Extending Daylight Savings Time a good thing for runners?

"Kids across the nation will soon rejoice," said Upton, because they'll have another hour of daylight trick-or-treating.

I'll tell you one thing, trick-or-treating is a nighttime activity. Daytime trick-or-treating is bullshit.

I guess it's good for runners, can never have too much daylight when you're running. Running in the dark usually blows.

What would be good for runners is DST in the winter and standard time in the summer - the reverse of the current situation. Earlier sunset in the summer and later sunset in the winter. For you early AM runners - either way it will be dark when you go.

I would like to see us get rid of DST completely. It is stupid and doesn't save any energy. Common sense CAFE regulations that apply to SUV's and light trucks would do more in one day than DST does in a season.

Ick- brian ur head is in the right place with energy saving but for the light/dark thing i think they should go with DST all the time and get rid of(rename) standard time. Who wants light in the am thats when its supposed to be dark! Of course that will never happen heh.

Asinine. Completely asinine.

A couple of points to consider. First, I suspect that this has far less to do with a so-called "energy policy" than it does with certain sports and leisure time equipment manufacturers. Second, I doubt it will have any measurable affect on energy consumption.

A little history may clarify the situation for our younger viewers. First, DST used to start in late April. I believe it was the last full weekend of April. Some years back, the a lobbying group that represented sports and outdoor equipment makers pushed Congress into starting DST on the FIRST weekend of April. Their reasoning was that people would have an extra hour of daylight when they got home from work, and would therefore be more likely to use (and thus purchase) the products they make. It had nothing to do with energy usage, only their potential profit. Congress, in its frenzy to be "business friendly", said "Sure!". Now, why would I think that these same lobbyists didn't have a hand in extending DST yet again?

Back in 1973, when the first oil embargo hit, the USA went on DST for an entire year, ostensibly to "save energy". I was in high school at the time, and even as an easily distracted adolescent I could see that this was a farce. My friends and I used to walk about 1.5 miles to the school each morning. I left the house a little before 8 AM and it was dark the entire way. All along the streets you saw houses with their lights on because the kids were getting ready to go to school and the parents getting ready for work. Under non-DST, the sun was coming up at this time and the lights weren't on. Sure, you got an hour in the evening, but you added an hour of dark in the morning. Net result, no savings. In fact, it was a net negative because now you had streets filled with kids walking to school in the dark (not the safest thing in the Winter).

I only wish that our Congress and Executive branch could come up with a realistic and viable long-term energy policy instead of the shortsighted, lobbyist-infested, feel-good crappola that passes for statesmanship these days.

Yeah-blame Nike and Salazar. I bet those congressmen wear modern running shoes also. Shills!

how does adding more weeks to DST give us more daylight? the sun comes up and goes down the same time regardless of our measure of time?

JimFiore wrote:

A couple of points to consider. First, I suspect that this has far less to do with a so-called "energy policy" than it does with certain sports and leisure time equipment manufacturers. Second, I doubt it will have any measurable affect on energy consumption.

man, do you bother to do any reading at all before spouting off? it's seems as if ignorance is a highly communicable disease on this board:

while it will no doubt benefit sporting goods companies, the estimates hover around 100,000 barrels of oil a day

"Citing Transportation Department figures, he said the additional two months could save the equivalent of 100,000 barrels of oil each day, or 1 percent of the nation’s total energy consumption.

“And that’s using consumption figures from the 1970s. The actual savings should be even higher,” Upton said."

granted there are other ways to save a lot more, such as upping the mpg requirements, but if you could save about 1% by essentially doing nothing, wouldn't you?

JimFiore wrote:

My friends and I used to walk about 1.5 miles to the school each morning.

Yea, and I use to run 20km to and fro school; in the snow; negative 100 degress.

Thanks for the history lesson pops, but you're wayy off here.

"Common sense CAFE regulations that apply to SUV's and light trucks would do more in one day than DST does in a season."

wow. ok. got any stats to back that up?

Wow! Sorry to see that this is such a big issue for you. I know it won't solve our energy problems but since this is a running board...

I'm for it! I like that I can run in the daylight after work for two additional months a year. It's safer and I'll be motivated to run farther. It might also get some people off the couch and outside in March and November rather than straight to the couch and TV because it's dark at 5:30 PM.

Do kids even walk to school anymore? I see kids in my district getting on the bus ONLY 800 METERS from their school! I also thought they were getting chubby because Mom took them in the SUV to avoid the bands of marauding perverts and molesters roaming the suburban landscape? At least that's what the news media would lead me to believe.

Hadn't thought much about it until this post...As a college XC coach I am happy because it means we'll be doing less running in the dark the last few weeks of the season in November. This will definitely help in the safety department.

JimFiore wrote:

Back in 1973, when the first oil embargo hit, the USA went on DST for an entire year, ostensibly to "save energy". I was in high school at the time, and even as an easily distracted adolescent I could see that this was a farce. My friends and I used to walk about 1.5 miles to the school each morning. I left the house a little before 8 AM and it was dark the entire way.

Is THAT why that was? That's funny. You've just filled in a little hole in my memory that's been bugging me for years.

I remember walking to school as a kid (would have been right around 1973) and that it was dark out. Yet in later years when I was up at that time, it wasn't dark a all. I thought my memory was playing tricks on me.

Agreed - this makes no sense. Do you have any idea how many electronic devices out there that adjust time for daylight savings and will now be wrong.

Reality Czech wrote:

Do kids even walk to school anymore? I see kids in my district getting on the bus ONLY 800 METERS from their school! .

i call bullshit 800 meters from A school maybe. from THEIR school? no way.

Average_Joe wrote:

Agreed - this makes no sense. Do you have any idea how many electronic devices out there that adjust time for daylight savings and will now be wrong.

man, and i thought just the young posters here were stupid.

It is only good for those who run in the afternoon or evening...blows for us that have to run in the early a.m., at least we got a break when they rolled the clocks back in autumn.

10 Standard Fire Orders wrote:

man, and i thought just the young posters here were stupid.

What would be really stupid would be an ad hominem response without anything resembling intelligent rebuttal.

Do you have anything substantial to add to the discussion?

"Extending Daylight Savings Time a good thing for runners?"

Forget that, what about leap year. How does that effect your training? Is it an extra day, a really hard day, is it an easy day, a day off? what do we do about this travesty of time management?

Average_Joe wrote:

Agreed - this makes no sense. Do you have any idea how many electronic devices out there that adjust time for daylight savings and will now be wrong.

ok then, please enlighten us as too all the electronic devices that take daylight savings into account that will be adveresely affected?

and so much so that it will outweigh the cost of 100,000 barrels of oil a day?

All the Windows based PC's are programmed to automatically change your system time when DST starts and ends on the traditional start of April and end of October. Now everyone will need to change the time manually in March and November. Also, you will need to switch the time back to the correct time when your PC switches it on the normal begining and end of DST. What fun.