A New Take on Changing Our Clocks

 

Standard Time or DST: Must it be an “Either/Or” Choice?

Some of us will be a bit bleary-eyed this coming Monday morning from the hour of sleep snatched away from us on the weekend on account of our switch to Daylight Saving Time. We’ll hear plenty of griping about it too. Questions about why exactly it is that we change our clocks twice yearly, as most of us in North America have been doing since the early 20^th century, have grown over the past decade or two.  

A construct of the World War 1 period, Daylight Saving Time (DST) was initially created to save energy. Proponents also point to certain safety benefits and to some economic advantages related to tourism and recreation. Before the advent of DST, we remained on Standard Time year-round.

A Private Member’s bill called the “Time Amendment Act” was passed in the Ontario Legislature five years ago. The bill proposed that Ontario abolish Standard Time and remain on DST year-round. This has not yet been implemented because the bill also requires (quite appropriately) that Ontario’s bordering jurisdictions of Quebec, Manitoba, Minnesota, Michigan and New York State also do the same before we proceed with it. And none has done so – yet.

We tend to hear more complaining about the twice annual switching when we “spring forward” and lose an hour’s sleep than we do in November when we gain that hour back. It’s a nuisance they say - adjusting our clocks and our circadian rhythms twice annually - and the idea of scrapping the current practice does seem to have a good measure of popular support. As with many seemingly simple and logical ideas, the devil is very much in the details so before we all proclaim our agreement to scrap Standard Time altogether, let’s look at what it would actually mean.

Under Standard Time, in Toronto, on December 21^st, the sun rises at 7.50am and sets at 4.43pm – leaving us with less than nine hours of daylight and more than 15 hours of darkness. Most of us who travel to work each day in December do so in morning daylight and return home in late afternoon darkness. Children making their way to and from school enjoy daylight for each leg of their journey.

Were we to remain on DST through the dark winter months, as the Time Amendment Act proposes, morning daylight would then come an hour later. In Toronto, between November and March, that would mean darkness until almost 9am with most commuters and students completing their morning journeys before daybreak. Yes, evening darkness would also come an hour later with the December 21^st sunset coming at 5.43pm – still well before most commuters have arrived home.

I am an early riser. I like morning daylight and would prefer not to wait until 9am before I can see it. In my view, Standard Time offers the most judicious and sensible allocation of our less than nine hours of daylight during this dark five-month period. It allows for safe and well-lit travel to and from school for children even if the afternoon commute home for most workers is done mostly in darkness.

If we were to remain on Standard Time year-round as has also been suggested, in June, early dawn light in Toronto would arrive around 4am with the actual sunrise just after 4.30am. Sunset would be just after 8pm. Do we really want daylight at 4am?

A third possibility – one that has not been widely discussed, if at all – is to scrap both Standard Time and DST and settle half-way between the two - 30 minutes earlier than DST and 30 minutes later than Standard Time. Had we decided on this solution before this weekend which is now upon us, we would be preparing to set our clocks ahead on Saturday night by 30 minutes. Then we would never have to worry - or complain - about ever having to change them again. 

We could call it “Half-Baked Time” (HBT). Under HBT, in December in Toronto, sunrise would be at 8.20am and sunset at 5.13pm. In June, sunrise would be at 5am and sunset at 8.30pm. If we are determined to do away with the twice-yearly time changes, why must it be an “either/or” choice between DST and Standard Time?

In my view, Standard Time is best for the short days of winter and DST is best for the rest of the year. I don’t mind the current twice-yearly clock changing practice (which for many of us includes changing the batteries in our smoke and CO2 detectors) but if we, along with our neighbouring jurisdictions, really are determined to scrap the practice, I say let’s go with HBT.