Study ties Daylight Saving Time shift, pedestrian deaths

[pedinurse]

It really sucks being a nurse, as you work 12 hour shifts... so you work 7am to 7pm. then you report off between 7 and 7:30. You get out on time, if you're lucky. Then you have to back and ready to go by 7am, on the dot. And you're exhausted. I want 10 hours of sleep usually, at least. No interaction with the kids is usually available that night, and they are usually in bed anyway (it sucks). So losing an hour of sleep is HORRIBLE and would really have thrown me off, especially since this is my first weekend back from having surgery. So having the extra hour of sleep really helps!!!

 

[Taximom]

So it's Fall Back, Spring Ahead. Right?

I remember working night shift and I thought it meant I had to work one more hour in the fall since all of a sudden 10:00 is 9:00. :waitasec:

 

[Dark Knight]

So it's Fall Back, Spring Ahead. Right?

I remember working night shift and I thought it meant I had to work one more hour in the fall since all of a sudden 10:00 is 9:00. :waitasec:

Yes, fall back, spring forward.

Indiana only has had DST for a couple of years. It's freaky for our overnight DJ's who have to basically repeat an hour that just passed and give the same times on-air that they just got done giving, lol. Plus it makes for a longer air-shift.

The extension of DST was also shown to not save energy because in the spring people got up earlier and therefore had to turn on their lights and leave them on longer before the sun came up. Many schoolkids around here went to school in the dark all of a sudden, for a few weeks, anyways.

 

[IrishMist]

So it's Fall Back, Spring Ahead. Right?

I remember working night shift and I thought it meant I had to work one more hour in the fall since all of a sudden 10:00 is 9:00. :waitasec:

Yes, if you are awake, it can add an hour to your time.

If you are sitting at the bar? Bonus!
If you are working behind the bar? *sigh* Another freaking hour till you get to go home...

The majority of people, though, "gain" an hour.

 

[Taximom]

Yes, fall back, spring forward.

Indiana only has had DST for a couple of years. It's freaky for our overnight DJ's who have to basically repeat an hour that just passed and give the same times on-air that they just got done giving, lol. Plus it makes for a longer air-shift.

The extension of DST was also shown to not save energy because in the spring people got up earlier and therefore had to turn on their lights and leave them on longer before the sun came up. Many schoolkids around here went to school in the dark all of a sudden, for a few weeks, anyways.

Ah, yes. Indiana. We had a bank affiliate there and their DST/or not always messed with our computer systems.

I wish they'd (whoever "they" is) just pick a time and leave it that way!

 

[Maybe So]

After clocks are turned back this weekend, pedestrians walking during the evening rush hour are nearly three times more likely to be struck and killed by cars than before the time change, two scientists calculate.


Ending daylight savings time translates into about 37 more U.S. pedestrian deaths around 6 p.m. in November compared to October, the researchers report. Their study of risk to pedestrians is preliminary, but confirms previous findings of higher deaths after clocks are set back in fall.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071102/ap_on_sc/time_change_accidents&printer=1

But the whole reason for the change was to keep kids safer in the morning so they aren't waiting in the road for their bus in the dark.

So I guess it is a trade off. More pedestrians hit in the evening but less kids hit in the morning.

 

[Taximom]

I was under the impression that DST was in place to save energy and make better use of sunlight, not kids on the bus! (oops, don't mean to sound argumentative, Maybe So!) Wasn't it Ben Franklin's idea in the first place?

I could be wrong. It seems I research this every DST weekend, but this year I'm not gonna look it up! I'll just forget it in 6 months anyway! (or get hit by a car)

 

[Maybe So]

I was under the impression that DST was in place to save energy and make better use of sunlight, not kids on the bus! (oops, don't mean to sound argumentative, Maybe So!) Wasn't it Ben Franklin's idea in the first place?

I could be wrong. It seems I research this every DST weekend, but this year I'm not gonna look it up! I'll just forget it in 6 months anyway! (or get hit by a car)

hmmm...I am not sure what the original ideas for it were or how long ago and I am sure you are right that at least part of the reasons were to save energy.

But I remember one year, many years ago when I lived in Detroit, they decided to not go to daylight savings time and there were several accidents involving children because they were on the streets walking to school and waiting for buses in the dark and semi darkness of the early winter morning when the roads are slippery and dangerous to begin with and even more so combined with the darkness. I recall they decided that they would go back to daylight savings time after that.

 

[BarnGoddess]

Now instead of gathering eggs at 5:00PM, that means, I have to get them at 4 PM. I did notice that when I set my alarm last Saturday for 6 AM, it was dark. I was rather suprised. I had to do farm chores as the BarnGod went out of town. I had to get to a camera class by 8 AM. I'd rather it be Daylight Savings time all year around. I always enjoyed a horseback ride after work, but now it's impossible as it's dark as I leave work.

 

[Dark Knight]

But the whole reason for the change was to keep kids safer in the morning so they aren't waiting in the road for their bus in the dark.

So I guess it is a trade off. More pedestrians hit in the evening but less kids hit in the morning.

Yes that was the original theory but once they started DST 4 weeks earlier we started having kids waiting for the bus in the dark, it seems.

According to the article, Ben Franklin came up with DST to save candles.

 

[philamena]

Isn't it common sense that turning back the clocks an hour will cause earlier darkness therefore more accidents? Doesn't seem to be that hard a concept to grasp.:doh:

 

[CaliKid]

hmmm...I am not sure what the original ideas for it were or how long ago and I am sure you are right that at least part of the reasons were to save energy.

But I remember one year, many years ago when I lived in Detroit, they decided to not go to daylight savings time and there were several accidents involving children because they were on the streets walking to school and waiting for buses in the dark and semi darkness of the early winter morning when the roads are slippery and dangerous to begin with and even more so combined with the darkness. I recall they decided that they would go back to daylight savings time after that.

I remember that. It was at the beginning of the energy crisis, and we had daylight savings time all year. It was a very stupid move- here in CA the sun didn't come up until almost 8:00 by mid-December, and it was dangerous for the children going to school.

I don't know who had the bright idea to adjust standard time to the first weekend in November (instead of the last one in October) but I hate the switch.

 

[txsvicki]

I had no idea that some states had dst year round at some point. There were 3 pedestrians hit and/or killed last week on one my town's major streets. I guess next week there will be six of them.

 

[Dark Knight]

I remember that. It was at the beginning of the energy crisis, and we had daylight savings time all year. It was a very stupid move- here in CA the sun didn't come up until almost 8:00 by mid-December, and it was dangerous for the children going to school.

I don't know who had the bright idea to adjust standard time to the first weekend in November (instead of the last one in October) but I hate the switch.

Congress passed the law and Bush signed it.

 

[LionRun]

Not even the spring one? I personally LOVE the one in the fall

Me, too Mist. I sooo look forward to the extra hour this weekend!

Lion

 

[CaliKid]

Congress passed the law and Bush signed it.

Yes, DK, I understand. But someone had to suggest it. I think the barbeque lobby in Washington is behind it.

 

[sandraladeda]

The one thing I found a bit dangerous this morning was the fact that it was very bright again, and as I drove the kids to school, the sun was blinding bright. I guess I could have run over someone, if I was not careful....

I love "fall back" - I get up "early" and get lots of stuff done!

Off topic, my family was in Newfoundland back in the beginning of October. We had to recover from a 3 AND A HALF hour time change.

That half hour is kind of goofy to me, and I am not sure why Nfld has that wierd time zone of their own....and I am too lazy to look it up....

 

[ljwf22]

Here's an explanation. I knew my congressman, Fred Upton, was an instigator of this bill.

"Rep. Fred Upton, R.-Mich., and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., proposed the daylight-saving shift as an amendment to the mammoth Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Under the bill, Americans in the 48 states that currently observe daylight-saving time (Arizona and Hawaii don't) would move their clocks ahead by an hour starting on the second Sunday of March, rather than the first Sunday of April. They would set clocks back an hour on the first Sunday of November, rather than the last Sunday of October. The changes would take effect beginning one year after the law's enactment or March 1, 2007, whichever date comes later.

The four-week extension could save the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil per day in energy use, the House Energy and Commerce committee claims.

The bill charges the Department of Energy with evaluating the precise effects on energy use and gives Congress the option of reverting to the 2005 daylight-saving time schedule after the study is complete.

The government's reasoning behind daylight saving time is that people will use less electricity for lighting if they have extra daylight later in the evening. The practice first took hold during World Wars I and II but quickly became optional for individual states during peacetime. Only with the Uniform Time Act of 1966 did the government establish a single time-change pattern for the whole country. Before this year's bill, that pattern had not changed since 1987."

 

[Dark Knight]

Yes, DK, I understand. But someone had to suggest it. I think the barbeque lobby in Washington is behind it.

The candy companies have wanted DST to go past Halloween for years, too.

 

[Dark Knight]

Here's an explanation. I knew my congressman, Fred Upton, was an instigator of this bill.

"Rep. Fred Upton, R.-Mich., and Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., proposed the daylight-saving shift as an amendment to the mammoth Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Under the bill, Americans in the 48 states that currently observe daylight-saving time (Arizona and Hawaii don't) would move their clocks ahead by an hour starting on the second Sunday of March, rather than the first Sunday of April. They would set clocks back an hour on the first Sunday of November, rather than the last Sunday of October. The changes would take effect beginning one year after the law's enactment or March 1, 2007, whichever date comes later.

The four-week extension could save the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil per day in energy use, the House Energy and Commerce committee claims.

The bill charges the Department of Energy with evaluating the precise effects on energy use and gives Congress the option of reverting to the 2005 daylight-saving time schedule after the study is complete.

The government's reasoning behind daylight saving time is that people will use less electricity for lighting if they have extra daylight later in the evening. The practice first took hold during World Wars I and II but quickly became optional for individual states during peacetime. Only with the Uniform Time Act of 1966 did the government establish a single time-change pattern for the whole country. Before this year's bill, that pattern had not changed since 1987."

They discovered not too long ago, however, that there wasn't much energy savings due to people waking up with it still dark in the spring and having their lights on longer as a result.