In the Agora: A Bad Plan for Indiana

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January 04, 2005

A Bad Plan for Indiana

Today's Indianapolis Star has a lead article featuring Mitch Daniels' plan to switch our State to Daylight Saving Time. I reprint below an unpublished piece I had written for the Star based upon an earlier article published at the Hoosier Review.

I should start by stating I was a proud supporter of Mitch Daniels in his campaign for Governor. After years of visionless administration, this State will finally get a dynamic governor with a popular mandate and both houses of the General Assembly supporting him. I was hopeful that this political capital could be spent on some exciting and long-overdue changes to State government. Instead, I'm appalled at what my man Mitch has made his first policy goal: switching Indiana to Daylight Saving Time.

Is this seriously the most salient issue Daniels can come up with to lead his list of reform proposals? Even if DST weren't ridiculous nonsense, his supporters should be disappointed by this kind of small-thinking. But more importantly, switching our clocks is more than just bad policy; it's an awful hoax.

As a Hoosier, I'm proud that my State has been largely immune to the madness that grips 47 other States (I pity our 15 infected counties). This past season, we safely passed another wave of clock-jobbing, but with the Governor-Elect clamoring to join the asylum, our safety is in peril. It would behoove use to shoot down this trial balloon with both barrels, and to do this, we must look at the history and lies behind DST.

America first experimented with DST during WWI in order to save energy for the war effort. It ended in 1919 after everyone wisely threw a fit. WWII gave bureaucrats the excuse to bring it back from February 1942 to September 1945, when it was called "War Time." The war ended; DST didn't. Even though America experiences nothing like the shortage of resources brought about by a global war 60 years ago, we persist with a policy designed for those circumstances. And the most flimsy reasons are given to cover that up.

The most common justification for DST is that it saves energy, but the studies upon which the Department of Energy relies to establish that were conducted during the 1970's. We should abandon the mindset of the "energy crisis."

The 21st-Century is much different than a generation ago. Work schedules are more flexible, with more telecommuting and alternative work schedules. If individuals want an extra hour of daylight (the next most common justification for DST), all they have to do is get up an hour earlier, at their own pace, on their own schedule. I resent supporters of DST trying to coerce me into following their whims.

Forcing other people to switch their clocks also has tragic results. The ill effects of sleep deprivation combined with loss of light levels decreases traffic safety. One Canadian study found a 17% increase in traffic accidents the morning after the spring advancement. A trial in the U.S. of year-long DST in 1973 was repealed upon the evidence of increased school bus crashes in the morning. A recent study in the UK found that their DST system causes hundreds of extra traffic fatalities every year, including a 50% increase in pedestrian deaths after the October switch. Are Hoosiers willing to accept these costs?

On the economic front especially, Daniels and other advocates of DST claim that Hoosier businesses lose money every spring because firms outside the State can never tell what time it is here. We would benefit from being synchronized with either Chicago or New York they say, and thankfully the debate over which one has so far stalled our switch (even Daniels hasn't made up his mind). But if synchronization were so important, why isn't the entire world synchronized? As Daniels himself likes to point out, we live in the age of globalization, yet every country has a unique daylight saving scheme – or none at all. Somehow, global commerce survives. Hoosier businesses can as well. And let's not forget that changing the clocks twice a year carries significant costs as well - to both individuals and corporations.

Finally, Daniels also likes to point to a January Indianapolis Star poll as stating most Hoosiers are in support of DST. This is incorrect. The poll only revealed that a majority wish for the entire State to be on one time zone. It did not ask anything about DST.

I believe most Hoosiers oppose the switch the DST, and Daniels would squander our goodwill if he tried to foist the scheme on us. He has spent a great deal of time and resources building his political capital and inspiring hope for this State's future. Let us hope he does not waste his efforts and lose his momentum by pursuing this stupid nonsense any further.

Posted by Zach Wendling at January 4, 2005 02:30 PM

Comments

"A trial in the U.S. of year-long DST in 1973 was repealed upon the evidence of increased school bus crashes in the morning."

Maybe I am a little dense, but could you explain to me how DST could be year-round? Do you set the clocks ahead an hour each year? Am I missing something.

My only actual point on your content would be you seem to ignore the energy savings that result from DST. Sure the tests are old, but let's get a new one, and see what it says. And just because we are not in an energy crunch right now, which is debatable if you have had to fill up your car lately, I don't see how seeking to conserve energy is a bad thing. Unless you buy the argument that we are never going to run out of fossil fuels, this conservation measure, while slightly bothersome twice a year, will delay the inevitible loss of those fuels. Every bit helps.

Posted by: hector at January 4, 2005 11:12 PM | permalink

DST isn't about the change per se, it's about having noon on the clock occur an hour earlier than noon by the sun. However, this is really only useful in the summer, when the sun rises so early. The year-round experiment was abandoned because it turned out not to make any difference in energy use (also, it got a lot of bad press about children waiting for school buses in the dark).

Posted by: wahoofive at January 5, 2005 01:42 AM | permalink

I live in one of those 15 affected counties in Indiana. Living in a different time zone than the rest of the state for half a year really blows. And sucks. I live in southern Indiana, and when attend meetings in Indy, half the year it takes me 3 hours to get there, the other half of the year it takes me 4 hours to get there.
Interstate delivery drivers, truckers, travelers, everyday residents - changing the clocks every 6 months is just a big hassle and a colossal waste of time. I'm sure those delivery drivers, every 6 months drop a big ol' "WTF?!" whenever they arrive at their delivery destination an hour late.

Posted by: Kev at January 5, 2005 06:50 PM | permalink

I too have lived in an area of Indiana that did the time switch, but did not find it to be that big of a deal. I especially having that extra hour of evening in summer to enjoy the outdoors after work.

And Kev, by your logic, half of the year it may take you four hours to get to Indy, but by the same token, half the year, it will take you two hours to get back.

Sounds like it all works out somewhere.

Posted by: hector at January 5, 2005 09:19 PM | permalink

Everyone is ignoring one of the great perils of living in a non-DST state- THE PERMANENT LOSS OF TIME!!!!!! (cue eery music) I don't know exactly how it worked out, since it was years ago, but I moved to Northern Califoria and in the process permanently lost an hour of my life. Time zones baffle me, and I won't even get into what the international date line did to me, but I do know that somehow in the shuffle of moving back and forth between a DST and non-DST state I managed to time it so that I lost an hour. I want it back! :)

Posted by: C M at January 5, 2005 09:59 PM | permalink

DST is a Godsend for people who face depression as a result of low light. I have a good friend with this problem. He goes into work before the sun comes up and has very little time outside while it's still up. During the winters in Syracuse, that's especially bad, because there's less sun even when the sun is up. When DST hits, he gets an hour more sun on the end when it's most important, and then the reverse happens at the other end when that's also more important to him.

Posted by: Jeremy Pierce at January 10, 2005 06:01 PM | permalink

To one of the other basic points of the original post, I must agree that this strikes my as an odd thing on which to spend political capital right out of the box. I have to say it ranks right with "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" with me.

Posted by: Hoosier Sceptic at January 11, 2005 03:02 PM | permalink

Zach Wendling, you have shown ignorance on the subject of day light savings time. DST not only saves energy, but it also reduces crime. Criminals have fewer dark hours in the evening in which to conduct their devious affairs. Indiana must join the rest of the country and start leaping forward in the spring.

You also state that international trade goes on fine without synchronized clocks, but you fail to recognize that international trade is different from state-to-state trade. There are many forms, taxes and other issues that are address making it all very complex. State-to-state trade was intended to be simple and hassle-free.

Posted by: Daniel at January 19, 2005 04:22 PM | permalink

As the weekend approaches where have to begin switching our clocks, I'm ticked all over again. I supported Daniels in the first election, but I'll never vote for him again. Or for any of my representatives who voted for this ridiculous law. Citing economic advantages is ridiculous! Arizona doesn't switch and their economies are booming. Hawaii doesn't either and it has the lowest unemployment rate in the coutnry.

It's ridiculous, and I hope Indiana wakes up and throws the bums out!

Posted by: Anonymous at March 31, 2006 04:16 PM | permalink