(Paul had posted this in the comments, but it seemed worth putting up front.)
When Michigan abandoned year round standard time following a 1970 referendum the DOT accomodated four western UP counties in switching from Eastern to Central, even citing the result of the referendum as a reason for doing so. At the time many in those counties suggested that the time line be drawn to put the western 2/3 of the upper penisula on CT (which would have put Marquette, Escanaba, Houghton/Hancock in the CTZ). The DOT actually invited counties beyond the four petitioning to make the change, but found little interest beyond the four counties which actually border Wisconsin.
Historically it has been far from automatic to change time zones (unless the request is unopposed), however, almost all requests for changes have been to switch from a more westerly time zone to a more easterly one (e.g. Mountain to Central, Central to Eastern, and even, in one proposed case, for Maine to move from Eastern to Atlantic). The petitions coming from Indiana may be the first requests to move any territory to a more westerly time zone since the Alaska time zone consolidation case in the 1980’s (all of Alaska except the Aleutian Islands moved to what was formerly called Yukon time (YST)).
The DOT has been very sensitive time zone erosion involving westward creep of time zones. In part the DOT took over drawing time lines from the ICC just because the Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was so ineffective in preventing this sort of erosion. Further, some of these requests, such as New Mexico’s request in 1999 to move from Mountain to Central, were obvious ploys to put the jurisdiction in question on year round DST. (The idea was to switch time zones one east and go on year round standard time, thus producing year round DST on your old time zone). Also, it is usual that it is Chambers of Commerce (egged on by golf course owners) who are pushing for time zone changes and, when petitions are opposed, the general population who is resisting. None of these restraining factors apply to Indiana. To me this suggests that gaining approval may be easier than people think.
In addition, all of the counties which have applied to switch so far were CTZ counties before the late 1960’s deal which put most of the state in the ETZ. That deal grew out of Governor Branigan’s petition to put all of Indiana in the Central Time Zone. It was the DOT that suggested doing the exact opposite of what the Governor requested, with the understanding that Indiana then exempt itself from DST. None of the counties (except the special cases of Starke and Pike) which have petitioned for CT are “voluntary” members of the ETZ, but were “sacrificed” in the name of state unity. I don’t know if such “equitable” considerations will concern the DOT, given they relate to matters 35 years old, but the counties involved can certainly argue that their natural economic affinities were interrupted for the sake of state unity.
In light of the Michigan case and the differences in Indiana’s situation, Doug may be right that the DOT will be more accomodating to these requests than is usual. Or perhaps they will come out for a visit, throw up their hands and suggest, as they did in 1968, that the best answer is Indiana Time.
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