Monday, November 24, 2008

Time to Axe Daylight Savings Time.

Doctor David Levinson, Professor of Civil Engineering at University of Minnesota, has been studying the effects of daylight's savings time on transportation systems. When I met with him over the summer, he brought me to his computer lab and showed me some of the computer applications where he studies whether daylight savings kills people or not. If you're into technical journals, his publication on the issue can be read here. In the end, Daylight Savings Time does more damage than good.

And with this information comes the call for Barack Obama to try axing the tradition of Daylight Savings altogether. Originally implemented as an energy conservation policy back in World War I, the act has shown to not conserve energy, but tedious and even increase the rate of traffic fatalities. By reducing the hours of sleep for drivers in the spring, think of the countrywide impacts--304 million Americans all with an hour less of sleep. While on the local level it seems like a negligible argument, on the aggregate scale it is worth considering.

What do you think? Should we get rid of Daylight Savings Time? Here is one opinion. I'm not sure what Dr. Levinson would have to say about this, though.