> Georgia is putting DST on the ballot this November. Voters will have a choice to stay with DST, going to standard time year around, or asking Congress for permission to stay on DST year around.
At least Georgia is far enough south that year around DST might not have any serious negatives. There are people trying to do that here in Washington which is far enough north that it has serious negatives.
Year around DST would put sunrise in the middle of winter at nearly 9 AM at Seattle's latitude, putting nearly everyone's morning commute deep in the dark.
Without DST in the winter, of course, the commute home is in the dark, but I'd argue that this is better for three reasons.
1. Evening dark is generally warmer than morning dark. There is less chance of ice on the roads. It will have been melted by sun or rain during the day, and won't reform until it gets cold again in the early morning.
2. The evening commute tends to be more spread out than the morning commute. Putting the morning commute in the dark combines the worst conditions with the highest density. Putting the evening commute in the dark instead combines the worst lighting with lower density so is probably safer.
3. The morning commute overlaps with children going to school. The evening commute is mostly after children are home.
Sunrise at 9 AM is also bad for our sleep cycles. Our cycles sync to sunrise. The earlier we have to get up relative to sunrise the less healthy it is. (This could be fixed under year round DST by having businesses open/close later in winter, so our commutes happen later, but then we are essentially where we are now except we do it by changing schedules twice a year instead of changing clocks).
Furthermore, in the middle of winter here DST would not really actually get you much, if any, extra usable daylight after work. By the time you get home and have dinner, it is still going to be getting dark. Feb 1 sunset this year was at 5:10 PM, for example. Year around DST would make that 6:10 PM.