Daylight Saving Time unpopular amongst Missourians
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
People are preparing to spring their clock forward as Daylight Saving Times begins on Saturday night, but Daylight Saving Time is not very popular among Missourians.
In February, St. Louis University conducted a poll that asked 900 likely Missouri voters about their thoughts on Daylight Saving Time, and it showed a vast majority prefers a consistent time throughout the year. According to the poll, 47% of voters said they'd rather have Daylight Saving Time year round, compared to 31% who say they'd prefer Standard Time year round. Out of those 900 likely Missouri voters, only 16% would like to continue switching back and forth between Daylight Saving Time and Standard Time.
State Rep. Chris Sander (R-Jackson) proposed a bill that would keep the state of Missouri on Daylight Saving Time permanently, keeping more daylight in the evening rather than the morning.
"It would shift the clock to where we have more time after work, after school for outdoor activities in the evening, shopping on a bond care, walking the dog, going to the park, whatever in the evening hours when it's generally warmer in the day or in the morning," Sander said. "So people use that time outdoors more than they would in the morning."
Sander has filed this bill for that last four years and he says that other bills has been filed in the state of Missouri for around 15 years.
In 2022, the U.S. Senate passed legislation to make Daylight Saving Time permanent and it passed 100 to 0, however the U.S. House of Representatives failed to vote on the bill.
"There's always more important legislation to do that change, change clocks or things like that with time change," Sander said. "But it's a nuisance."
Sander said that there is concern that the Department of Transportation would take action against Missouri if it decided to go with Daylight Saving Time year round.
"But concern is that the US Department of Transportation would take action against Missouri if we did our own thing because Congress allows permanent standard time like Arizona and Hawaii do, but they don't allow permanent Daylight Saving Time," Sander said.
Studies have shown that car accidents increase when people lose an extra hour of sleep. Other studies have shown that robberies go down when there is an extra hour of sunlight. However, people suffer more heart attacks in the early stages of Daylight Saving Time.
