I’m on the road so I’m trying the mobile blogging app. The time change happened last night, so we lost an hour. Fortunately, I drove through the night on Friday, so I figure I’m net +7 or so.
My latest notion on DST is that it shouldn’t be this early in the year. I was enjoying the morning light. Maybe equinox to equinox would be the way to go.
Daylight Savings Time sucks. Indiana had it right.
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/citydesk/2013/03/07/daylight-saving-time-should-be-abolished/
My compromise is that in Fall, we should roll the clock back 1/2 hour and
NEVER
EVER
TOUCH
THEM,
AGAIN.
P.S. Where are all the jobs, Mitch?
Freedom: Mitch’s friends. The rest are Mike’s responsibility. And the legislature can argue about the really important stuff, like time zones.
Dog, your mobile Iphone app is difficult to navigate.
As far as DST, it eats the big one. A teammate once told a field judge to “eat a big one” and was ejected for it. I like the phrase, though.
When you live on the Western Edge of an eastern time zone, you have DST almost be default. Indiana effectively has double DST.
The sick thing that I’ll remind everyone of is that we don’t live on the western edge of the Eastern time zone, we live on the eastern edge of the Central time zone.
The line for Central/Eastern time is between Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio.
There is an old law (1880s, 1918, not worth researtcing) that places Indiana in the Central Time zone.
But in 1961, the ICC placed part of Indiana on CT, part on ET.
So I cannot agree that Indiana is in the Central Time Zone, except in a somewhat strained legal interpretation.
Futher, states and counties are given wide flexibility to choose time zones. So most of Indiana is in the EDT zone, with a few northwestern and soutwestern counties on CDST.
I’m referring to where the lines on the globe are.
Indiana is politically in the Eastern time zone, some in Central.
Indiana is physically & scientifically 100% contained in the Central time zone.
In other words, this is a problem for Michigan, Kentucky, and Ohio, but shouldn’t even be a debate in Indiana.
Why on earth we decided to follow the stupidity of states we normally tell jokes about is beyond me.
Exactly, Jason.
Not to mention that Ohio and Michigan consistently rank among the worst economies in the Nation.
Being an hour behind Ohio and Michigan for a great deal of the year served as an economic stimulus for Indiana, as it allowed Ohioans and Michiganders living/working near the Indiana border an extra hour to cross the border to shop and dine, or the opportunity to beat the Hoosier lunch rush.
We can argue personal preferences all we want, but the Eastern Time Zone is better for Indiana commerce argument has been flawed from the get-go. The ridiculous argument that Indiana commerce benefits from observing Eastern time with Ohio and Michigan – with the obvious exceptions of the “renegade” counties in Southeast Indiana – is just one example.
Do you have some data to back this up? I would argue that synching with Ohio and Michigan would have no effect on Indiana commerce. However, Indiana counties synching with their dominant MSAs makes economic sense.
I agree with you from a technical sense, Jason. I was kind of stunned when I saw the old law. I should go back and check out the ICC rule in 1961 putting Indiana into both time zones.
Pat White, a local talk show host in Fort Wayne was crowing about Indiana being in Central when every caller said no, Indiana is Eastern. I guess arrogance comes with his low ratings. I would like to shove the 1961 ICC ruling up his bunghole.
Uhmmm, Jason, are you sure we are in the Eastern zone politically? I was thinking more like Southern, and if there isn’t a Southern time zone, they should make one for us.
;-)
Right,counties are given wide flexibility. In 2005 when this all started, Saint Joe wanted to be in the central timezone, Elkhart said no can do , we need you with us and we need to be with Michigan, so guess who wins! my favorite part of this still is the person who called me a fews years ago in answer to a newspaper ad. i live in LaPorte so i am central she was from Elkhart and when I said our noons are not the same time she told me ” you are wrong our governor sold that problem years ago” I hung up on her!
I think we should cut up Indiana into four pieces and give them to the four neighboring states, government and all. Then go with their zones and call it a day. No more crazy legislature, and Pence goes out to pasture with his red pickup.
I am with that, dude.
I third the motion.
And pickup Cincinnati and drop in into Alabama where it belongs.
Figured this link would be a big hit here:
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/eliminate-bi-annual-time-change-caused-daylight-savings-time/ShChxpKh
CFR Title 49 part 139
This Title may have been renumbered but the original CFR is out there.
The ICC had stautory authority for rulemaking and made part of Indiana Central Time and part eastern.
So I think it is legally sound to say that Indiana is now in both time zones.
@ Carlito
Indiana was totally in the Central time zone until 1961. During the fifties it was local option for Indiana communities to observe continuous Central DST. In 1961 Indiana was split down the middle, and then the line moved westward again in (I believe) 1966 to the Illinois state line with the exception of the Gary and Evansville areas. The time line has stayed essentially the same since the late sixties. (There were minor adjustments in 2006.) Of course, 77 Indiana counties were legally exempted from observing daylight time during 1971 to 2005.
The system worked well for a while because Michigan and western Ohio did not observe daylight time until after the Uniform Time Act passed. (Western Ohio was once in the Central zone.) I am not sure about Kentucky but I don’t believe Louisville observed daylight time back then either.
After passage of the Uniform Time Act, Michigan voted down daylight time for a few years. Alabama decided to move from the Eastern zone to the Central zone.
For another perspective, and a minority one I’m sure, please don’t ever put Indiana on Chicago time, please! Winter is depressing enough and the darkness that creeps in at around 5 P.M. in the months of December and January just adds to the misery. I hate mornings anyway (and there’s nothing more irritating [for me] than having to deal with a bubbly, sun-loving, early-rising, coffee-guzzling morning person when you are just the opposite of that; it seems every generation is pushing this “Let’s start the day at 4 A.M.” stuff more and more), and in the winter months it is going to be dark when you go into work or send the kids to the bus stop no matter the time zone. I love having long, sunny evenings in the summertime, long evenings that make memories of cold winter mornings very remote. Actually, long evenings that just make mornings seem very remote.
If you’re upset that every generation is pushing getting up earlier, wouldn’t you rather wait an extra hour to wake up? That would be Central time.
You’ll still have long evenings in the summer, but you’ll also feel like you slept in late every morning, and the sun will wake you up naturally instead of your mate’s alarm clock. :)
I overslept on Monday (it was still dark out) and have been out of sorts all week because of the dark mornings. Our biological clocks do not respond well to these whims of politicians and whomever who tamper with our natural rhythms. We should wake up with the sun. We should go to sleep in the dark. That how our world works. That’s what our minds and bodies are wired for. It’s unhealthy to try to thwart that arrangement. If we choose as individuals to go against it, that’s one thing. It shouldn’t be thrust upon us as a policy. To get Indiana as close as we can to the natural way, we need to be on Central time.
I’d gladly move to the Illinois side of this debate…
This week, we began our spring ritual of waking up an hour earlier, as our clocks “spring forward.” While providing a minor inconvenience for most of the country, this annual time change can be devastating for Hoosiers, as witnessed by our newly darkened mornings, caused by our continued misplacement in a time zone whose geographic center runs just this side of Vermont.
First, let me offer a little background. Indiana observed Central Time for the better part of a century, until the old Interstate Commerce Commission moved most of the state to Eastern Time during the 1960s. After two years of Eastern Daylight Time (our current dark-mornings/sunny-nights schedule), the state legislature voted in 1971 to stop observing Daylight Saving Time, so that school children would be safer in the mornings through most of the school year. This decision led to 35 years of Eastern Time in the winter, and Central Time (or Chicago time) during the other eight months. Seven years ago, Indiana began observing DST again, only without taking the logical accompanying step of returning to our geographically and historically correct time zone.
The consequences of our seemingly perpetually dark mornings are shocking. On February 13th at 7:05 AM (Eastern Time), eight-year-old Jared Philbeck was hit by a car while crossing busy US Highway 27 in Union County. He died the following afternoon, which was Valentine’s Day. On Central Time, it would have been daylight at 7:05 AM, and this tragedy could possibly have been prevented. In October of 2011, a New Castle boy was killed by his own teacher while walking to school in pitch-black darkness. Many such accidents have occurred since Indiana was moved to Eastern Time, but their regularity has increased substantially since our return to DST seven years ago. What kind of society are we that we allow our youngest and most vulnerable population to cross busy streets in the dark? We would never allow our grandparents to do so, yet we place our children in harm’s way throughout most of the school year.
Some school districts have attempted to remedy this problem by pushing back the beginning of the school day until 8:30 or 9:00. While this sounds great on paper, many parents simply must be at work by 8:00. The only logical solution to this problem is for Indiana to return to the Central Time Zone. This simple step would squeeze the typical 7.5-hour school day into the available nine hours of winter sunlight. Students would no longer be forced to wait for buses or walk to school in the pitch-black darkness of our misplacement in the Eastern Time Zone. Parents would no longer be forced to try to put young ones to bed during our abnormally light spring evenings.
The observance of Eastern Time is also detrimental to our businesses. In 2012, Zimmer Industries, Warsaw’s largest employer, moved its distribution center (and 350 Hoosier jobs) to Tennessee because their CEO was tired of waiting for Indiana to move to the Central Time Zone. Zimmer needs its distribution center in the Central Time Zone to “better serve their West Coast customers.” Lord knows how many other companies have moved out of state (or chosen not to move to Indiana at all) because of our incorrect time zone situation. We’re supposed to be a “logistics hub.” Let’s correct our time zone so we can be!
Holiday World’s situation is representative of businesses with the unfortunate hassle of being located near the seemingly random dividing line. The nearest hotels and restaurants to the Holiday World theme park are located in nearby Jasper. Unfortunately, Holiday World is located in the part of Indiana which already observes Central Time. Jasper is still on Eastern Time. Therefore, if park patrons stay until close, by the time they find their cars and drive back to Jasper, all the restaurants and hotel bars are closed, since Jasper is an hour ahead of Holiday World. Similar situations occur in Northern Indiana. In fact, several school districts serve students from both time zones. This results in missed meetings and extra-curricular activities, as well as parents’ work schedules
out-of-sync with those of their children.
I’m a businessman. I know. If you want to upset any Hoosier businessman, just mention Indiana’s time zone. Businessmen hate the fact that we must wait until almost lunchtime to conduct business with the West Coast. The old 1960s argument that we must align our clocks with those of Wall Street and the New York banks simply doesn’t wash anymore in today’s digital society. Furthermore, business associates in other states simply assume we are on Central Time because of our geographic location. The Indiana Farm Bureau has (just this year) signed a petition to restore Central Time to all of Indiana, as farmers prefer to begin their workdays early, so they can have their evenings free for meetings and after-school activities.
Fortunately, legislation is being introduced this week in the Indiana House to form a summer study committee to examine the pros and cons of requesting the USDOT place all of Indiana back in the Central Time Zone. I urge you to e-mail your representative immediately and ask that he or she support this important effort.
I stopped caring about the Republican Party when FrugalHoosiers.com rabidly advocated and insulted all who opposed DST, the Colts tax, the new stadium, and selling off the Toll Road.
That site truly showed that the Republicans were a scum party available for hire to the highest bidder.
They seem to have that down to a fine art, but don’t seem to understand that it’s ultimately self-destructive. Recent public statements show no insight into why they lost the election.
Doug said: “Maybe equinox to equinox would be the way to go.”
How about never to never? I’d be fine with that.
Why oh why do we have to go through this again?? My body and mind are already rebelling 36 hours before the fact!
http://www.rodalenews.com/daylight-saving-time-myths?cid=NL_RNDF_2043596_03062015_the_shocking_truth_about_daylight_saving_time_text
I am with Mary.