Now we've changed to Daylight Savings Time two weeks early. We're back to dark mornings again, although we do get another hour of daylight in the evening.
Tufts University lecturer Michael Downing has said it's not about energy conservation, it's about getting Americans to spend more money by shopping. The author of Spring Forward: the Annual Madness of Daylight Savings Time says the golf industry predicted a $400 million annual boost in green fees and sales the last time DST was extended.
Haven't I read that bicycling is the new golf? It might follow that what's good for golf is good for cycling.
Maybe the later sunsets will encourage more people to get out on their bicycles after work. That gives the bicycle industry a boost.
The four-week extension of Daylight Savings Time (by two weeks in spring and fall) was signed into law by President Bush last year in the Energy Policy Act.
It was pitched as a way to cut back energy consumed in the evenings, but the Tufts' Downing says we'll be turning up the heat and lights in the dark mornings to start the day. The more light in the evenings will only encourage people to drive around more to shop, or give people another hour to golf.
Look at this from a bicycling standpoint. If bicycling's popularity is on the rise, then more folks will use their bike pedals instead of the gas pedal.
And if cycling is the new golf, then corporate up-and-comers can use the evenings to hone their cycling cadence to impress business peers instead of driving over to the local putting green.
Attention bike shops: Another hour of bicycling means another hour of wear and tear on parts, which will have to be replaced. It means another hour in the saddle for a cyclist to convince himself that he could really ride faster if he only had a new and better bicycle.
The whole Daylight Savings Time extension could make Americans more fit. How are you going to spend that extra hour this evening?
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