In an article entitled, Central time proponents shine light on issue, the Indy Star puts the lie to the Muncie Star Press’s inane editorial in which it suggests that moving Indiana to Central time isn’t even worth debating.
Obviously the Indy Star article doesn’t resolve the issue, but it shows that there are substantial arguments for Central Time. First, the historical argument: When the time zones were first drawn up, Central Time bisected Ohio. Second (and in my opinion most important), the geographic argument: The sun should be roughly overhead at noon. Under Central Daylight Time (functionally equivalent to the Eastern Standard Time we are on currently), the sun is directly overhead today at 12:50 p.m. Under Eastern Daylight Time, which is what we’re scheduled to have next year absent any action from the United States Dept. of Transportation, the sun will not be directly overhead until 1:50 p.m. That suggests we’ll be off by almost 2 hours. Third, the economic argument: Despite arguments that New York City is the economic center of the universe, the Sunbelt states are where the future lies. By tying our fortunes to the east, Jeff Sagarin (Bloomington resident and sports ranker extraordinaire) says it’s like we’re hitching up to a dying horse. The country’s center of population is constantly shifting to the west.
In any event, the debate rages on in Indiana, assertions of the Muncie Star Press to the contrary notwithstanding:
David Prerau used to work for the federal Department of Transportation, and said he was involved there in the biggest study ever made of daylight-saving time. He became so interested in it that he wrote a book about it: “Seize the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Saving Time.”
Indiana provided him with some of his best anecdotes — and continues to give him fodder for a new edition with the battles over daylight-saving time and the upcoming battle over the time zone lines.
In 1968 and 1969, he said, the transportation department held a year-and-a-half of hearings in Indiana that ultimately resulted in the current boundaries.
Prerau agrees with those who say by rights Indiana should be in the Central zone, along with Michigan, Kentucky and half of Ohio. But, he said, “in general, the federal government tries to do what local people want, within reason.”
The last time, for instance, that the transportation department changed a time zone line was in 2003, when three South Dakota counties were moved from the Mountain zone to Central. The change was so lacking in controversy that no hearings were held.
Prerau is expecting more fireworks in Indiana than that.
“Indiana’s had the biggest controversy (over time) anywhere in the nation,” he said. “It sounds like it’s still a mess.”
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