As Daylight Savings Time Ends, Utah Could End Its Use
As the fall gets into full swing, daylight savings time is coming to an end at the beginning of November, but not everyone is happy about the old tradition of daylight savings time. While most of the country will be turning back their clocks an hour when the go to bed on Saturday night this November 1, Utah may not be joining in daylight savings time for much longer. Two law makers in the state of Utah will propose measures to try and get rid of daylight savings time in their state after nearly 20,000 people showed support for dumping daylight savings time.
Several arguments have been made against daylight savings time including the general hassle for most people who have probably been late (or early) a time or two on the day after the daylight savings time changes. But one of the real concerns is that daylight savings time raises some serious safety concerns for thousands of families whose children end up trekking off to school in the dark after the daylight savings time change and this is of concern to many parents.
Since daylight savings time was first proposed in the U.S. in the early 1900’s, many people have opposed it for various reasons, while others, mostly those in tourist related business that benefit from daylight savings time, have argued in its favor. Some have argued that since daylight savings time allows extra evening hours of sunshine in the summer months it allows more time for people to get sunlight which helps keep their levels of Vitamin D higher, fights depression, and encourages more outdoor activities. Some have also argued that it saves on energy although this has been greatly disputed.
Some have argued in favor or switching to a permanent daylight savings time which would keep the longest possible hours of sunlight in the day year round. This permanent switch to daylight savings time has been done in several nations including Russia, Iceland, and Argentina among others. A permanent daylight savings time eliminates the hassles and schedule adjustments associated with the biannual switching back and forth from daylight savings time that many dislike.
Utah is not the only state to look at giving daylight savings time the ax. Wyoming, Colorado, Iowa and Montana have all considered making changes to their use of daylight savings time. Alaska opted out of daylight savings time back in 1968. Hawaii also does not use daylight savings time which was first instituted by congress in 1918 before Hawaii officially became a U.S. state.
If Utah decides to make changes to the states participation in daylight savings time it could opt to institute a new law abolishing daylight savings time or it could move to put it on the ballot during the next elections to allow the voters to decide the fate of daylight savings time in Utah.
