By Monique Tamminga
It’s high time Daylight Savings end for good.
Twice a year, we are forced to get with the times and change our clocks and our waking time, as we fall back an hour every November and spring forward in March. This past Sunday, at 2 a.m. we set our clocks ahead one hour.
This longstanding tradition was not started to aid farmers, as many think.
Instead it was rooted in an American idea to save energy during the First World War.
Fast-forward 100 years, and time change actually costs us in electricity, not to mention the annoyance of having to change all the clocks around the house and vehicles twice a year. Time change also makes us tired, moody and less productive on that following Monday.
But the time change is costing lives too.
Here’s the timely facts: There is roughly a 17 per cent rise in fatal crashes on the Monday after DST, there is more workplace injuries on the Monday, and a 25 per cent increase in heart attacks due to lost sleep.
In British Columbia the ICBC is once again asking drivers to get extra rest this weekend to prepare for the shift to Daylight Saving Time, pointing out that turning the clocks back results in more crashes, a fact that was proven by a study done at the University of British Columbia.
Also, the time change is horrible for parents of babies and toddlers who deal with a shift in bedtime and waking schedules.
A petition to end this archaic tradition was started by a man in Kamloops, B.C. last year and gained more than 24,000 signatures. His disdain for the time change began when it caused him to miss an exam.
An MLA in Edmonton is proposing a private member’s bill to end DST there. Just because we have done something for decades, isn’t a reason to keep doing it. The hour is now to bring in year-round standard time once and for all.
Monique Tamminga is a reporter with the Langley Times.