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Under the US Uniform Time Act of 1966, the Department of Transportation is in charge of time zones in the United States and ensuring that jurisdictions observing daylight saving time begin and end on the same date. The federal law that established "daylight time" in this country does not require any area to observe daylight saving time. But if a state chooses to observe DST, it must follow the starting and ending dates set by the law which since 1986 have been the first Sunday in April to the last Sunday in October.
The concept of DST was first proposed in by Benjamin Franklin in his 1784 pamphlet entitled "An
Economical Project." He meticulously calculated how much money people would save in candle wax, wicks, lamp oil, etc, if they could effectively have an hour of daylight shifted from the morning to the evening hours. This move would postpone the need for lamps and candles being lit for another hour, hence saving money. Since fewer people are actually active at or before sunrise, he determined that the energy savings alone would justify changing clocks twice a year.
Daylight Saving Time was implemented during World War I and World War II to conserve energy. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act, which requested all states to observe Daylight Saving Time, unless a state exempted itself. Currently, 47 states in the US and over 70 countries observe DST.
By observing Daylight Saving Time we, in effect, create an extra hour of daylight in the evening. An hour in which less lighting is used and thus less electricity. Studies from the 1970s by the U.S. Department of Transportation have shown that we reduce the entire country's usage of electricity by about 1% each day with Daylight Saving Time.
Other studies have shown that the extra hour of evening daylight relates to a reduction in traffic fatalities and the likelihood of pedestrians being killed on the roads. Crime is also reduced since more people have the opportunity to arrive home before darkness sets in, a time when burglars prefer to operate.