Legislation has been filed in Tallahassee to keep Florida from changing our system of marking time twice each year. In the spring we advance the clocks an hour giving us more time in the sun during the evening with Eastern Daylight Time. In the fall we roll back the clocks providing early morning daylight with Eastern Standard Time.
There are advantages to each. And not making this change would maintain consistency with the rest of the east coast. However, should the legislature decide to make this change, the only reasonable decision would be to remain on Daylight Saving Time throughout the year.
As “The Sunshine State” it would make sense to have the extra daylight at the end of the day allowing residents and visitors more time later in the day for all of the activities Florida provides. We are a vacation haven, the “longer day” later in the day would set us apart and potentially make us even more attractive and open for business than other states in the south. Who doesn’t want to enjoy more time in the sun whether on vacation or not, even if it’s only an hour?
While I believe it unlikely that the change will actually happen, it works for Arizona which doesn’t change its clocks and we still manage to deal with business and travel there. But, if we do decide springing forward and falling back is no longer for us, we would be remiss if we didn’t manipulate our observation of the day to extend the sunshine advantages as late as possible.
Whether we make the change or not I, for one, am glad we no longer have to deal with the flashing 12:00 of the VCR!