Nadenu wrote:
gbaji wrote:
Nadenu wrote:
Tennessee is considering dropping Daylight Saving. I'm all for it, as long as they keep Saving time and not Standard. Which is pretty much the norm anyway since we only follow Standard time for what, 2.5 months?
Other way around. Saving time is in the summer, Standard time is in the winter.
I know, that's what I said. Keep the Saving time, not the Standard time.
Huh. That's weird. Total reading dyslexia on that one. Sheesh!
In any case, I agree with you to a point, but there are actually some issues with keeping savings time all the way through winter. Some people already complain that we wait too long to shift to standard time in the fall as it is (it's already dark too late in the morning for some). There's no perfect solution currently, although interestingly, it's possible that as computer technology and smart devices increase in common use, one may just present itself.
Theoretically, you could simply tie a set time to whatever time "dawn" is wherever you are. So arbitrarily declare that the sun rises at 6AM (or abandon that convention and call that "dawn" and just count time from that point if you want to really break from tradition). Point being that if every timekeeping device uses GPS to constantly adjust its time based on "seconds since dawn where I am", you can achieve the same thing we currently do with timezones, but at a gradual pace. The issue of scheduling ceases to be a problem because everything and everyone affected uses devices that also adjust based on current location. If a train leaves the station at location A at 5:23AM and arrives at location B at 6:12 AM, it doesn't really matter how long it took to get there (except to the passengers, but that's no different than traveling across timezones right now). What matters is that you can accurately schedule the trains arrival and departure at any given location with other events also occurring at the same location.
Local travel is unaffected because everyone "close" is on the same time. As you get farther apart, time changes become noticeable, but this is still no different than calling someone in a different timezone. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. And scheduling works just like it does now (with each party's schedule automatically changing to coordinate things). It's doable and would fix a whole lot of problems, but would absolutely require complete adoption of time adjusting technology. It's a neat idea though.