Plan B Forum

California is one step closer to ending daylight saving time

Assembly passes bill that could change time-honored tradition

Derek Schnell, KCRA.com

Published 7:59 pm, Thursday, June 1, 2017

One First of all, let's get this straight: It's Daylight Saving Time, not Daylight Savings Time. You're saving daylight, though actually you're not. We're just moving it around.

Ben's doingBenjamin Franklin conceived of Daylight Saving Time in a 1784 essay.

Be carefulPro tip: Never turn your watch back between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. That's when your watch gears may change the calendar, and you may break it. For you millennials, a watch is how you tell time when you don't have your phone.

Also ...Take the watch off your wrist to change the time so you don't break the stem.

Crime dropCrime falls during Daylight Saving Time by 10 percent, to 13 percent, reports to the U.S. Law Enforcement Assistance Administration.

Over thereUse of Daylight Saving Time began in Europe during World War I to save electricity. The U.S. adopted it after the war.

But still ...Arizona, Hawaii and the portion of Indiana in the eastern time zone don't follow Daylight Saving Time.

Careful out thereWorkplace accidents happen more and with greater severity on the Monday after turning the clocks back, reports the journal of Applied Psychology.

The U.S. Department of Transportation said railroads adopted a four-zone time system in 1883 to reduce confusion as they operated in about 100 conflicting time zones.

Then daylight saving time was introduced by President Woodrow Wilson's administration in 1918 as a way to save energy during World War I.

The Uniform Time Act of 1966 established a uniform daylight saving time throughout the nation, from the second Sunday of March through the first Sunday of November.

The act allows Congress or the transportation secretary to change a time-zone boundary.

What's the point of daylight saving time?


The U.S. Department of Transportation has three key arguments for keeping it:
•It saves energy. Because the sun sets an hour later during daylight saving time, people tend to use less electricity for lights and appliances.
•It saves lives. DOT officials report there are fewer crashes because people are more likely to be driving during daylight.
•It reduces crime. DOT officials claim extra daylight means people are out less at night, when more crime occurs.

Has anyone else dumped daylight saving time?

A variety of states have proposed measures over time to eliminate the time change, but most have failed.

Only two states currently do not observe daylight saving time: Arizona and Hawaii.

American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands also do not observe it.

This story originally appeared on KCRA.com.

Bad News For Lord Jim All Right Thinking Americans

California lawmakers take a (small) first step to doing away with Daylight Saving Time

Lawmakers in the state Assembly approved an effort on Thursday that could end with California voters scrapping the biannual tradition of moving their clocks ahead or behind by an hour.

Assembly Bill 807 is the second effort in as many years by the Legislature to revisit California's use of Daylight Saving Time. The state's voters first approved its use through a 1949 ballot measure. And because of that history, the issue must go back to voters if changes are to be made.

The bill received almost no discussion in Thursday's 48-6 vote in the Assembly. It now heads to the state Senate, where a similar effort died last year.

The proposal would, if placed on next year's statewide ballot, seek to keep California on a single measurement of time all year — whether it be Pacific standard time or what's now only a seasonal adjustment ahead by an hour. The bill by Assemblyman Kansen Chu (D-San Jose) would ask voters to transfer a final decision to the Legislature.

Even then, no changes could be made without federal approval — which would mean the bill could end up changing nothing about timekeeping in California.

Daylight Saving Time was first applied in a uniform fashion across the U.S. in 1966. States can exempt themselves from the law — Arizona and Hawaii have done so — but cannot impose the seasonal change year-round.