Daylight Savings Solutions

 

When it comes to the controversy that is Daylight Savings Time and the bi-annual shift between Standard and Daylight time, we are a split household.  My opinion is that we should just pick a time (Daylight or Standard) and stick to it.  Tammy's is that she sees a benefit to to each.  She likes the sun to be up well prior to her 9 AM classes in December.  So, she's got a point there.  If we were to choose Daylight Savings time for the whole year, the latest sunrise would be about 8:40 AM (with official "dawn" being about a half-hour earlier).

And, I guess there is the "issue" of dawn arriving at 4AM in June if we stick with Standard time. 

It's only because the switch between Daylight Savings Time and Standard Time seems to mess with me and my own internal time clock so much that she might be willing to agree to stick with one or the other.  

Some of you might recall that this is not the first time I have offered up a set of possible Daylight Savings Solutions.  But, since it is upon us yet again, I couldn't help myself!  I am re-sharing previous solutions (with some edits) and adding in some more!  

That, and I wanted to share some nice sunset and sunrise pictures, so I added them in too!

Let's have a little fun! 

Option 1: Give the night shift the daylight

All of those fine people who get stuck with the "graveyard shift" deserve a break.  How about we simply switch around AM and PM?  Now the night time hours would be the sunlit hours!

All of those folks who have had to deal with working without the benefit of the sun will suddenly be able to step out during break and catch a few rays.  And, isn't it time the rest of us learned what it is like to work our shifts during the hours when the sun is shining on the other side of the earth?

Option 2: Ease the shock of the time change with incremental time changes

One of the reasons I struggle with the time change so much is that we make this big, one-hour shift all at once.  As the sunrise happens a little earlier each day in the early Spring, I find myself getting up a little earlier each day with minimal fuss and bother.  So, let's EASE into Daylight Savings!  Maybe it will convert people like myself into believers that DST is a good idea.

Starting March 1st, we should add one minute to the time each day until, after 60 days, we've reached the one hour mark.  Ha ha!  Now we're where we want to be for the longest days of the year.  Then, we subtract one minute each day for sixty days in the Fall!

I can't see any difficulties with this proposal - can you?  I mean, it's simple.  Though we might get tired of all of the "set your clocks ahead (or back) one minute" reminders for 120 days of the year.

Option 3: Provide an opt-out policy

Let's let everyone PICK whether they want to participate in either Daylight Savings or Standard Time.  If the time switch really bugs a person, they can sign a personal "opt-out" form.

We can then have two segments of the population that reside in the same area in two different time zones.  Think of the fun and excitement we could have with this!

That office meeting that happens every week is now going to have to have two meeting times published if you want everyone to attend together.  However, this could also be a way to split things up and give everyone more opportunity!  The high school varsity baseball teams could have a game at 7pm for the DST'ers and a 7pm game for the ST'ers.  Twice as many kids get to play!!  Though I suspect there may be some issues with the use of the ball diamond.

And given our tendency of late to take sides on practically any issue and make it personal, this might just be a recipe for disaster.

Option 4: Go half-way

Do you have some of the complaints Tammy has regarding sticking with either Daylight Savings or Standard Time?  Would you rather not have the sun come up after you've gotten to work in the winter or have it pop up just after you've finally gotten to sleep?

Here's a solution for you!

Let's just move each time zone half way between the two!  Pick the half-way mark, moving 30 minutes forward from Standard and then stay there with no further changes.

Option 4a: Adjust for popular opinion

Or, we could be a bit more innovative!

Let's have everyone vote for which of the two times they like better - Standard or Daylight Savings.  Then, based on the vote, we move the time.  For example, if 66% vote for Daylight Savings and 33% for Standard, we just move 40 minutes forward from Standard (or about 66% of the distance between the two).

See?!? Everyone got a say in the matter AND we're able to make a numerically supported compromise!  

Option 5: Spice it up and let every state just pick a time measuring method

Hey!  Why don't we do what we seem to like to do with so much of our governing in the United States?  Let's let every state pick how they want to do things.  Surely that will make everyone happy.  I mean, doesn't this approach ALWAYS make everyone happy?

No?

Huh.

Option 6: Go back to sundials

As an introvert, I actually like the idea of sundials.  

First, if it is a really cloudy day, you have to cancel all of your scheduled meetings because NOBODY will know what time it is.  And, second, you can really mess with peoples' sense of time during the night-time hours.  Only those folks who work the night shift will know what's going on.  The rest of us will be completely lost.

Option 7: Use the "Farmer Time" method

To be perfectly clear - I've learned to rely more on the arrival and existence of daylight to tell me when to do things on the farm.  Sometimes the construct that is time zones just gets in my way.

Sun's up?  Time to get up and let the animals out, give them food and water, and just start "doing stuff."  Sun's going down?  Time to put the animals away, put the equipment away, and perhaps do something that is not farm-related for a while - like sleep. 

If you don't want to work the same hours as a farmer, the solution is simple.  Make a calendar that tells you how many hours and minutes of daylight you have each day - then slice off chucks of it for work and for play.  You can either count from the point the sun is at its highest or you can count from dawn or dusk - you pick. 

Works great - unless you live in Alaska.  If you're waiting on sunrise to tell you it is time to get to work in the winter months, you may have a problem - and you'll NEVER quit working in the summer months.  

I guess you could figure out this hibernation thing other critters do. 

Option 8: Time zone trials

Are you the kind of person who really hates to buy something before you actually have tried it?  If so, you might like this idea!

Let's allow communities a chance to test drive different time zones to see which one fits best!  It could also be a great way to travel without physically leaving where you are.  Want to visit London? Just shift to Greenwich Mean Time for a while!  Or maybe you just had a REALLY GOOD day - you could switch to a time zone that's a few hours earlier and extend that day a bit!

What do you mean that wouldn't work?

Option 9: How about a lottery?

It seems to me that an inordinate number of people like to gamble on all sorts of things - why not gamble on the time zone approach that your locality will be using?

To make this even more realistic, let's first take a poll to find out what the most popular choices would be.  Then, we need to set things up so those choices are LESS likely to be selected.

The basic idea is that only a couple of REALLY lucky people will be happy with the solution.  Everyone else.... loses.

Option 10: Use the sands of time.

We can learn to appreciate or come to despise the sands of time if only we all started carrying an hourglass around instead of watches or phones.  Obviously, it has to be a big enough hourglass for each person to be able to keep track of time for the entire day.  I realize this is something like the idea of having everyone set their own time zone - but I wanted to offer up this option because I learned something cool when I first wrote about these Daylight Savings Solutions.

The largest hourglass is reported to be in Budapest, Hungary.  It measures one year of time and weighs 60 tons.  Happily, an hourglass for one day would be a bit smaller than that.  In fact, you can get a 4-hour hourglass and it is "only" 18 inches tall.  I realize this would not be a perfectly linear equation, but that puts a daylong hourglass somewhere in  the range of six-feet tall.

I hope these things would come with wheels - and turning them over for the new day might be a bit of a production.  That big, Hungary hourglass takes four people hauling on cables 45 minutes to get it turned for the new year.

But, I suspect enough of us make New Year's resolutions to get into better shape.  Why not make it necessity to turn over a six-foot tall glass each day?

Option 11: Move the people with the time

Well, if most people don't like the time change, I have another idea that would NOT require that we make ANY changes to our current system of cycling between Daylight Savings and Standard Time.  Keep all of that the same.

Instead, we should make people move from time zone to time zone so they do not have to adjust their clocks - they just have to adjust to a new home and new location.  

I suppose there might be an issue when we start pushing people on either coast into the ocean, but we all have to make sacrifices if we want to solve this problem.

Option 12: Double or nothing

Here's an option for those of us who are always complaining that time goes by too quickly.  Or for those folks who say "wait a minute" and they really need two minutes.  Let's just double the length of all of our time units.  Make each second twice as long, each minute twice as long, each hour twice as long...

I think you get the picture.

How does this solve the Daylight Savings issue?  Well, you just get rid of it.  The swing between longest and shortest days of the year just got cut in half!  Tammy's complaint with the sun not coming up in time to start the work day is moot because now the sun will come up around 4 am even during the shortest days!  And yes, it will still be up well into the evening hours.

If you really like sunrise or sunset, you can get TWO of each of these every day with this plan.  Just think!  You could double your productivity!  A two week vacation would be TWICE as long.  Your favorite holidays could truly be savored because you have double the time to enjoy.  You could even eat TWICE as much in one day!

For those of you who like to take naps, it will be dark in the middle of the day.  So, taking a nap just got easier too!  

On the other hand, if you think a one-hour meeting is bad now...  And while the wait in the doctor, dentist, whomever's waiting area was only fifteen minutes, it was a LOOOONG fifteen minutes.

Option 13: Split it in two

Okay, be honest now.  After Option 12, you just HAD to see this one coming, didn't you?

Let's split each day into two pieces.  One part will be called "night" and the other will be called "day."  We just count time from the beginning of whichever part we're in.

Unfortunately, this then brings us to the debate as to when day and night actually "officially begin."  Is it during Civil Twilight, Nautical Twilight, Astronomical Twilight or Official Sunrise/Sunset?

Well, at least we have the hope of having more than two sides to that argument, won't we?

Solving the worlds problems, one at a time

It turns out that, according to this poll, only 28% of people in the United States actually favor this swapping back and forth between Daylight Savings and Standard Time.  On the other hand, they can't agree on which way we should go.  While 40% prefer that we stick with Standard Time, 31% would prefer to stay with Daylight Savings.

Clearly, this is a difficult situation that calls for my unique style of problem solving.  See how quickly and easily I came up with fourteen, count them, FOURTEEN (remember 4a?) solutions for this very knotty and clearly divisive problem.

Now that I've provided the world with this service, which problem should I tackle next?  

If you have ideas - put them in the comments, I'll get right on it!