Benefits And Disadvantages Of Daylight Savings Time (DST)

This article explains the benefits and disadvantages of Daylight Savings Time (DST) with studies from the supporting side and the opposing side. In 1918, the United States decided to begin DST to conserve resources for the war effort and gain the most advantages of the sun. Every year, about two times a year DST comes to effect for most of the U.S. During springtime, the clocks are set an hour forward and by autumn the clocks are set an hour back.

At first, cities had an option to adopt the DST method but by the 1960’s, the decision to leave DST as an option in every city had an unfortunate result and led to confusion with each city having its own different time zone. To clear up the confusion, congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966. However, DST still was not mandatory throughout the U.S. Currently Arizona has its own time zone and along with other parts of the U.S.

The article supports DST citing research done in the 1970’s showing that DST saved about 1% of energy cost per day, since electricity was mostly used for lighting and home appliances. On the safety aspect, other studies have proven that traveling on your daily commute is much safer when there is light

It was believed that this was caused from an increased rate of air conditioning use due to more daylight during a day. Another argument against DST is related health and safety, where studies show that when DST begins in the fall, pedestrian fatalities caused by cars increase at a high rate immediately after clocks are set back. Another study showed that a week after the end of DST, 227 pedestrians were involved in fatalities, as opposed to the week before DST resulted in 65 pedestrians being killed. Overall, it is very difficult for drivers and pedestrians to get adjusted to time changes whether it is forward or