a vote of the people.

There’s almost no chance that will happen because of the business interests who want to keep more daylight in the summer evenings.

And, even if all that did happen and the voters of California passed it, there’s a non-trivial chance that the Federal DoT would overrule the will of the people and not allow the change because it takes away from the uniformity called for in the Uniform Time Act of 1967.

That’s why the bill from Kansen Chu is doomed.

The good news, and the news that’s so misunderstood because it is, admittedly, more complex, is that a joint resolution from Jay Obernolte also passed the same Senate committee.

This is the resolution that was already approved by a committee in the Assembly (that’s what California calls the lower body, what most states call the House) and by a vote of the full Assembly. It then went on to the Senate committee, where it passed unanimously on Monday. The bill from Sen. Chu had some “no” votes; it still passed but the fact that it had “no” votes is a sign of the problems it will face down the road.

Obernolte’s resolution, however passed unanimously, and has sailed through every vote it’s faced.

And the interesting thing is that the Senate committee did not decide to send it to yet another committee, it decided to send it to the floor of the Senate for a final vote.

Resolutions, you see, are the voice of the legislature, and so they do not require a vote from Governor Jerry Brown.

So this resolution that passed the committee Monday, a version of the one first introduced on this site, is one vote away from passage.

Now, it would be easy to say that this resolution won’t go anywhere even if it does pass, but I think this one will be different.

Why?

California is California. It’s the largest state in the union and people pay attention. Similar efforts to this have been attempted in smaller states, and didn’t get much traction. I think part of the reason is that smaller states didn’t want to appear… well… weird. This is a new idea, a new strategy, a new way of thinking. For a state like Arkansas or Missouri to be the leader, well, it’s understandable why they wouldn’t want to be on the tip edge of the sword. 

Now a state legislator in any of the other states can stand up and say that he or she wants to do something to stick it to the feds, protect the health of the people of the state, and do it in a way that’s consistent with what other, larger, states are doing.

Also, because California is California, the Federal DoT may pay a little more attention when this falls into their laps.

So join me in congratulating Assemblyman Jay Obernolte on getting this resolution thisclose to victory. If and when that victory comes we’ll be that much closer to fixing this dumb DST clock-changing once and for all.

DST Videos and Memes – A Select Collection

Here’s every worthwhile Daylight Saving Time video and meme photo, all in one handy place:

This is probably the funniest video, and it wraps up so many of the great points. Excellent.

The sequel, as they say, is never as good, but this is still excellent:

John Oliver’s take is spot-on:

Here’s a good explainer video:

 And as for Daylight Saving Time memes… There are hundreds. First, here’s my contribution:

Hamilton-DST-Meme

 Here are some classics, adapted for DST, even if some of them erroneously put an “s” at the end of “Saving” Time:

Count_rugen_dst_sucks

DST-aint-meme

DST_way-early-meme

DST clock in car meme

DST-poop-meme

Ron-burgundy-daylight-savings

Daylight-savings-time-y-u-no-save-time

Starbucks-DST-meme

Ee-cards-dst-meme

Office-space-dst-meme

DST-cher-meme

Daylight-Savings-Time-Monday-Meme

Monday-after-daylight-savings-meme

Hope you enjoy these, and if you want to take the time to share a meme photo, maybe you want to take just a moment to try to fix all this crazy clock-changing?

Check out this site for ways that you can pitch in.

Thanks!

An Open Letter to Kansen Chu — Re: Daylight Saving Time

An open letter to Kansen Chu, member of the California Assembly.

Dear Kansen,

(I hope you don’t mind me calling you Kansen. As you are an engineer, so I’m assuming like other engineers you don’t stand on formality, and besides, “Dear Assemblymember” just sounds odd for people who don’t hang around Sacramento.)

First: Let me say congratulations. On behalf of those of us who’ve been laboring on this issue for a while, it’s wonderful to see the concerns about Daylight Saving Time get the kind of attention that only comes when an elected official from our most populous state gets involved. It’s fantastic.

And by the way, I don’t mean that flippantly. This is an issue that a huge swath of the population cares deeply about, and yet nobody seems to talk about it in any meaningful way. You are, and it’s just fantastic. (Twelve other states are looking into it so far this year, which is also great.)

Second: Be sure to thank your dentist. I read that he’s the one that suggested that you champion this topic. 

Third: Your dentist is right on the facts: Switching in and out of DST is not healthy. I’ve got a list of most of the research about DST here.

Fourth: I hope you don’t mind me numbering all the points. My hunch is that as an engineer, you’ll appreciate it, just as all your constituents will appreciate the time not jumping around so they can enjoy the moon behind the clouds on a spring evening without losing an hour of sleep.

Daylight saving time night time

Fifth: You told a reporter that your interpretation of the federal law is that California could switch to Standard Time, and not go to year-round DST. That is certainly a reasonable interpretation, but it may not be right. Nobody has ever formally asked the Feds to move into permanent DST since the passage of The Uniform Time Act of 1966. All the approved changes have been to make time more uniform across the four time zones.

I understand why you have the interpretation that you do, and you may be right, but it is far from settled. I wrote about this a year before you knew it was even an issue.

The legality seems to be tied up not in which time zone you are in, but if that time zone is uniform with the rest of the country. California essentially being in its own time zone decreases uniformity, so will probably be denied, even if the people vote for it.

Sixth: Even if it wasn’t doomed by the Feds, your effort in its current form will be doomed by big business.

In short, all the money in this fight does not want Standard Time year round. The farmers did not want DST after World War II, it was the golf industry, and that industry will certainly fight you on this. Also, the lawn care industry, those who sell patio furniture, the recreation industry, major league and little league baseball — all of these and plenty more have a lot of money tied up in longer summer evenings.

Don’t be surprised if some of your old “friends” from the restaurant industry contact you soon and urge you to drop this, as earlier darkness means fewer trips out to eat.

Pretty much the only industry I’ve been able to find that supports year-round Standard Time is broadcast TV, which wants it dark early so people will go inside and watch television.

Seventh: Do NOT take points five and six as evidence that I’m against you. I’m not. I’m totally in favor of doing anything that shakes things up. If you can get this passed, I’ll be cheering more loudly than anyone. I want this, it’s just that the path of getting a proposal passed by both houses of the legislature, signed by the governor and then approved in a statewide ballot is a long and difficult path, especially given that you’ll have business and the federal government against you.

Eighth: If you call the federal DoT, and if the people there tell you what they’ve told other state legislators I’ve talked to, you’ll maybe be sad. Or if all the business interests tell you that you need to back off, maybe you’ll be sad. Or maybe if people start calling your proposal “depressing,” you will be depressed yourself.

Do not lose heart!!! You are fighting the good fight.

Ninth and final point (with its own numbered list): There is a way that you can turn this into a winning issue for you, for California, and for the whole country. Here’s how:

  1. Instead of a bill, with it’s long odds of success, offer instead a resolution. Now, you know better than most that resolutions don’t typically do very much, but this one would be different.
  2. This resolution would simply say that it is the wish of California that it would move to year-round DST, and that you want all other states to join you.
  3. That resolution would go to the other states, and the Feds.
  4. If two-thirds of the states pass the same resolution, the Feds could solve this with one ruling of the DoT, no Act of Congress needed because this will make the country more uniform under the current law.
  5. If you don’t like the wording of that resolution, which is a bit hyperbolic, I’ll write you a new one that’s more toned down, or you can write one yourself.

In short, Kansen, and to paraphrase Casablanca… Welcome to the fight. With you on board, I know our side will win!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Clock is Ticking on the Clock Changing

The fall change has come and gone. Because this is the easy change — the one where you get an extra hour — typically the press dies off pretty quickly.

Not this year. 

I’ve been paying close attention to this issue for years, and this year I really think the tide is turning.

Just take a look at some of the press, in no particular order:

Interactive Guide

Where to hate Daylight Saving Time. This is good data, no doubt, but I actually find it to be a distraction. It makes the assumption that things are better or worse for people depending on when the sun comes up and goes down relative to the clock. The problem there is that there’s never a perfect answer there, especially for people who live north of the equator.

Those flat maps give you a hint of the problem.

Dst_normal

 

The problem is easiest to see with the map on the right. See how the zones of darkness are kind of like cones, getting bigger as you go north? The lines would look straight if you looked at them on a globe, but because they are flat they look like that because there’s just not enough daylight to go around the further you get away from the equator.

DstRules The tool that this guy (Andy Woodruff) has created is awesome, no doubt about it, and you should check it out. But read the whole post, and you’ll see that he comes to the same conclusion that all people who spend any time studying the issue come to: Permanent DST is the biggest win for the most people.

Because there’s just no way to avoid a late sunrise in the mornings for everyone in the winter, the best thing we can do is give everyone a sunset after 5 p.m.

This is the only map that has all winners, and no losers, except for those in Alaska (of course), and a few hearty souls in the northern reaches of Idaho and Maine.

(And if those two states want to take advantage of the elimination of DST clock changing and move one time zone to the east, well, this would be a good time to do that.)

 Legislative Action

A guy who I’ve followed for a while now, Sen. Cliff Pirtle of New Mexico, recently announced that he’s going to be back with a resolution to get rid of the clock changing.

Good for him!

He’s realized that states simply won’t be allowed by the feds to change time zones on their own, so he’s going the route of a resolution. He’s close, but not quite there with the legislation that I’m recommending.

His resolution calls for New Mexico changing, and only New Mexico. The problem is that the federal Department of Transportation has as one of its conditions for allowing change the notion of “uniformity.” The law that it is enforcing is called the Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S.C. §§ 260-64). They want nice, even lines.

So I’ll be contacting Sen. Pirtle and asking him to consider changing his proposal just a bit to make it so that New Mexico won’t try to go it alone, but instead will be a leader in getting all states to fix this mess. (If you see this, Sen. Pirtle, and haven’t gotten my email, contact me!)

Nevada efforts stuck

A similar resolution passed in Nevada, but hasn’t done a lick of good, according to an excellent column from Patrick Everson. Here again, if Nevada next year can pass a resolution that joins Nevada to a national effort, maybe it will make a difference. It certainly can’t hurt, and it will only add to the effort in other states so that the whole country can get out of this mess.

Sick of the clock changing, eh?

Canadians have had it with changing the clocks in and out of DST, too, it appears from some news coverage.

They are frustrated, so they wanted to take action, but unfortunately the action they took is to create a petition. It always seems like such a good idea, until you do a search and realize that there’ve been at least 30 different petitions on change.org related to Daylight Saving Time. All of them have made an identical amount of difference: Zero.

Oh, Canada! If you want to make a real change, contact me and I’ll make a special version of the legislative resolution to fix DST that will work in the provinces. 

Someone’s got a smelly bottom, and it isn’t the baby!

It’s fun to joke and laugh about DST. I certainly have, and there’s lots of mirth to go around.

But it is a life-and-death issue. Car accidents. Heart attacks. Deadly crime. The research is all there that the clock changing, especially in the spring, is deadly.

So it makes me a bit cynical that the PR team at diapers.com would create a petition, a hashtag, a graphic and the works to try to “End Daylight Saving Time.” Sure, parents do get whacked twice a year trying to get good sleep for their family, and ending the clock changing is a great goal. (They screwed up on what they are asking for, which is common, but you’d think they would have researched it. What they want is NOT to “End Daylight Saving Time” but to end changing into and out of DST.)

But it’s clear from the campaign that it’s all about raising the profile of the diaper seller, and not actually fixing the problem.

If they wanted to fix it, they could help me with my legislative proposal. Instead, they just made a petition (see above for the futility of that) and they even insult our intelligence by making the petition out to “Leaders of the free world.” Whatevs.

Hey, diapers.com… If you really want to make a difference, contact me and I’ll show you how we can get something done. Until then, consumers know when they are being hustled, and this is one big stunt.

Other news

There’s been lots more, including new research showing that we could help decrease crime if we stayed in DST year-round, more research that clock-changing is bad for your health,  and more.

David Miles is starting a petition in Oregon. (David, great spirit, but that plan is not gonna work. Contact me, let’s get Oregon into this idea that can work.)

There’s much more I could do, but my word count is already over 1,000 and there’s only so much I can ask anyone to read. Have something you think I should cover? Just let me know!

Thanks for reading.

Fix DST permanently: A step-by-step plan for teachers

If you are a teacher, this post is for you.

The prerequisites for this plan of action are:

  1. An understanding of the basic concepts of Daylight Saving Time.
  2. Students who are willing to engage with local elected officials for non-partisan education.

The steps to participation are as follows:

  1. As appropriate for your students’ grade level, lecture about the history of Daylight Saving Time or ask the students to research the history and write a research report. Here’s a good start of research resources about DST.
  2. Once the research is done, gauge interest in trying to make a difference in ending DST clock-changing.
  3. If interest is sufficient, have the students research the plan presented on this site.
  4. If as a class, or as an independent project, students want to be part of the plan to change the law they should find their local state legislators from the state senate as well as the house or whatever the other body is known as. (Or in Nebraska, only the senators.) This tool usually works.
  5. The students should then ask for a meeting, either in the office of the legislator or ask that person or those people to come to the class to discuss the issue. (This is a guide put together by the Humane Society, but is applicable for most issues.)
  6. Introduce them to the concept, and then the model language, and tell them about the progress being made in other states using this language.
  7. Be sure to follow-up and thank the official.
  8. The best time to talk to a legislator is in the fall, before the legislative session begins.
  9. All state capitols have arrangements for tours for students during the legislative session. Be sure students know their legislators to arrange a brief meeting while visiting the statehouse.
  10. If your legislator introduces the model legislation, or some version of it, be sure to contact any and all local media to let them know about your support for the position and your role in sparking the discussion.
  11. Once the resolution is passed be sure to ask the legislator if you can be present for any bill-signing ceremony.

And of course, if you have any success at all, be sure to let us know via the contact info on this page and we’ll be sure to highlight your success on this blog.

Daylight Saving Time research — A comprehensive list

Studies on the harmful impacts of Daylight Saving Time

Books about Daylight Saving Time

Cover

 

Seize the Daylight, The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time, by David Prerau

 

 

 

 

SpringForward-cvr-thumb

 

 

Spring Forward: The Annual Madness of Daylight Saving Time
Book by Michael Downing

 

 

 

Government links

US Department of Transportation

Federal Law

Twitter Accounts following DST issues

 

Other websites about Daylight Saving Time

 

 

 

It’s real now. Model Resolution now in play in one state. Is your state next?

Update in October, 2020: Welcome to this page. For some reason the search engines are sending a lot of traffic to this page, even though it’s more than five years old. For much more up-to-date info, check the Current DST Legislation page. And please be in touch!

 

A number of states have forward-thinking legislators negotiating the waters in their own states, but there’s now one state who’s taken the model resolution I wrote, and introduced it into the legislative process.

First alphabetically, and now first to introduce, is Alabama. Here’s a link to the resolution from the state site. Here’s a link to the summary on this resolution from a bill-tracking service. (Full disclosure, I’m a shareholder in that service.)

Here’s some coverage of that Resolution.

 

This is huge news.

Remember, this whole thing started as me just complaining about the difficulty of adjusting twice per year, and now it is officially a legislative initiative that could quickly spread to all of the 48 states that are currently stuck in the clock-changing rut.

Thanks to Sen. Glover for having the courage to go first.

If you, too, hate changing clocks twice per year and want to get involved, just find your representatives to the state legislature, and urge them to pass this resolution. Be sure to tell them it’s a resolution — not a law — which makes it much easier to get approved.

State lawmakers really do enjoy hearing from constituents, and with the time change this weekend and the deadly Monday Morning coming up, this is the perfect time to get involved.

If you happen to be reading this on Friday morning, March 6, tune in to HuffPo Live at about 10:15 a.m. EST, and be sure to join the conversation. The more we can show how much the people are tired of the clock-changing, the easier it will be to convince legislators to take action.

If you can’t tune in, go take this one-question poll from AccuWeather. When I took it public sentiment was more than two-to-one against the clock changing.

Screen Shot 2015-03-06 at 6.41.08 AM

See you on HuffPo Live!

It’s time to get rid of Daylight Saving Time Clock-Changing

With the Spring Forward change coming up soon, the attention to Daylight Saving Time is ratcheting up.

But it seems a bit different this year.

Typically the attention from the media and most people is to just get the instructions, and move on.

Then in recent years there’s been more a sense of bemusement about the time change. People that talk about sticking with one time zone year-round get a nice pat on the head and a bit of a laugh.

There’s no question that Daylight Saving Time is comedy gold. Historians think Ben Franklin was joking when he suggested moving the clocks around to increase productivity. 

Then this video that appeared last year was a huge hit, and justifiably so:

 

But I’ve noticed a subtle shift in the tone of the coverage and the sentiment this year. What is it?

Well, first there’s the coverage of the legal efforts to end the clock-changing.

At least a 14 states by my count have some kind of legislation in some level of discussion this year. The coverage is more sober than it’s been in the past. Before a typical story would begin with some trivial anecdote. Now the stories are more like this one from Alaska.

JUNEAU — A state Senate committee has advanced a bill that would exempt Alaska from daylight saving time, a measure that its sponsor said would be good for the health of state residents.

No bad puns. No winking references. Just a straight-up news story. 

And it’s correct, too. From heart attacks and traffic accidents to problems for diabetics and those with sleep issues, there’s no question that changing the clocks is a huge public health concern.

And with the serious nature of the proposal comes resistance that’s just as serious. A different Alaskan legislator is now fighting the proposed change.

Of course, the biggest opponent to change is the United States Government, specifically the Department of Transporation.

The feds try to make it clear that they control the time zones, not the states. One state learned this very clearly. Other states will find out their efforts on this are doomed soon enough.

But the progress in the coverage reminds me of the great quote:

First they ignore you.

Then they laugh at you.

Then they fight you.

Then you win.

 

First they ignore you, then they laught at you, then they fight you, then you win.

 

(It turns out that Gandhi probably never said that, but it’s still a great quote.)

How will we win?

It’s hard to say for sure. Congress certainly doesn’t seem to hold any hope.

The state legislation percolating around the country has some promise, but each one is probably doomed by the Federal Department of Transportation.

In my home state of Colorado, a band of citizens has gotten approval to collect signatures and get a measure on the ballot for people to vote on.

I support this measure, even though I worry that all that work may be for nothing if the Feds reject this the same way they reject every other state-based effort. Supporters of that movement think that it will be analogous to the marijuana initiative: Not consistent with what the feds want, but allowed to exist anyway. Maybe they are right.

Perhaps this is Stockholm Syndrome or something, but I actually think the Feds have a point in wanting uniformity of time zones in the whole country. I don’t want people in New York to have to figure out if Denver is two or three hours different depending on the time of year. The disruption to transportation is real.

But the clock-changing must end.

That’s why I’m so pleased that some legislators are now working to pass this Resolution to end Daylight Saving Clock Changing.

It’s deceptively simple, even more simple than my original plan of trying to get states to pass a law. With this plan legislatures simply voice an opinion, an opinion supported by the wide majority of their constituents.

And if enough states pass this resolution it may act as just the bump that the Department of Transportation needs to recognize that interstate commerce is best served by keeping the states uniform AND by not allowing a time change that dramatically increases traffic accidents.

The data from the New England Journal of Medicine about increased heart attacks is compelling, but I can see bureaucrats from the Department of Transportation ignoring that. “Not my department.”

But traffic accidents? Doesn’t the DoT have a mission to ensure that we have a safe transportation system? Yes! 

And does the science show irrefutably that the clock change creates an unsafe transportation system?

Yes again. The science about that last point is crystal clear, thanks to another Coloradan, a PhD candidate named Austin C. Smith, who used “regression discontinuity design” and other impressive-sounding techniques to prove that the sleep disruption and the sudden change of the sunrise and sunset relative to rush-hour simply kills people every year.

Let’s put it in very clear terms:

This Monday — right after the “spring forward” change — U.S. citizens will die.

They will die in traffic accidents to that their families will seem tragic. And those accidents will in fact be tragic because they are preventable.

There is no energy savings. There is no help to farmers. There is no safety issue for school children.

There is no sane reason to keep switching into and out of time zones other than the fact that we started doing it during World War I and somehow never really stopped.

There’s no humor in that. None.

And that is why they aren’t laughing at this idea any more. They may fight it, but that’s better than laughing at it, and certainly better than ignoring it.

The fight means we’ve almost won. It seems far off, but in the sweep of history it’s very near indeed. The Department of Transportation controls this, and could do something, but won’t until they hear clearly from the states that it’s time.

It is time.

What now?

If you agree, and haven’t yet taken any action, I suggest the following:

Good: Like, tweet, share this post

Better: Write your own post, update, status or whatever and share it with your legislators and other influencers.

Best: Contact your state legislator and urge them to introduce this Resolution.

I’ve gotten emails from legislators in four states now. This thing is happening, and you can be a part of this victory if you take some action right now.

 

Model Resolution for State Legislatures to Fix Daylight Saving Time Clock-Changing

Here is a model language for a resolution that legislators in any state can freely.

Title: Stop Dangerous and Antiquated Clock-Changing Federal Daylight Saving Time Mandate

WHEREAS the history of changing clocks relative to the sun for political reasons originated with Ben Franklin, who proposed re-orienting the time to increase productivity as an elaborate practical joke;

WHEREAS the United States has used some version of “Daylight Saving Time” since 1918 when it was rushed into place as a wartime measure after Germany and then England enacted a similar scheme;

WHEREAS after World War I local jurisdictions had some control over how they set their clocks until the passage of the Uniform Time Act of 1966, which mandates that every state participate in the practice of changing the clocks twice per year unless they opt for permanent Standard Time;

WHEREAS uniformity among the 50 states is essential for interstate commerce, even with Arizona and Hawaii having opted for permanent Standard Time;

WHEREAS “Daylight Saving Time” has proven highly beneficial in the early spring, late fall and summer months for health, commerce, recreation and much more, making it highly popular among businesses and the general population;

WHERAS a recent poll showed 68 percent of U.S. residents gave support for Permanent Daylight Saving Time, with only 14 percent opposed;

WHEREAS the overwhelming conclusion of researchers is that the act of changing the clocks twice per year is the direct cause of deadly heart attacks, traffic accidents, workplace injuries, pedestrian deaths, crime, suicides, sleep disruption, and a loss of productivity;

WHEREAS researchers have determined that remaining in Daylight Saving Time year round will save significant amounts of energy in November and February and furthermore will lead to a decrease in childhood obesity by increasing the amount of sunlight after school hours and decrease smog in the winter because rush hour will happen more in the daylight; 

WHEREAS the rationale for switching clocks twice per year to aid in the war effort — while based on faulty science — may have been laudable more than 100 years ago, all scientific research and public sentiment in Colorado now clearly favor remaining in Daylight Saving Time year round.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Legislature of the state of Colorado that it is the sentiment of this legislative body and of the people represented by this body that the United States should change what is currently “Daylight Saving Time” to the new “Standard Time” and stay with that time year-round;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that this Resolution be delivered to the President of the United States, and the Colorado delegation in the U.S. Congress urging passage of any legislation that would put an end to the deadly, energy-wasting, productivity-killing, twice-yearly clock changing.

SIGNATURES

Lots of action, but no real progress on DST

In a recent post, I commended a state senator from Alabama for trying to get his state off the crazy clock changing and stay in Daylight Saving Time year-round.

I also pointed out that he was doomed.

Since then a bunch of other states have legislators that want to make the world a better place by ending all the clock changing. Some of them don’t yet know that they are doomed.

The guy in Alabama, however, does know, and announced as much to the press: The Federal Government has control over the clocks. States can pass whatever bills they want to pass, the feds will just tell them, “Too bad.”

That’s why I’ve been advocating a radical but simple plan: All the states need to pass similar legislation saying that they want to get out of DST. 

The bill would say simply: At the point that two-thirds of all states pass a similar bill, at that point we will apply to the Federal Department of Transportation to go into permanent DST.

If two-thirds of the states move all at the same time to fix this, it will get fixed.

I’m hopeful that Alabama will be one of the first to pass this new plan. The beauty of the plan, of course, is that it should be a pretty easy vote for legislators. They aren’t saying they want to be the first to change, they are just saying that if everyone agrees to change, they don’t want to be left out.

Alabama legislators are now considering it because they’ve learned the hard truth. Texas, Utah, New Mexico and probably some others haven’t gotten the bad news yet, but  when they do I hope they will consider joining in this plan.

News about getting rid of Daylight Saving Time

When the DST piece I wrote on CNN appeared, and then the fall time change happened, there was an understandable surge in interest.

Then I got busy at work, and Thanksgiving, bla bla bla, here I am a month later posting the next blog post. (Not great for a guy who’s day job is about the importance of blogging regularly.)

Suddenly this week there’s a surge of activity related to getting rid of all the dumb clock changing into and out of Daylight Saving Time.

In my home state of Colorado, a personal trainer and his wife have made it their mission to stay in DST year round. See their story here, and the page they set up here. 

I wrote to Sean Johnson, the guy leading that group. I really want to encourage him, because any efforts to raise awareness are great. Respectfully, I tried to point out to him that his efforts in the particular direction he’s headed may not work. Several state legislators have learned this lesson the hard way: The federal government just won’t let states set their own time zone. That’s what the law in 1966 was all about.

I’m hoping that he will take his considerable talents and motivation and direct it toward a plan that could really work. All the other efforts since 1966 have failed, and I fear his will, too.

What’s the plan? It’s outlined in the posts below, but basically it’s to go to state legislatures and ask them to pass a bill that says, essentially: “If at least two-thirds of the states pass a similar bill, we will petition the Federal DOT to stop the clock changing.”

You see, it’s only with a huge majority of states moving at the same time that the feds will hear the voice of the people. One state at a time, the feds will always win.

Even if the state is as big as Texas.

I read this morning that Rep. John Frullo of Texas wants to get the Lone Star State to stop switching in and out of DST. That’s awesome, of course. 

(One note: He’s advocating that Texas stay in Standard Time year round. In Texas, as in Arizona, that might be OK because of the long days and the heat in that state, not to mention that Texas is at the far western edge of the Central Time zone, so it has plenty of light in summer evenings. In most other states the golf and recreation industries will fight to keep states in Daylight Time year-round.)

I wrote to Rep. Frullo and encouraged him to consider carrying a bill following the two-thirds plan. If he can get that signed by the governor of Texas, that will go a long way to getting this plan rolling and may be the quickest way for Texas to actually be able to stop all the clock changing.

(One other side note, if you watch that TV spot, the reporter says that DST started in the early 1900s “to accomodate people working out doors.” Baloney. That was never part of the initial thinking. Germany was the first country to use DST and it was to conserve fuel for WWI. Britain and the US soon followed suit.)

Not sure why all the Daylight Saving Time news is from the West, but the one other state looking at this up close this week is Utah. There a popular radio show is hosting a discussion about DST. They’ll have the author David Prerau on. He wrote Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time. When I got into this issue I devoured that book, it’s very very good.

That show will also have two state legislators on. I hope the host will ask them what they think of the two-thirds idea as a way to make progress on this.

If they do, I’ll be sure to report back here and put a link up to that conversation.

 

The easy change is here

Traffic on this blog is picking up for the weekend of the change, so time for a fresh post.

This, of course, is the easy change. Getting a 49-hour weekend is awesome.

In my short piece on CNN, and in my longer piece, I wrote about the health problems associated with the time change in the spring. 

I didn’t know until this weekend that there are some serious health problems associated with the time change in the fall, too. According to this (annoyingly paginated) piece from weather.com, the fall time-change is associated with “cluster” headaches, seasonal affective disorder, and more.

All this attention, and a quick look at social media, shows that people are really getting fed up with the time change.

And now we have a new ally in the fight, a state senator from Alabama. According to this story, Sen. Rusty Glover is planning on introducing a bill to put Alabama in year-round Daylight Saving Time.

He won’t succeed, however. The U.S. Government has made it clear it will not approve individual states changing time zones. Arizona and Hawaii are grandfathered in.

So, I’ll be writing to Sen. Glover as soon as I finish this post, and tell him about my plan to fix Alabama, and all the other states as well.

What is that plan?

Here are the steps:

  1. Gather volunteers from around the country who’d like to spend a little bit of time on this.
  2. Encourage students to do experiments during the spring clock-changing to show how hard the clock changing is on all of us.
  3. Encourage those same students, and anyone really, to go to their state legislator and urge those state level representatives and senators to pass a bill. 
    That bill will say that if — and only if — at least 30 other states pass a similar bill, then the state will ask the U.S. Department of Transportation to let it move to make Daylight Saving Time the new standard time for that state. When the DOT gets one application, it shoots it down, but with two thirds of the states…
  4. Once those bills get introduced around the country, we’ll need all of us lobbying our state representatives and senators. (They don’t get lobbied much from regular people, so this will be fun for them.)

That’s the basic plan, but I do need help. If you have any interest in helping, please look at the volunteer job board that I’ve created here. We need lots of volunteers to get this thing moving forward.

I guess the question I have for you is this: You’ve been given an “extra” hour this weekend…. What do you want to do with it? How about working for an hour to get rid of all the crazy clock-changing?

Do you want to change the world?

This effort to end all the clock changing is going to get a major boost here as the time change thing happens yet again the first weekend of November.

I’ve got a detailed and thorough plan to get us out of the clock-changing madness, but I can’t do it alone.

Do you want to be able to tell your grandchildren that way back in the olden days the government made us change our clocks for no good reason twice per year, but that you were a part of the movement that ended the silliness? Yes? Then please contact me.

Here’s a short list of what I think we could use right off the bat. If you have some other skill you’d like to offer, please let me know, or just go for it.

  1. Project Management. If you write to me, I’ll send you the plan as it exists now. (We are keeping it under wraps to give an exclusive to a BIG media operation.) The plan is ambitious and requires coordination. We could use one really great person to manage this nationally and then one person in every state other than Arizona and Hawaii, where they already don’t change the clocks twice a year.
  2. Public Relations. At a high level, the strategy is now done for this thing, but as any PR pro knows, the strategy isn’t what makes a success, it’s the work. We could use at least 50, and probably more like 60 or 70 people to help get the word out about this effort in every state and region.
  3. State Lobbyists. We don’t need a lot of lobbying here, we have a secret weapon for that. We could use one good person in each state mostly to keep your ear to the ground and let us know about any opposition to our soon-to-be-revealed plan. If there is, we will be able to counter it, but we just need to know what’s going on.
  4. Federal Lobbyists. Again here we don’t need any hard lobbying, we just need eyes and ears, especially if you have any connections with the Department of Transportation. We do NOT need to lobby the U.S. Congress.
  5. Bloggers. I run a content writing service. I know that lots of great content makes all the difference in the world. If you want to blog on this site, just let me know and we’ll post what you’ve got. If you want to blog on your own site, go for it! We’ll link to it from here.

With all of these positions, there’s no money. There’s only the chance to make the world a better place.

Also there’s some glory. We’ll be very good about highlighting successes and showing what works to everyone, and the world will know that you were a key part of this unlikely, unusual campaign.

I’m no project manager, but I’ve taken some first small steps by creating a project board here. If a real project manager has a better idea, I’m all ears, but it seems like that’s as good a tool as any to keep track of our progress.

So, I ask you… What are you going to do to change the world?

Come and join this revolution!

Time for a change?

This is the first post on this blog, and I’m using this as a placeholder. Soon this will be replaced with a version of a very long piece regarding the plans to switch us to permanent Daylight Saving Time.

Then, this will be where we’ll post other news, research, and approaches to help us in our quest to stop the clock-changing insanity.

Please send any other blog topics via the contact page. Or better yet send whole blog posts and we’ll post them and give you credit.

Thanks!

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