Hey NJ! DST Ending Means Be More Careful Driving During Rutting Season

Welp! Here we go again. At 2 a.m. on Sunday, Daylight Savings Time came to an end, and we continued the strange, yearly ritual of setting our clocks back one hour. (Or letting our modern technology automatically set them back for us.)

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We'll look outside to a black night sky, thinking surely it must be at least 9 pm, when it's actually only 6pm. Our pets do not understand this concept, so they'll be expecting breakfast and dinner earlier than they should. (My cats woke me up at 5:30 am instead of 6:30 this morning to feed them breakfast.) We might also wake up feeling suspiciously more rested.

Although this means we get an extra hour of sleep, the effects can still be dizzying since we're disrupting our sleep patterns. This is made more jarring by the fact that our morning commutes will be brighter and our evening commutes will be darker. It takes about a month for us to get used to. Joy.

Unfortunately, around this time, this also means we're facing an increased risk of hitting deer while driving, since this is peak mating season. And this is already a big enough problem we face in New Jersey on a normal basis!

"Peak mating season for deer in New Jersey runs from late October to mid-December," according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

According to NJ.com, "deer and other animals are the most active from 5 and 8 a.m. and 5 and 8 p.m., during prime commuting times for many people."

Disrupted sleep patterns + darker evening commutes + mating season, all put together? It's the perfect storm for more deer collisions in New Jersey.

I'm always SO paranoid about deer sprinting out in front of my car, especially during my commute home in the evening. This is why I tend to stay in the middle lane, further away from the edge of the forest brush.

Keep an even closer eye out for movement in the forest brush while you're driving to and from work! If you see one deer, there's most likely more not far away.