Mexico Abolishes DST

[anikom15]

DST makes no sense to begin with, but it makes even less sense as you get closer to the Equator. On the other hand, permanent DST is a disaster for high-latitude places, where you’ll have kids walking to school in the dark. Russia trialed permanent DST for a short time, and then switched to permanent standard time.

With so many caveats related to DST, why even bother with it at all?

[dalke]

I don't see DST as a disaster in this (relatively) high-latitude place. And I have kids.

Here in Sweden, we switch to standard time this weekend.

Right now, sunrise is 8.16 and sunset is 17.32, so yes, I'm taking the kids to school in the dark, and it's still light when I pick them up around 16.45.

Next week, yes, it'll be light in the morning. But sunset will be 16.19, which means I'll be picking the kids up from their after-school program in the dark.

On December 10, the sun will be up 8.46 - 15.20, so it'll be dark for both drop-off and pick-up -- and neither DST nor Standard time will change that.

If it's really a walking-to-school-in-the-dark issue, then maybe the school start time is the problem. "Schools Start Too Early" - https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/features/schools-start-too-early.h...

> The American Academy of PediatricsExternalexternal icon has recommended that middle and high schools start at 8:30 a.m. or later to give students the opportunity to get the amount of sleep they need, but most American adolescents start school too early.

[aaomidi]

In the US were making it DST only.

Kids don’t really walk to school here so it’s not actually an issue in that regard.

It does mean people get more sunlight hours after work though.

[jakeogh]

US Senate passed Permanent DST unanimously: https://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/us-permanent-dst.html

[Vecr]

Once that goes through US states will have the option of DST/standard time switching, standard time only, or DST only.

[dusted]

Good on them! I wish Denmark would do the same.

Though, as a software developer, I'm slightly worried how many weird/interesting side-effects it will have, how many places are there strange hardcoded edgecases due to this..

[cromka]

Indeed, although I would imagine most software really relies on OS-provided Time/date API these days. It's probably some ancient legacy antics that would need some fixing, but then again, such legacy antics is way more difficult to fix in the first place.

[resuresu]

I hope the US will follow suit.

[m-p-3]

And Canada should follow once the US does it.

[tinus_hn]

I like how DST switches things up twice a year. But unfortunately there’s a very big and dramatic lobby against it.

[BillSaysThis]

Great!

[Jemm]

I wish Canada would make DST permanent year round.