Evelyn Ginter writes that reasons to push clocks ahead this weekend no longer make sense, if they ever did.
To the Editor:
Every spring I feel a rush of excitement when I find the sun rising at the same time as I do. Then - bang! Daylight Saving Time pushes my excitement back into the shadows. I'm sure that other people feel that disappointment on the second Sunday in March.
Daylight Saving Time (DST) is an idea whose time has passed. Originally, it was supposed to improve productivity in our economy, but that theory has been debunked. In 2009, a study of mine workers found a 5.7 percent increase in injuries the week after the start of DST, which the researchers thought was most likely due to disruption of workers' sleep cycles.
The conventional wisdom was that farmers wanted DST. My parents were dairy farmers in northern New York State, and they detested it.
Last year, the Times published an article from the Washington Post citing difficulties in scheduling for airlines and trains caused by DST.
There is a great deal which we have to do to recover from accidents of nature such as hurricanes and floods, but it would only take a legislative change to remove Daylight Saving Time as an artificial barrier to our living in harmony with nature. I am contacting our legislators to urge that change, and hope that thousands of others do the same.
Evelyn Ginter
Woodbury