Poll: Most Americans dislike changing clocks twice a year
INDIANAPOLIS — Most people across the country will see their clocks roll back an hour this weekend as nearly eight months of daylight saving time comes to an end. It is part of a twice-a-year ritual that most want to stop.
Seven in 10 Americans prefer not to switch back and forth to mark daylight saving time, a new poll shows. But there’s no agreement on which time clocks ought to follow.
According to the new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, 4 in 10 Americans would like to see their clocks stay on standard time year-round, while about 3 in 10 prefer to stay on daylight saving time. About another 3 in 10 prefer switching back and forth between daylight saving time in the summer and standard time in the winter.
At least seven state legislatures have backed asking Congress to allow year-round daylight saving time in the past few years — and about 60 percent of California voters supported a ballot proposition last year calling for such a move.
Arguments about whether later sunsets or earlier sunrises are better for business or safety aren’t what matter to some people. Jason Oliver, a 43-year-old retired soldier from Rolla, Mo., is among those who see the clock changes as just “messing things up” and he doesn’t really care which time gets picked.
The sun-splashed states of Hawaii and Arizona are the only ones where clocks won’t change at 2 a.m. local time Sunday, while most others have done the “spring forward” and “fall back” switches since Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966. Indiana joined them in 2006.
Sue Dillon became a campaigner for changes to the state’s time choice after a teenager was fatally struck in 2009 while running to catch a school bus in the early morning darkness.
Dillon, a former junior high teacher, maintains Indiana’s current sunrise times of 8 a.m. or later during some of the fall and winter are unsafe for children and others walking along roads.
