Keeping daylight saving time in effect all year could bring brighter evenings, but new research suggests the change would come with a troubling consequence for American children. A nationwide switch could result in at least 2 billion additional trips to school in darkness, potentially increasing safety risks while reducing children's exposure to important morning sunlight. The debate over permanent daylight saving time has gained momentum in Washington, D.C.
This past summer, the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation that would eliminate the annual return to standard time in the fall. Nineteen states, including Washington, have already approved measures supporting the change, which would take effect in those states if the federal bill becomes law.
The legislation remains stalled in the Senate, with school start times emerging as a major concern. Permanent daylight saving time (DST) would push sunrise an hour later during the winter months, leaving mornings darker from November through March. Although this would affect everyone traveling early in the day, researchers at the University of Washington wanted to understand what it would mean specifically for children heading to school.
Permanent Daylight Saving Time Could Add Billions of Dark School Commutes To measure the potential impact, the research team examined 14 of the 19 states that have already approved permanent daylight saving time measures. They combined school enrollment figures, individual school start times, and geographic coordinates to determine how frequently students would need to travel to school before sunrise. The researchers then calculated the total number of these trips under the proposed system and compared it with the current practice of changing clocks twice a year.
The results revealed substantial increases. In Washington state alone, permanent daylight saving time would produce nearly 35 million additional school commutes in darkness. Similar patterns emerged across the other 13 states, with Georgia showing the largest increase at approximately 71 million additional dark trips.
When the researchers extended their findings to estimate the nationwide impact, they calculated that permanent daylight saving time would create at least 2 billion more trips to school before sunrise compared with the current system. The potential consequences go beyond inconvenient mornings. An analysis of U.S. traffic collision records found that fatal crashes involving school-aged pedestrians were roughly twice as likely to occur during dark mornings as after sunrise.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
