Spring Break
Enjoy small benefits of Daylight Savings Time
Issue date: 3/9/09 Section: Forum
While Daylight Savings Time (DTS) seems trivial in practice and can have irritating effects, such as the loss of an hour of sleep, it has a purpose and benefits.
There are currently only two U.S. states - Alaska and Hawaii - that don't honor DST. This is strange and confusing for the rest of the country and for people traveling to and from these places. Also, it doesn't seem fair that these states got to choose to not participate in DST.
But we digress. Other than the obvious excitement at the prospect of an extra hour of daylight during the spring and summer, DST has proved to have public safety and health benefits, including a small, but still real, reduction in fatal car accidents during DST.
The reviews have been conflicting, but in 1975 the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) found a 0.7 percent reduction in traffic fatalities during DST, and estimated the real reduction at 1.5 to 2 percent. However, the 1976 NBS review of the DOT study disagreed with the study's information and found no differences in traffic accident deaths.
In 1995 the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found a 1.2 percent reduction, and a 5 percent reduction in crashes where pedestrians were killed.
Similar findings have been estimated across the globe. In the UK they practice Single/Double Summer Time, where clocks are one hour ahead of the sun in the winter and two hours ahead in the summer; this has been estimated to reduce traffic fatalities between three and four percent.
Yet there is the argument that for everyone living in the continental United States (except for those independent trendsetters in Hawaii and Alaska), sleep disruption directly after the clocks change could actually cause more accidents after people have been deprived of sleep by one hour. However, there has been no hard studies or evidence to prove that theory.
For those of us who are negatively affected by the lack of sunlight in the winter, or year-round in Oregon (which results in Seasonal Affective Disorder for many people in the Northwest), the extra hour of sunlight and the opportunity to soak in more vitamin D could be incredibly beneficial. This may even lead to a decrease in depression and suicidal tendencies among extremely stressed out college students a week before finals … like, right now.
So go ahead and enjoy that extra hour of daylight. Take a stroll, go for a late evening run, get out of Dixon or the library or wherever you've been spending way too much time freaking out about finals and projects and enjoy the sporadic sun - and rain - and sometimes even snow - that Oregon affords us in the middle of March. And remember, we're only two weeks away from spring break.
Editorials serve as a platform for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale and diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board majority. Disagree? E-mail a letter to the editor or guest column to editor@dailybarometer.com.
There are currently only two U.S. states - Alaska and Hawaii - that don't honor DST. This is strange and confusing for the rest of the country and for people traveling to and from these places. Also, it doesn't seem fair that these states got to choose to not participate in DST.
But we digress. Other than the obvious excitement at the prospect of an extra hour of daylight during the spring and summer, DST has proved to have public safety and health benefits, including a small, but still real, reduction in fatal car accidents during DST.
The reviews have been conflicting, but in 1975 the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) found a 0.7 percent reduction in traffic fatalities during DST, and estimated the real reduction at 1.5 to 2 percent. However, the 1976 NBS review of the DOT study disagreed with the study's information and found no differences in traffic accident deaths.
In 1995 the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found a 1.2 percent reduction, and a 5 percent reduction in crashes where pedestrians were killed.
Similar findings have been estimated across the globe. In the UK they practice Single/Double Summer Time, where clocks are one hour ahead of the sun in the winter and two hours ahead in the summer; this has been estimated to reduce traffic fatalities between three and four percent.
Yet there is the argument that for everyone living in the continental United States (except for those independent trendsetters in Hawaii and Alaska), sleep disruption directly after the clocks change could actually cause more accidents after people have been deprived of sleep by one hour. However, there has been no hard studies or evidence to prove that theory.
For those of us who are negatively affected by the lack of sunlight in the winter, or year-round in Oregon (which results in Seasonal Affective Disorder for many people in the Northwest), the extra hour of sunlight and the opportunity to soak in more vitamin D could be incredibly beneficial. This may even lead to a decrease in depression and suicidal tendencies among extremely stressed out college students a week before finals … like, right now.
So go ahead and enjoy that extra hour of daylight. Take a stroll, go for a late evening run, get out of Dixon or the library or wherever you've been spending way too much time freaking out about finals and projects and enjoy the sporadic sun - and rain - and sometimes even snow - that Oregon affords us in the middle of March. And remember, we're only two weeks away from spring break.
Editorials serve as a platform for Barometer editors to offer commentary and opinions on issues both global and local, grand in scale and diminutive. The views expressed here are a reflection of the editorial board majority. Disagree? E-mail a letter to the editor or guest column to editor@dailybarometer.com.
Note: writers will not reply to comments.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
An Arizonan
posted 3/11/09 @ 1:30 PM PST
The editors of The Daily Barometer have failed to do their research when it comes to states that do not use Daylight Savings Time. Alaska does in fact use DST. (Continued…)
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