Daylight saving time permanent

[skimomma]

I really hope this happens.  I do not care which way it goes but the twice-a-year change is terrible!  It was bad when I had a little kid and even worse with my pets!  I live where it does not matter.  Our days are very short in the winter either way so people go to school/work in the dark no matter what.  When I worked in an office with no windows, I would arrive and leave work in darkness for parts of the year either way, not actually seeing the sun until the weekends.  So JUST PICK ONE and let's stick with it!

[Laura Corin]

3 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

The vast majority of school districts don’t give a hoot. People have been pushing for reasonable start times for decades and it hasn’t mattered.
*Maybe* this will change things a bit, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Personally, I’m a fan of longer afternoons and I’m just accustomed to dark mornings.
Depending on the time of year, kids in my area are either going to school in the dark or coming home in the dark anyway.  At my latitude, December gets barely more than 9 hours, so it’s not easily avoidable.
Meanwhile, my family south of me gets almost a whole hour more, and it’s weird to FaceTime them in the evening from the same exact time zone!

I've always been surprised by school start times in the US. Here in the UK it's 9am or maybe 8.45.  There are before-school clubs for early drop off.

Lots of children walk to school, so I think having a little more light in the morning in winter is worthwhile. School ends between 3 and 4, when there is still some light in winter currently. 

[mommyoffive]

I couldn't care less what happens with this.  Time change has never bothered me at all.  It doesn't affect my kids either as I have heard lots of parents say.  I guess I would rather have more daylight in winter at the end of the day.  But honestly that is just to not feel so tired and ready for bed at like 5pm all winter.  

[kokotg]

I don't care that much about this (I like it best the way it is, personally), but I'm fascinated by watching this debate unfold twice a year, where everyone rallies around "stop changing the time!" and then they gradually realize that they're all split on which time they want to keep, and don't actually agree at all. I thought it was hilarious when this was introduced yesterday all, "look! bipartisan legislation we can ALL get behind!" lololol....NOPE! 

[Soror]

27 minutes ago, Laura Corin said:

I've always been surprised by school start times in the US. Here in the UK it's 9am or maybe 8.45.  There are before-school clubs for early drop off.

Lots of children walk to school, so I think having a little more light in the morning in winter is worthwhile. School ends between 3 and 4, when there is still some light in winter currently. 

It is madness. Even more mind boggling to me is that the local schools have 2 start times 8:30 and 7:30, they have the k-3 start at 8:30 and 4-12 start at 7:30. Why in the world would they pick the little kids to start later? My dd1 does ok with the early start, it is very, very rough on ds who is a natural night owl. 1 more year for him, 1 more!

[Grace Hopper]

15 hours ago, Jean in Newcastle said:

I don’t care as long as it’s set one way or the other. But it’s not set. It now goes to the House. 

And I hope somebody in the House will amend it to effective immediately!

[Carrie12345]

1 hour ago, Laura Corin said:

I've always been surprised by school start times in the US. Here in the UK it's 9am or maybe 8.45.  There are before-school clubs for early drop off.

Lots of children walk to school, so I think having a little more light in the morning in winter is worthwhile. School ends between 3 and 4, when there is still some light in winter currently. 

Yes, it’s ridiculous in a lot of places over here.
In high school, I had to be in home room at 7:20. Add some time to get to my locker first, and a half mile walk from home, and I really couldn’t leave the house later than 7am.

My current district is later, but bus rides are looooong.

[Kassia]

1 hour ago, Soror said:

It is madness. Even more mind boggling to me is that the local schools have 2 start times 8:30 and 7:30, they have the k-3 start at 8:30 and 4-12 start at 7:30. Why in the world would they pick the little kids to start later? My dd1 does ok with the early start, it is very, very rough on ds who is a natural night owl. 1 more year for him, 1 more!

This makes me so mad when all the science shows that teens should start school later for so many reasons - safety, academics, mental health, etc.  Our district starts high school at 7:25am and buses start pick ups around 6am.  I feel like one of the biggest benefits of homeschooling is allowing our kids to get enough sleep!  

My dd's boyfriend's high school started at 9am and he thought that was early - LOL!  

 

[athena1277]

I’m a DST fan, I love more light in the evening.  As someone else said, it’s hard to go out places in the evening when it’s dark when you leave your house.

One thing I really hate is the fall time change.  When suddenly it’s dark before 5pm.  I struggle so much to make that adjustment.  I wonder if it would be easier to deal with if it gets darker earlier gradually in the evenings.  

Edited March 16, 2022 by athena1277
Typo

[Jean in Newcastle]

I get so much more gardening done with DST. I don’t garden in the middle of winter anyway so I am team DST. 

[Sneezyone]

44 minutes ago, Kassia said:

This makes me so mad when all the science shows that teens should start school later for so many reasons - safety, academics, mental health, etc.  Our district starts high school at 7:25am and buses start pick ups around 6am.  I feel like one of the biggest benefits of homeschooling is allowing our kids to get enough sleep!  

My dd's boyfriend's high school started at 9am and he thought that was early - LOL!  

 

That kind of approach is wrong on so many levels. Our elementary students are the early risers. High school here starts at 8:55. Middle schools are in-between

[kbutton]

6 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

Meanwhile, my family south of me gets almost a whole hour more, and it’s weird to FaceTime them in the evening from the same exact time zone!

How much farther south? I have always thought the difference between here and my parents' was mostly due to east/west, but we are probably a 3-4 hour drive south if we shifted east to be directly south of them. 

5 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

Someone educate me why we shouldn't give serious consideration to splitting the difference?

That would be so much better.

2 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

I've always been surprised by school start times in the US. Here in the UK it's 9am or maybe 8.45.  There are before-school clubs for early drop off.

Lots of children walk to school, so I think having a little more light in the morning in winter is worthwhile. School ends between 3 and 4, when there is still some light in winter currently. 

Schools here start unconscionably early, and daylight starts so late. Growing up in a different part of the country, they started later, and we had daylight much earlier. Small wonder I can't seem to ambulate in the morning here. 

41 minutes ago, athena1277 said:

One thing I really hate is the fall time change.  When suddenly it’s dark before 5pm.  I struggle so much to many that adjustment.  I wonder if it would be easier to deal with if it gets darker earlier gradually in the evenings.  

We end DST so much later in the year than we used to that I think it's a jolt. 

[kokotg]

The real problem is that there's not enough sun in winter and too much of it in summer in northern latitudes (especially in places as far north as, say, New England), and you can't fix that with legislation. When we were in western Ireland in June a few years ago, it was really startling how long it stayed light (sunset isn't until after 10 in June in Galway)...but without DST the sun would be up at 4 AM. Sunset's at 4:20 in December there, so DST all year sounds great...until you realize the sun wouldn't come up until nearly 10 then. Perhaps the lesson here is not to move to Galway, actually. 

[TravelingChris]

16 hours ago, Loowit said:

 

I am so happy,.  My state voted to change to DST back in 2014.  It was so hard to have darkness before 5pm and we are a deep South state.

Also, the changing times causes deaths.  Every year, the first few days after time change, heart attacks occur more frequently.  

[Carrie12345]

36 minutes ago, kbutton said:

How much farther south? I have always thought the difference between here and my parents' was mostly due to east/west, but we are probably a 3-4 hour drive south if we shifted east to be directly south of them. 

Almost 10*. Very North PA to Northish GA.

[kbutton]

2 minutes ago, Carrie12345 said:

Almost 10*. Very North PA to Northish GA.

Ah, so maybe a small difference between us and them due to N/S orientation, but not huge.

[Katy]

16 hours ago, Pawz4me said:

I'm old enough to remember it myself. Nobody here walked to school (too far), so that didn't have anything to do with the opinions of the people I was around. Most people hated it because such long, dark winter mornings were depressing, and the lack of morning sun made everyone feel tired all the time.

She lived in Southern California, Hawaii, and Florida in the 1970’s so I’m sure she rarely saw morning darkness. I know it aggregates me every time we move 100 miles North. I still prefer the darkness before 6 am personally. 

[Bootsie]

It seems to me that it would be much easier if we just used a standard time, like GMT, in all locations.  So, we agree that it is 14:42, for example, no matter where we are.  Then, locally people can set times of school and other activities by what makes sense at that local area.  Some areas, the sun comes up at 4:00, some places it is at 4:48, and other places it is 16:32, so we would not be trying to have everyone agree at what time the sun rises or sets (which we can't do anyway beause it changes day-to-day and depending upon your longitude and latitude even within the current time zones), we would simply all agree to the hand positions on a clock.  Then we wouldn't have to worry about stating that the Presidential Address is at 10:00am ET, 7:00amPT, etc.  If we are traveling or setting up a meeting across time zones, we could simply agree to talk at a number of time that is convenient for both of us without the "how about 2:00pm"--"2:00pm your time or my time...?" 

[KSera]

2 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

Yes, it’s ridiculous in a lot of places over here.
In high school, I had to be in home room at 7:20. Add some time to get to my locker first, and a half mile walk from home, and I really couldn’t leave the house later than 7am.

My current district is later, but bus rides are looooong.

This is how mine was and still is where I am. First period started at 7:15 and I rode the bus and had to be out there at 6:40am. So it was dark part of the school year then anyway.  It’s the same for  our neighbor kids as well. They wait for the bus about 6:40 AM. So early!

9 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

It seems to me that it would be much easier if we just used a standard time, like GMT, in all locations.  So, we agree that it is 14:42, for example, no matter where we are.  Then, locally people can set times of school and other activities by what makes sense at that local area.  Some areas, the sun comes up at 4:00, some places it is at 4:48, and other places it is 16:32, so we would not be trying to have everyone agree at what time the sun rises or sets (which we can't do anyway beause it changes day-to-day and depending upon your longitude and latitude even within the current time zones), we would simply all agree to the hand positions on a clock.  Then we wouldn't have to worry about stating that the Presidential Address is at 10:00am ET, 7:00amPT, etc.  If we are traveling or setting up a meeting across time zones, we could simply agree to talk at a number of time that is convenient for both of us without the "how about 2:00pm"--"2:00pm your time or my time...?" 

I used to think this would be an easier answer as well, but now I’m thinking about how that would make it harder to know when it was appropriate to schedule things for people in other time zones. Right now, I can figure out if it’s an appropriate time to call someone by determining what time it is where they are. If it was exactly the same time there, but that time meant something different for them than for me, that would be more difficult. 

[Bootsie]

8 minutes ago, KSera said:

This is how mine was and still is where I am. First period started at 7:15 and I rode the bus and had to be out there at 6:40am. So it was dark part of the school year then anyway.  It’s the same for  our neighbor kids as well. They wait for the bus about 6:40 AM. So early!

I used to think this would be an easier answer as well, but now I’m thinking about how that would make it harder to know when it was appropriate to schedule things for people in other time zones. Right now, I can figure out if it’s an appropriate time to call someone by determining what time it is where they are. If it was exactly the same time there, but that time meant something different for them than for me, that would be more difficult. 

I still have a hard time figuring out what is an appropriate time for people in other time zones.  My finance colleagues in the west coast often keep "New York hours"--the New York Stock Exchange opens at 9:30ET--some if someone in NY gets to the office an hour before the market opens to prepare for the day, it is 8:30am for them, but for those in California it is 5:30am.  But, then some are working the Asian desk, which complicates things further.  Or, my friends in Europe are 7 hours ahead--except when we go off and on daylight savings time a few weeks apart.

[Amira]

China has one time zone for the whole country, set to Beijing time of course, not some central location, so sunrise is at 10am in the winter in Xinjiang, almost three hours later than in Beijing. Depending on your ethnicity and politics, you either follow official Beijing time or unofficial Xinjiang time, although China has cracked down on the unofficial time recently.  When you’re in Xinjiang, you have to be clear about what time people are referring to.

I do think you’d end with all sort of unofficial times around the country if there were one standard time in the US.  Most people’s everyday lives are lived locally and there’s no way around the fact the sun still controls our time, and our lives.

[Lady Florida.]

I would much prefer we stay on standard time year round but where I live it doesn't get dark so early in winter nor is it dark late in the morning in summer. Sunrise in summer on DST is around 6 or 6:30 and winter sunset on standard time is around 5:30.

I understand why people in different latitudes would want DST and I guess I'm glad we won't have to deal with a time change twice a year. Still, I'm a bit sad we won't have standard time anymore if this goes through.

[Jean in Newcastle]

There is only an hour difference between Standard time or daylight savings time.  Obviously it doesn't help if you have a set time to get to work or school, but for many adults, they can adjust their wake up time an hour later or earlier if they really wanted to.  Especially now when so many work schedules are a bit more customizable. 

[frogger]

Well, this is one I will not argue. People tend to adjust I suppose. Hard to care which direction we go when currently on the solstice the sun rises at 10:12 and the sun sets at 3:41. I have to say springing forward feels cruel in the spring when we are just getting a little morning light. At least it wouldn't be so noticable if it wasn't showing up and then cruelly torn away. 

[ktgrok]

As much as I enjoy being able to stay out later in the evening in the summer to play, I know that biologically it messes with people's cirdadian clocks - we already have trouble with that with screens and indoor lighting. I'm lucky enough that we just sort of ignore time changes, and sleep later, go to bed later until we adjust. But most people can't do that, and have to get up early. Having so little sun in the morning messes with your head. 

[HS Mom in NC]

Science says Standard Time is best for health: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/sleep-experts-say-senate-has-it-wrong-standard-time-not-daylight-saving-should-be-permanent/ar-AAV9l4d?ocid=uxbndlbing

[Longtime Lurker]

23 hours ago, Jaybee said:

I, too, prefer Standard time, but I prefer DST to changing back and forth.

This. I prefer standard time, but that is partly because I live on the western edge of a time zone. In late June it stays light until 10 pm, which is not necessary. And I love the "fall back" as it always seems so cozy in the evenings. But I would be happy enough just to not have to switch back and forth. 

[thewellerman]

I grew up at the western edge of the time zone.  So, summer evenings would still be light until 10pm.  I moved to the eastern edge as an adult, and I only feel relatively normal on DST.  With it, the sun sets in the summer around 9.  Combined with my natural tendency to be a night owl, DST makes all the difference in how I feel.  Permanently jetlagged is an accurate description for how I feel all winter.  I don't think the standard vs dst debate is so clear.  I believe standard is only better for first shift people, us night owls always have issues with the light not being right for our bodies. 

Edited March 17, 2022 by thewellerman

[ScoutTN]

11 hours ago, Soror said:

It is madness. Even more mind boggling to me is that the local schools have 2 start times 8:30 and 7:30, they have the k-3 start at 8:30 and 4-12 start at 7:30. Why in the world would they pick the little kids to start later? My dd1 does ok with the early start, it is very, very rough on ds who is a natural night owl. 1 more year for him, 1 more!

Because older kids have to have time for after school activities, especially sports practices.

[Lisa]

That would be excellent if they kept Daylight Savings Time the same with it being lighter out later.

[Frances]

42 minutes ago, ScoutTN said:

Because older kids have to have time for after school activities, especially sports practices.

When I was in high school, we started at 8:40 am and still had time for after school sports practices. Even with bussing, we were still home by a very reasonable time for dinner. Elementary started earlier because all kids attended their local elementary, while almost half of middle and high school kids were bussed to a neighboring town. So first busses brought all rural kids to town and the elementary schools started. Then where needed, some kids were bussed to the largest town for middle and high school. It was reversed in the afternoon with extra busses after afternoon sports practices or evening theatre rehearsals and sporting events.

[GoodGrief3]

On 3/15/2022 at 3:50 PM, HS Mom in NC said:

I'm glad it's staying consistent all year, but Standard Time is better. It's just what time it is. AZ has always been on it.

Except on the Navajo reservation! The most confusing time in my life was when we lived on the Navajo reservation, which observed DST, and across the highway from the Hopi reservation, which stayed on Standard time, along with the rest of Arizona. Hopis who owned businesses on the Navajo side typically kept the business on Standard time. Trying to figure out appointment times out in Flagstaff (or keep college class times straight!) was a bit of a puzzle

[Matryoshka]

On 3/15/2022 at 8:28 PM, 73349 said:

Gah! I want DST never, not always. The street lights didn't go off until almost 7:30 this morning because it was so dark. And it was a clear day.

It's not so bad here, as I live way on the eastern edge of Eastern time zone.

But EST goes waaay to the west. How is most of Indiana the same time zone as me? I can imagine way to the western edge this will make for much longer winter mornings than for us on the eastern edge...

[Catwoman]

18 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:

It's not so bad here, as I live way on the eastern edge of Eastern time zone.

But EST goes waaay to the west. How is most of Indiana the same time zone as me? I can imagine way to the western edge this will make for much longer winter mornings than for us on the eastern edge...

Yes, but it will also make for much longer, brighter afternoons on those long winter days! 😉 

I hate it when it gets dark early!

[Matryoshka]

30 minutes ago, Catwoman said:

Yes, but it will also make for much longer, brighter afternoons on those long winter days! 😉 

I hate it when it gets dark early!

Well, yeah, which us why I'm team DST. I'm never up that early anyway! 😁  I'm both east and north, and it's so depressing when the sun sets at 4pm!

[Bootsie]

3 hours ago, ScoutTN said:

Because older kids have to have time for after school activities, especially sports practices.

Many junior and senior high kids here have BEFORE school activities, with some sports practices beginning before 6:00am.  We lived a block over from a high school and would routinely be awakened at 6:45am by the drums beginning band practice.  They were not supposed to begin until 7:00am, but "warming up" would begin long before then.  

[Arctic Bunny]

I was thinking about this this morning (mostly trying to figure out if we are on permanent standard time or DST) and found this account of our province’s process. Now, we are a large land area, but small population…. I can’t imagine the whole of your country going through this!

https://www.saskatchewan.ca/government/municipal-administration/tools-guides-and-resources/saskatchewan-time-system

[fairfarmhand]

On 3/15/2022 at 9:20 PM, ScoutTN said:

I prefer DST, but idk if I will like it all year. 

What I really dislike is just winter with it’s gray, short days. As Bootsie said, it’s the hours of daylight, not what time is assigned to them, that matters. I like sun early and late in the day! 

YES! TN is so so gray from January to early March.

[fairfarmhand]

I don't think that anyone is going to agree completely on this because the US is SO BIG. Location changes the amount of daylight that one gets at various times of the year and what is practical for one area makes no sense for the others. 

And how people live is different too. I grew up on Eastern Time. School started at 8:30 or 8:45 and things went later into the evening. 

Then when I moved to Central time, I was shocked by how early everything was scheduled. But then they wrap things up earlier in the evening because everyone has to get up so freaking early.

Edited March 17, 2022 by fairfarmhand
weird sentence that made no sense

[Terabith]

I don't really care, honestly, which is picked.  There are advantages to both.  I'm reading the experts say standard time should be permanent.  That's fine with me.  I don't care.  I just think the changing is stupid.  Pick one and commit, people!

[Resilient]

I don't like the clock changing, but I am not a fan of making DST the standard.

In the high latitudes, in the winter, this means that sun-up will be after 8:30. If parents think it is hard to get their kids adjusted to an hour's change, wait til they have to be awakened in the dark, stand at the bus-stop in the dark, for 30% of the school year.  

This won't be pretty.

[Catwoman]

2 minutes ago, Resilient said:

I don't like the clock changing, but I am not a fan of making DST the standard.

In the high latitudes, in the winter, this means that sun-up will be after 8:30. If parents think it is hard to get their kids adjusted to an hour's change, wait til they have to be awakened in the dark, stand at the bus-stop in the dark, for 30% of the school year.  

This won't be pretty.

Maybe, but wouldn't most kids prefer an extra hour of daylight after school, so they would have time to go out and play? I never cared about whether or not it was dark in the morning when I went to school (or work, either, for that matter,) but I always enjoyed that extra hour of light at the end of the day. 

[fairfarmhand]

3 minutes ago, Resilient said:

I don't like the clock changing, but I am not a fan of making DST the standard.

In the high latitudes, in the winter, this means that sun-up will be after 8:30. If parents think it is hard to get their kids adjusted to an hour's change, wait til they have to be awakened in the dark, stand at the bus-stop in the dark, for 30% of the school year.  

This won't be pretty.

Here in Central time, because the schools start so early in the day, it's like that for winter time any way. Our school bus comes down the road at 6:30 because of a 7:30 start time. 

[fairfarmhand]

2 minutes ago, Catwoman said:

Maybe, but wouldn't most kids prefer an extra hour of daylight after school, so they would have time to go out and play? I never cared about whether or not it was dark in the morning when I went to school (or work, either, for that matter,) but I always enjoyed that extra hour of light at the end of the day. 

Same here. All we're doing early in the morning is boring stuff like school and work. Which can be accomplished in the dark because it's inside. I'd rather have the daylight toward the end of the day when we've wrapped up work and have a bit of free time.

[Indigo Blue]

I just agree with many here that constantly changing it is really hard. It’s worse now than when I was younger. Dh and I feel like we have jet lag. There is just no reason for this anymore. Just pick one and let it be.

[Resilient]

6 minutes ago, Catwoman said:

Maybe, but wouldn't most kids prefer an extra hour of daylight after school, so they would have time to go out and play? I never cared about whether or not it was dark in the morning when I went to school (or work, either, for that matter,) but I always enjoyed that extra hour of light at the end of the day. 

It probably makes a difference as to whether one is an early-bird or a night-owl. I would give up an hour in the afternoon for 15 minutes more sleep in the morning.  Hoot-hoot.  

I wonder how crazy parents will be about having their children walk to school in the dark or wait at the bus stop in the dark...for a 9:00 start time, at that.  And I do wonder what will happen with commuters.

Standard time might work better.  And the high latitude difference is noticeable. I did not grow up with such a wide variance of daylight between summer and winter. 

Edited March 17, 2022 by Resilient
added content

[kbutton]

On 3/16/2022 at 1:24 PM, Bootsie said:

It seems to me that it would be much easier if we just used a standard time, like GMT, in all locations.  So, we agree that it is 14:42, for example, no matter where we are.  Then, locally people can set times of school and other activities by what makes sense at that local area.  Some areas, the sun comes up at 4:00, some places it is at 4:48, and other places it is 16:32, so we would not be trying to have everyone agree at what time the sun rises or sets (which we can't do anyway beause it changes day-to-day and depending upon your longitude and latitude even within the current time zones), we would simply all agree to the hand positions on a clock.  Then we wouldn't have to worry about stating that the Presidential Address is at 10:00am ET, 7:00amPT, etc.  If we are traveling or setting up a meeting across time zones, we could simply agree to talk at a number of time that is convenient for both of us without the "how about 2:00pm"--"2:00pm your time or my time...?" 

Tried and failed...https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/03/16/uniform-time-act-daylight/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F36559c0%2F62320b1e9d2fda34e7d4e992%2F5fef63729bbc0f2512bcfc42%2F29%2F73%2F62320b1e9d2fda34e7d4e992

There are additional complications described in the article besides this quote.

Quote

One of the crazier facts about life in the United States is this: For roughly two decades, nobody had any clue what time it was.

In office buildings, it could be 4 p.m. on one floor and 5 p.m. on another — an important matter for several reasons, including who punched out first to get to happy hour. People would step off airplanes with no idea how to set their watches.

21 hours ago, thewellerman said:

I grew up at the western edge of the time zone.  So, summer evenings would still be light until 10pm.  I moved to the eastern edge as an adult, and I only feel relatively normal on DST.  With it, the sun sets in the summer around 9.  Combined with my natural tendency to be a night owl, DST makes all the difference in how I feel.  Permanently jetlagged is an accurate description for how I feel all winter.  I don't think the standard vs dst debate is so clear.  I believe standard is only better for first shift people, us night owls always have issues with the light not being right for our bodies. 

I am a night owl now partly because there is no sun to wake me up in the AM, and it's light so, so late in the summer. When I go east to visit family, I get up earlier, naturally. Doesn't matter what the clock says. 

I have spent my entire adult life here and have had trouble with waking up the entire time. It's awful. I also have trouble settling down to go to sleep. The winter has its own issues in that it's dark so early that I want to cocoon and don't stay active long enough to get as tired, lol, but fewer daylight hours is the bigger problem than what absolute time it gets dark--being an hour later would not make a meaningful difference to me in the winter. I sleep better in April/May and September/October than any other months. 

20 hours ago, Frances said:

When I was in high school, we started at 8:40 am and still had time for after school sports practices. Even with bussing, we were still home by a very reasonable time for dinner. Elementary started earlier because all kids attended their local elementary, while almost half of middle and high school kids were bussed to a neighboring town. So first busses brought all rural kids to town and the elementary schools started. Then where needed, some kids were bussed to the largest town for middle and high school. It was reversed in the afternoon with extra busses after afternoon sports practices or evening theatre rehearsals and sporting events.

Yep. Same here. There were a few outliers--some kids had a long bus ride, but that was an artifact of consolidation, and that part of the district voted to consolidate to that specific district instead of a closer one. 

18 hours ago, Matryoshka said:

It's not so bad here, as I live way on the eastern edge of Eastern time zone.

But EST goes waaay to the west. How is most of Indiana the same time zone as me? I can imagine way to the western edge this will make for much longer winter mornings than for us on the eastern edge...

Yep. It's astonishingly different. I can never move to IN. SW Ohio is already farther than I can stand it in this time zone. We visit IN sometimes, and it kills me in the summer. 

[Bootsie]

28 minutes ago, kbutton said:

Tried and failed...https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2022/03/16/uniform-time-act-daylight/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F36559c0%2F62320b1e9d2fda34e7d4e992%2F5fef63729bbc0f2512bcfc42%2F29%2F73%2F62320b1e9d2fda34e7d4e992

There are additional complications described in the article besides this quote.

 

This article seems to discuss the problem with lots of different times--and individual places picking what they want the time to be.  What I was suggesting was the opposite:  Everyone agrees it is 13:45--if that is a reasonable time to start school at a location, then start at 13:45--but there is no questioning over whether that is 7;45am or 8:45am.  All clocks would have the SAME time.  As it is now, we have different places with different clock hand positions AND we still have different school start times, etc.  So, in one place in the country we say it is 9:45am, another part says it is 6:45am--but one school starts at 7:45 and another at 8:30.  So, setting clocks differently does not standardize start times of anything.  

[kbutton]

5 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

This article seems to discuss the problem with lots of different times--and individual places picking what they want the time to be.  What I was suggesting was the opposite:  Everyone agrees it is 13:45--if that is a reasonable time to start school at a location, then start at 13:45--but there is no questioning over whether that is 7;45am or 8:45am.  All clocks would have the SAME time.  As it is now, we have different places with different clock hand positions AND we still have different school start times, etc.  So, in one place in the country we say it is 9:45am, another part says it is 6:45am--but one school starts at 7:45 and another at 8:30.  So, setting clocks differently does not standardize start times of anything.  

It is opposite, but its effect would be similar, I think. Businesses, schools, etc. would be all over the map with their hours. 

[Bootsie]

2 minutes ago, kbutton said:

It is opposite, but its effect would be similar, I think. Businesses, schools, etc. would be all over the map with their hours. 

Businesses, school, etc. are already all over the map with their hours.  Whether we have DST or ST or draw a boundary for a time zone a mile east or west does nothing to standardize hours of when things were open.  It would be easier to look up a business and see that something opens at 9:30 and know what time that is than look up and see that it is 9:30 and then have to ask, is that 9:30 EST or 9:30 CST.