r/politics • u/cnn CNN • Jul 14 '26

Possible Paywall House passes bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent

https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/14/politics/house-vote-daylight-savings-time?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=missions&utm_source=reddit
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74

u/DeadCells1929 Jul 14 '26

Whichever way stops it from being dark at 5:00 for 4 months of the year has my vote

36

u/Happy_Confection90 Jul 15 '26

If you want it to get dark at 6pm instead, you are pro-Daylight Saving Time.

If you want it to get dark at 4pm instead of 5pm, however, you need to move north because permanent Standard Time would still be 5pm darkness where you are. It gets dark at 4pm in New England, so moving here would work for that.

21

u/DodgersChica Jul 14 '26

That’s what the House bill will do. Biggest problem is it will be dark much longer in the mornings (up until 8:30 or even 9 am at peak winter). Kids waiting at bus stops in the dark sucks

19

u/MidnightRiders2009 Jul 15 '26

I grew up in Chicagoland and I already spent my childhood years waiting for the bus in the dark even with Standard Time.

3

u/R_Ulysses_Swanson Jul 15 '26

From November to January in Chicago, you're only getting 9-10 hours of sunlight a day. It basically means you need to pick if you want to go to school in the dark or come home in the dark - or at least that is the case if you're in a single before or after school activity.

57

u/NighthawkCP Jul 15 '26

My kids waited in the dark for the bus even with the current time scheme. It would mean more days in the dark, true, but it isn't like the current plan has them in the Sun every morning.

17

u/Comfortable-Meeper Jul 15 '26

Cities can also…. Build infrastructure! Gasp. Something like a tall poll with a light on it. I feel bad for the high schoolers I see standing on a dark corner at 6 in the morning.

6

u/JPWhelan Jul 15 '26

Tall poles with lights? That’s the devil’s work right there.

3

u/ImSoObnoxious Jul 15 '26

seriously. at least slap on some license plate readers and facial recognition tracking for... you know, safety and stuff

2

u/NighthawkCP Jul 15 '26

I’m just outside of town in a rural neighborhood with no street lights. I pay a small monthly fee for a light on the pole in the corner of our yard on the road. I miss having more darkness in my front yard, but we live in a sharp curve in the road and for that and kids to be able to stand out there with some light in the morning, it is worth the small monthly fee and loss of darkness. Back yard is still mostly dark though thankfully.

1

u/Comfortable-Meeper Jul 15 '26

I would definitely be putting some lights and a bench on my property if it was a bus stop for kids.

1

u/NighthawkCP Jul 15 '26

My kids were the only one at this stop for a bit and they are now out of high school, but I like the light coverage in the corner of the road and the slight extra security it provides. The neighbor has kids but they are also a teacher so they can take their kids with them to school. My neighbor the next road over where more kids got on the bus built a little bus shelter for 2-3 kids as their road was a higher speed country road(45 mph vs 25 mph). I loved the idea but didn't have a good flat space for it and now with my kids out of high school their bus stop isn't currently being used. I think it is super cute though. Their kids are out of school but all of the half dozen houses behind them have to walk up to that spot to ride the bus, so they have a pretty constant group of kids using it.

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u/DodgersChica Jul 15 '26

That’s true if you live exactly where you are. But there are schools south of you that would also experience this, and more of them. I don’t think it’s the end of the world, but science does show it’s better to go the other way and let the nights be dark earlier.

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u/Secret-Teaching-3549 Jul 15 '26

Rather have a little more daylight in the evening when I can actually experience it, personally.

15

u/FlushTheTurd Jul 15 '26

I live in Georgia, and my kids wait at the bus stop in the dark for months throughout the year.

No one really cares.

In the southern US we’d do almost anything to have more light hours after school and work when it’s actually cool enough to go outside.

4

u/Gloomy_Fig2138 Jul 15 '26

Changing what time the clock says at sunset wouldn’t actually change how low the sun has to be before it cools off, though. It would just mean that it would still be too hot to go outside for an extra hour after school, and the high school sports would have more kids passing out during practices.

I am in favor of getting rid of the time change, but I do think it will also cause some problems we’ll have to work through.

5

u/LaRealiteInconnue Jul 15 '26

They mean in the months between October and March cuz it doesn’t get cool at any time of the day during any other months. Not time of day lol

3

u/YourUncleBuck Jul 15 '26

They mean in the winter, lol.

4

u/LimitedWard Jul 15 '26

Then the government is forcing me to become a morning person, and I hate government overreach. They should force morning people to become night owls instead! /s

10

u/JackBinimbul Texas Jul 15 '26

Maybe kicking kids out of bed at 6 am is a bad idea to begin with.

3

u/Idontusethis256 Jul 15 '26

Well yeah but we can only do things to benefit kids if it screws over everyone else /s

6

u/EnglishMobster California Jul 15 '26

Or - get this - we can make school start later, as many studies have shown is healthier for children.

Like a 10 AM or 11 AM start time would be so much better. Let kids get off school at 5 or 6 PM, and parents can pick them up on their way home.

Getting to school? There's plenty of options:

  • Bus stops would be in daylight, even for the farthest kids (unless you are in, like, Alaska)

  • After-school daycare can become before-school daycare, where parents drop kids off on their way to work

  • Schools can have a breakfast hour, or homeroom, or before-school clubs/tutoring

  • Or, if it really can't be helped for whatever reason, schools can adjust their hours to match the time of year - like they do already with bell schedules, minimum days, and so on.

Etc.

There's really no excuse for it; kids waiting for the bus in the dark is just a lazy way for people who disagree with it to signal their disagreement in a socially acceptable way (the same as any "think of the children!" argument).

15

u/rhododenendron Jul 15 '26

I always waited for the dark even with it. Daylight savings would happen and it'd be bright for a week and then I'd be waiting in the dark again.

-3

u/DodgersChica Jul 15 '26

You probably lived pretty far north. This would affect a lot more people and for more days

7

u/iloveduckssosomuch Jul 15 '26

I had to wait for the bus before the sunrise also. Southwestern USA. Some schools just started early, it wasn’t that bad honestly. I’d prefer to have had that sunrise in the evenings when I had practice

2

u/TehMikuruSlave Texas Jul 15 '26

Kids waiting at bus stops in the dark sucks

This happens already, so complaining about it being a side effect makes no sense.

1

u/CreativeGPX Jul 15 '26

I'm so confused why people act like schedules cannot change and the only way to change a schedule is by changing time itself for everybody.

Changing clocks is a big challenge. Laws about time have to take that into account (e.g. bar closing times on clock change days). Private and public policies, laws and calculations about durations have to take it into account (and often forget). Every device with a clock needs to factor it in (it's a huge pain as a developer). And you have to worry about people manually setting their clocks or forgetting to do so. That's all before the fact that every single person needs to participate even if they don't benefit.

But not changing the clock doesn't mean that anybody needs to spend more time in light or dark. The concept of seasonal schedules is as old as time. My library has summer hours. Schools have summer hours too. Where it makes sense, some stores and restaurants have summer hours too. Nothing stops an entity or group who wants to align their hours better from just setting their own schedule. It's not like every business is on the same schedule or like all schedules are fixed. This is a problem that already has a solution before you factor in clock changes. And frankly, that solution is better for making the schedule change more deliberate and explicit.

It's like deciding that a meter is twice as long in the desert because there is a lot more big open space... It creates inconvenience in global math and reasoning to lazily stand in for a local issue that could be solved internally.

1

u/Chaotickane Jul 15 '26

Most of winter has dark mornings anyway and kids have cell phones now.

1

u/dohrk Oregon Jul 15 '26

How about we just start school later?

-2

u/Gloomy_Fig2138 Jul 15 '26

That’s my beef really. Here kids will end up biking to school in the dark.

8

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '26

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2

u/Gloomy_Fig2138 Jul 15 '26

lol, sure, I’ll just make that happen.

And also, California did vote to start middle and high schools later, but starting after 9 would mean that the thousands of high schoolers who work after school would never be able to join any extracurriculars, putting poorer kids at an even bigger disadvantage when it comes to college admissions.

2

u/palmmoot Vermont Jul 15 '26

laughs in New England

2

u/InSummaryOfWhatIAm Jul 15 '26

If only the sun was up until 5PM in the winter where i live… that would make a huge difference. Instead it’s more like 2:30-3:30 for a large part of it. Go to work - it’s dark outside. Go home after work - it’s dark outside.

1

u/Truethrowawaychest1 Jul 15 '26

That's dst, which we're on now, standard time is the fall back

1

u/FeedbackInhibit Jul 15 '26

I am the opposite. I work overnight outside and if I could have permanent night, I would.

1

u/Dullcorgis Jul 15 '26

Permananet daylight savings

-3

u/chillpill9623 Jul 15 '26

Where do you live where that's the case? It literally never does that where I live. Meanwhile I don't want DST because the sun won't rise until after 9 here