[Paleopsych] NYT Op-Ed: Spring Forward Faster

[Premise Checker]

The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: Spring Forward Faster
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/31/opinion/31prerau.html
March 31, 2005

[Daylight Savings Time is a perfect example of liberals trying to get 
something for nothing.]

    By DAVID PRERAU

    Brookline, Mass.

    AS we once again "spring forward" and turn our clocks ahead on Sunday,
    the start of daylight saving time, there's no better time to think
    about giving ourselves more daylight every year. Extending daylight
    time would give us considerable energy savings in an era of record oil
    prices, as well as many other benefits.

    Daylight saving time, of course, has its roots in conservation:
    Benjamin Franklin suggested it as a way to save on candles, and it was
    used in both world wars to save energy for the military effort. By
    1966, most areas of the country had permanently adopted it, and
    Congress standardized the daylight time period to run from the last
    Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October. Twenty years later,
    Congress moved the starting date to the first Sunday in April.

    Studies in many countries have found that daylight saving time curbs
    energy consumption and reduces traffic fatalities. While I was a
    researcher at the Transportation Department in the 1970's, we did a
    study that found that under daylight time in spring and fall,
    electrical energy use fell by about 1 percent, the equivalent today of
    roughly three billion kilowatt-hours per month, while the reduction in
    traffic accidents saved 25 lives and averted 1,000 injuries each
    month. Crime also decreased.

    These results derive directly from the shift of daylight from morning
    to evening. For example, many people sleep through morning sunlight
    and then depend on electric lighting after the sun sets. Even taking
    commuters into account, far more people travel in the evening than in
    the morning, and this, when combined with poor visibility, leads to
    more traffic accidents. And more crimes in which darkness is a factor,
    like muggings, take place after dusk than before dawn.

    Under the present law we have daylight time in October but not in
    March, even though the sun rises at similar times in both months. The
    European Union starts daylight time on the last Sunday in March, with
    few complaints. Adding one spring week of daylight time would
    synchronize us with Europe. Adding two weeks in the spring would
    double the benefit while not making a single sunrise later than those
    we already experience in October, thus reducing concerns about dark
    mornings for farmers and children heading for school.

    We should also consider adding a week of daylight time in the fall.
    Daylight time now always ends just before Halloween - sometimes, as
    last year, on Halloween morning. Alarmingly, children's pedestrian
    deaths are four times higher on Halloween than on any other night of
    the year, and daylight time would provide another hour of light for
    young trick-or-treaters.

    Today, daylight saving time has been adopted by more than one billion
    people in about 70 countries. At a time when energy conservation is
    increasingly important and oil prices are skyrocketing, additional
    daylight time in the United States can save us energy while also
    preventing traffic accidents, cutting crime, helping trick-or-treaters
    safely across the street, and providing millions of gardeners,
    softball players and backyard barbecuers an additional hour in the
    sun.

    David Prerau is the author of "Seize the Daylight: The Curious and
    Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time."