I certainly missed the boat on the Notice of Proposed Rule Making for moving Pulaski County back to Eastern Time, though searching my blog, I see that several commenters were on it. The NPRM for moving Pulaski back was opened on November 22, 2006.
The final rule was filed today. A turn around time of 76 days, including Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, and Super Bowl Sunday. Pretty efficient.
Effective March 11, 2007, Pulaski County will jump two hours from Central Standard Time to Eastern Daylight Time.
The SW counties will be next if this agency works in the same fashion it has in the past which is whatever the Governor says is how it’s going to be.
I also find it odd how long it takes the DOT to post some of their correspondence.We had copies of the November 14th Kaleta correspondence by the end of November.I figure the DOT must be getting ready to issue a NPRM for the SW counties although I do not know what the hurry will be since it would be Fall before we would change time zones.
The move will not incovenience me but I will not like Eastern time.I will feel sorry for all the people and families in the area it will inconvenience though of course we have some inconvenienced now that will no longer be inconvenienced.I guess the Chamber of Commerce wins again!They say we will all be better off on Eastern time so I guess it must be TRUE!!
Poor Pulaski County dwellers. Springing forward one hour is difficult enough, but two??? “Well, honey, it’s 8:00 – time to go to bed!”
It’s just that most Pulaski County residents have been observing EST anyway. That they are moving ahead two hours is a formality for government offices, etc., and not the reality for most people’s home clocks.
If the DOT suspected otherwise, I imagine they would not have been in such a hurry to effect the change. I suspect that DOT is either going to deny the southwestern counties petition (as they should, based on the convenience of commerce criteria) or are not going to make a final rule for Eastern Time until after DST begins to avoid a two-hour time jump there. My suspicion is that most people in those counties have actually abided by the move the Central Time and a two hour time switch would be a major hardship and a ridiculous scenario.
After America emerged from the Civil War that had divided the nation it quickly became bound back together by steel rails. By 1900, 193,000 miles of railroads connected every city and most small towns to the rest of the nation. This vast transportation network was the envy of the world. The nation was not only being connected by the trains. Telegraphs were making instant communications possible in every region of the country. In fact most telegraph lines were strung next to the railways and the telegraph itself was placed in the train depots.
It soon became evident that the sudden increased in speed of the transportation and communication systems necessitated a different method of keeping time. Until 1883 clocks were set to local sun time. When the sun reached its zenith the town clock was set to twelve o’clock or high noon. This was adequate for the local needs and for the travelers on the slow stagecoaches and river boats. But a passenger on the faster trains would find his watch that he had set to Indianapolis sun time, for example, would differ from the local time in Terre Haute.
American railroad companies agreed to solve this problem by dividing the country into 4 time zones. All railroad clocks within a zone were set to the same time. These zones were intended for the railroads’ scheduling purposes only and no one else was obligated to adhere to them. But many cities began to set their clocks to Standard Railroad Time shortly after Nov. 1883 when the railroads introduced the change. Within 5 months, 80 of the nation’s 100 largest cities had adopted the railroad system.
In 1887 (4 years later) the United States entered into an international agreement that established a world wide time zone system which consisted of 24 time zones (24 hours in a day). The centers or meridians of each time zone are located 15 degrees longitude apart from its adjacent zones (360 degrees divided by 24 hours = 15 degrees per hour). Greenwich, England was set as the prime meridian or 0 degree longitude.
In the United States the meridians of the 4 zones are at 75 degrees for the Eastern, 90 deg. Central, 105 deg Mountain, and 120 deg for the Pacific zone. To determine the time difference in hours between a zone and Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) divide the meridian for the zone by 15 (Eastern 75deg/15 =5). So when it is noon in Greenwich it is 7 am in the Eastern zone, 6 am in the Central, 5 am in the Mountain, 4 am in the Pacific zone.
By coincidence, the zone meridians for the U.S. are very close to large cities -Philadelphia, St. Louis, Denver, and Sacramento respectively. Also by coincidence, 4 time zones, each 15 degrees wide, are ideally suited for the adjacent 48 states because the country spans approximately 58 degrees from the east coast to the west coast.
In 1918 the U.S. Congress passed the Standard Time Act which defines the standard meridians for each zone and gave the Interstate Commerce Commission authority and responsibility to administer the time zone boundaries. This same year because the United States had entered WW I Congress in an effort to conserve energy placed the country on daylight shifting time. After the war was over the daylight law was repealed and most of the nation returned to standard time with some exceptions.
The Uniformed Time Act of 1966 transferred the oversight of the time zones from the ICC to the newly formed U.S Department of Transportation. DOT gains it authority to adjust the boundaries by this clause – “The limits of each zone shall be defined by an order of the Secretary of Transportation, having regard for the convenience of commerce and the existing junction points and division points of common carriers engaged in interstate or foreign commerce, and any such order may be modified from time to time.†This statement was taken verbatim from the Standard Time Act of 1918 with the obvious exception of transferring the responsibility from the ICC to the DOT.
http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/260.html
The major problem with the time zone system is where to locate the boundary between the adjacent zones. Theoretically any location within a zone is no more than 30 minutes from true sun time. The sun is at its highest on the zone’s eastern edge at 11:30 am, 12:00 at the zone’s center, and at 12:30 pm on the zone’s western boundary. This system places equal value on the morning and afternoon sun.
This is a quote from Scientific American May 1979, “The ICC understood that the public was strongly affected by clock changes and took ‘the convenience of commerce’ in its broadest sense. The zones were set close to the meridians that lie halfway between the standard (time controlling) meridians but somewhat to the west ‘to secure the greatest amount of daylight for the active hours.’ The zones were made compact and their boundaries were drawn to avoid heavily populated areas. Natural commercial regions were kept on the same time clock time and the clocks of the states and cities were given more weight than those of the railroads.â€
Halfway between the eastern 75 degree meridian (Philadelphia) and the central 90 degree meridian ( St. Louis) is 82.5 degrees which is a north-south line located about 30 miles east of Columbus, Ohio and when this 82.5 degree line is extended it intersects ten states – Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, N. Carolina, S. Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Since there is a one hour time difference from one side of a zone boundary to its other side, It was impractical to locate the eastern/central boundary exactly at this midpoint because to do so would divided several communities and states into 2 zones which would have created many problems and caused undue hardships.
Time zone boundaries are like garbage dumps, power plants, interstate highways, prisons, oil wells, etc. Everyone understands the need for them but nobody wants one in their neighborhood unless, of course, the oil well is on their property. The federal government before 1918 left the placement of the boundaries to the states for the most part and the states chose to observe the original railroad zones in most instances.
The 82.5 meridian barely intersects W. Virginia, Virginia, N. Carolina, and S. Carolina, so it required moving the boundary only a short distance to their western borders in order to unify each of these states into the eastern zone. About 1935 the ICC transferred Western Ohio and Western Georgia to the eastern zone by moving the boundary to their western borders. In 1915 (three years before the Standard Time Act of 1918) the people of Detroit voted to observe eastern time. Detroit is the largest city and the center of commerce for Michigan and the rest of the state (with the exception of some sparsely populated counties that border Wisconsin in the U.P.) eventually followed it into the eastern zone. Ohio, Georgia, and Michigan were in the Central zone under the railroad system and more than half of Ohio and Georgia and almost all of Michigan are west of 82.5 degrees it would have been a shorter move to relocate the boundary to each state’s eastern border and unified these states into the Central zone. It would have then taken a very short boundary move to their eastern borders for Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida to be in the Central zone and all 10 states then could have been unified. Another interesting point is the Eastern/Central zone boundary would have then been very close to the boundary set by the railroads in 1883.
So then why were Michigan and Ohio transferred to the Eastern? Lacking any other evidence we are left with only theories. My theory is there were 3 factors involved – Lake Erie – Henry Ford – and major league baseball. Detroit had started observing Eastern time in 1915 and when western Ohio was transferred all of the port cities along Lake Erie were then on the same time. Henry Ford advocated advancing the clocks because he thought it would sale more automobiles. He was probably right because the extra hour of daylight in the afternoon would encourage more joy riding because the ineffective headlights and poor roads of that period made night driving very dangerous. The Detroit Tigers and the Cleveland Indians wanted an extra hour of daylight in the afternoon because this was the era before baseball under the lights and fewer games would have to be postponed because of darkness.
Draw a straight line from the Alabama/Georgia border to the Indiana/Ohio border and where this line intersects Kentucky, Tennessee, and the Florida Panhandle is the approximate location of the eastern/central boundary in these states before 1961. If this line was extended into Michigan it would divide the state in half so nothing is perfect. But having a straight boundary for most of its length made sense because it was easily located and understood.
Notice that the boundary was moved westward in each of the ten states. 7 of the 10 that would have been divided if the boundary had remained at the 82.5 meridian became a single zone state. Also, it is important to note that the boundary was never moved across a state line before 1961. In fact it appears that uniting each state took precedence to convenience of commerce. This was going to change in Indiana.
There is much more resisitance to Eastern time in the Southwest counties than the Pulaski county situation and I’m not speaking of we die hard Central time supporters.Despite a large orginized effort from the Dubois county Chamber of Commerce only a very small number of businesses from SW Indiana mainly in Jasper submitted to the docket to support Eastern time.
The Pulaski county situation was very different in that they petitioned for Central because neighboring counties they had strong ties to petitioned also,when those counties were denied Central time it left them in effect disconnected.No such argument can be made in regard to the SW counties every county that petitioned for Central(6) were eventually granted Central after county commissioners and mayors made arguments at the DOT Jasper hearing to stick together with each other and be united with the counties that were already in the Central time zone to the south.
The only two counties in the region that were not granted Central were Sullivan which is tied to Terre Haute and Lawrence which is tied to Bloomington and not considered part of SW Indiana.We will continue to submit evidence proving convenience of commerce is not being hindered in the region but everything is actually doing quite well.The five counties unemployment rates are below state average.Evidence continues to be submitted in the form of local newspaper articles which are verifiable that show businesses and banks having record profit margins this year while some are even expanding.
We argue that if convenience of commerce is not being served on Central time how can all of these entities be doing so well??
It’s time for this agency to show it’s independence from Governor Daniels and examine the facts that are being submitted.They are required of course to examine the Ice Miller documents but most of the time their information is either factually incorrect or misleading.Their responses to Senior Counsel Kaleta’s request for more information are usually very easy to rebutt because alot of the information they provide is usually incorrect and easily spotted since we all live in the region and are closer to the situation.
It appears they rely on a lot of phone interviews with chamber of commerce types and some local officials.I went to the local hearings and our local officials do not have a clue about what they are talking about.We did manage to defeat the one commissioner who changed his vote to Eastern time in Martin county though.One abstained from the vote and the other had always supported Eastern.
Jim B.
I was one of the ones who read through your very complete TZ history. It really is fascinating stuff. My original point is that commerce in a very broad sense has always been the deciding factor and not so much natural law of meridians. Commerce can’t be easily ignored but meridan can,but only to a point, since 1 degree of longtitude makes 4 minutes of sunrise/set difference. ‘Convenience’ has always been a key aspect so DOT has historically been liberal in their rules of assignment( as you pointed out),favoring commercial ties over meridian limits.Now DOT tends to use county line boundaries rather than state lines.That’s why in mho, putting all of Indiana into one TZ would make no commerce sense( although it would validate meridians) and if that time were CT,many areas of the state would be inordinately inconvenienced for the sake of others,but it would please those who favor CT.If that 1 TZ were ET, it would make a TZ disaster for IN…An hour difference between Gary and Chicago? It’s nonsense to even speculate.
What’s been historic in USA is also true in other areas in the world. China should be in several TZ’s but is one. Poland was always an hour behind the rest of Europe under communism,but opted to be the same time since 1990.Now Europe extends from 24E( Russia/Polish border) to 4W,or 28 degrees( Western tip of France) which makes 112 minutes of time in one TZ.But they see themsleves as one common market.
One aspect that I have never seen explained is what was the original catylist moving part of Indiana to ET in early 60s.All I have ever read is that there ‘was a movement’ to be the same time as Ohio and Michigan’ It always sounds as it was a grassroots movement coming ‘from the people’ who wanted to keep their clocks set for CDT all year round.So the govt acquiesced and moved E.IN into Eastern time. I see TZ as the deciding factor and DST as a moveable TZ which unfortunately for IN really tests the tolerance of many of the relentless TZ westward drift,but is now part of the new obligatory national time conformity movement. But there comes a point when the sun just simple rises too late and sets too late. Gradually as the TZ moves W. more and more people are disoriented.People also with time do adjust,but that’s saying there’s ever total acceptance. I don’t think ET will ever cross into Illinois.
Phillip,
As I understand the process,DOT will make a preliminary ruling,and then invite a month or so of added comments,and then possibily amend their preliminary ruling. One way to get lots of interest would be to initially grant ET to Dubois and Martin Counties and leave the other 3 on CT. That’s how more debate was encouraged when DOT granted St Joseph County CT and left all the surrounding counties in ET.People said , ‘Hey, this can’t be!’
Rep. Crooks was quoted on internet Indystar a few days ago stating that 2/3 of his polling came in for ET in his district ( what you said) and that there may not be a ruling by DOT til mid-summer.
Jim B.
The point I didnt make well above is that there seems a strong historical movement since about 1960 in the eastern half of Indiana(including the greater Indianapolis )area) to conform to the time to the east.Of course that started when everyone was observing EST,but that trend is still there.It’s a cultural trend and is much deeper than the Chamber of Commerce pushing ET. People may not like EDT, but most will overlook it for conformity.
In the 1960’s Indiana’s economy was heavily tied to the automobile industry, particularly parts manufacturing, which used subcomponents from plants in Ohio, Illinois and Michigan, and the output from which was shipped to assembly plants in Ohio, Illinois and particularly Michigan. Those three states each took about an equal share of Indiana exports, and collectively dominated statistics on both where inputs and outputs from our economy went. When the Indiana Chamber of Commerce talks about time zone shares of Indiana inputs and outputs it is these statistics which feed their argument. It still feeds the argument that we should be in synch with the majority of those states, though it isn’t always that explicit, sometimes taking the form that Indiana borders three states on ET and only one on CT and therefore should be on ET (which ignores the fact that 20% of Indiana by population is on CT, isn’t that “state” as important to us as the section of Kentucky on ET?).
This argument is collapsing with much of the US auto industry. The number of auto parts plants in Indiana which have closed, or which have been announced as closing, will reduce our ties to Michigan and Ohio. Borg-Warner’s announced plant closing in Muncie is only the latest in a long series of closings and downsizing (think Delphi, Amcast, United Technologies Automotive, Ford in Indy among many others), which in terms of employment and output dwarf Honda’s arrival. Heck the closings since Daniels took office dwarf Honda.
Our economy has shifted to services and distribution and is far less tied to manufacturing then it was in the 1960’s. Many of the goods we distribute come to us from Mexico through Texas (what will be the effect of I-69 if it is extended? Why do state officials want it built so badly?). Our trade is shifting to the southwest and to the Central time zone.
Pulaski County’s return to Eastern time is a temporary event, driven by hyper local ties, such as a divided school district, not state wide trends
Lou,
Crooks survey which many of us did not get a chance to respond to,the first year we never received one at our home was I believe a sample size of 2000.This may very well reflect the desire of his district but talking to many people around here many think Eastern time means going back to year round EST like we had before.I know this is hard to believe but it is true.
Now I could be wrong but as I understand it concerning the Joint Petition for the SW counties it’s all or nothing in regard to going back to Eastern time.You are very much correct though proposing to move some counties while leaving the others would ignite a fire storm.The only thing is what I’ve found to be true is that most people seem to never know what’s going on until they wake up one day and find themselves in a different time zone than where they work or do business.
In my opinion if the DOT issues a NPRM for the counties to move to Eastern time this is a done deal to go to Eastern time.The only time the DOT went away from their proposed changes(NPRM) was in the St.Joseph county situation in northwest Indiana and Martin,Daviess,and Dubois county situation in southwest Indiana.This was of course only after the Governor stepped in with his two cents which in my opinion is why the DOT granted Martin,Dubois and Daviess and denied St Joseph counties.But I’m a skeptic.If the DOt denies the SW counties petition I’ll be shocked.
Lou,
I stated in the past few weeks that local law makers on PBS stated they sounded like this was already a done deal for the petition to be granted.In a article in the local paper last night Crooks sounded unsure stating only that a DOT official said a decision may not come until Summer.I’m beginning to think these local a nd stste lawmakers who try and make themselves out to be in the “know” or have inside information have no idea about what’s going to happen.
I was speaking to a big Governor Daniels supporter from Daviess county last Fall who has regular contact with Governor Daniels people or stated this much anyway, and he said he was told this petition was in the bag so to speak and the petition would be granted by January 1 2007!Do you believe anyone really knows anything outside of the DOT people?I’m beginning to wonder about all these local and state officials who claim to have inside information.
In the INDY STAR article on Pulaski county I thought the comment made by state senator Weatherwax was interesting when he said he mentioned the petition of the SW counties to a DOT official I presume Kaleta,and was told “well senator the petition is under review and the ball is in our court” something like that anyway.He implied he came away with a feeling the Pulaski county petition would be granted but unsure about the SW counties.
Paul is right. Commerce is constantly changing. So to satisfy the convenience of commerce we should put the zone boundary on wheels to facilitate moving it. Remember Detroit is by geography in the central zone and it decided to jump off the central bridge into the eastern zone. Does it then follow that Indianapolis must jump off the same bridge?
There was a movement in the 1950’s for eastern time but I wouldn’t say it was popular with the people. The Chamber of Commerce provided the impetus for the movement with some backing from the UAW which wanted to be on the same time as it’s headquarters in Detroit.
Here is a short history of the 50’s that you may find interesting.
From the inception of the railroad zone system in 1883 until the ruling in 1961, all of Indiana was considered to be in the Central Time Zone. During WW II the federal government required all the states to observe Daylight Shifting time as an energy conservation measure. Shortly after the war the federal law was repealed. It was never proven one way or the other that the law had conserved any energy.
Most of the nation reverted to standard time but many locales in Indiana exercised what they called ‘home rule’ and stayed on daylight time for varying periods of the year. This practice created a great deal of confusion and conflict within the state. In 1949, the General Assembly in an attempt to end the chaos passed a bill that kept Indiana on Central time and outlawed Daylight Shifting time. The bill had passed after a very emotional fight on the House floor. The law had no enforcement powers and was promptly ignored. But the first volley in the time wars had been fired and the battle lines had been drawn for a protracted struggle that is still being fought today.
Many of the eastern counties started to observe central daylight time all year. This was in effect Eastern Standard Time which placed these counties on the same time as Ohio. By 1936 the Central/Eastern zone boundary had been gradually moved by the ICC from the middle of Ohio to the Indiana/Ohio state line. As stated before boundary lines create problems wherever they are placed. By moving the boundary the problems were transferred from the middle of Ohio to its western border with Indiana. These moves did unify all of Ohio and probably was the least troublesome spot to place the line. If some Hoosiers had been content to let this sleeping dog lie on the border we in Indiana could be enjoying the same unity as the people in Ohio and would not have the time problems that torment us today.
With each passing year the clock situation became more chaotic. In 1956, the matter was put on the ballot in the form of a non-binding referendum. This is the only time Hoosier voters have ever had an opportunity to register their preference. The 1957 General Assembly using the results that showed a decided preference for Central Standard Time again made it the official time for Indiana but did allow daylight time for 5 months in the spring and summer. This new law did contain an enforcement provision. Any incorporation not complying could be denied state funds. But attempts to enforce this provision were met with legal challenges and no penalties were ever imposed. Many counties circumvented the law by placing the courthouse clock on Central time and all other business was conducted on Eastern Time.
It should be noted that the actions of the General Assembly were intended to end the confusion created by the eastern zealots. But these zealots purposely circumvented or disregarded any law that didn’t suit their purposes. The reason stated by the 2004-2005 advocates for Eastern Daylight Time was to end the confusion caused by Indiana being one of three states that didn’t observe daylight time. This was very disingenuous and self serving. The source of any confusion about Indiana time can be traced back to the actions of their eastern predecessors in the 1950s.
Jim B.
This a great step by step documentation of how Indiana ended up on ET.I remember a lot of these trends as they happened but one remembers the confusion and emotion of people more than what actually was happening.I do remember though living in Wisconsin in the 1950s on perpetual CST. In Summer the sun was shining at 4:30 AM. DST made sense there,but many people there were also against DST,and it was often discussed,and finally about 1960 DST was adopted. That must have been the time period when time was much discussed all over the country.There was also then an undercurrent that other powerful people were pushing their time on us.( but I’m not saying it wasn’t true)