Time in Indiana

[CountyTy90]

I heard on the radio the other day that the state of Indiana may revisit the time zone issue. I've heard of this "controversy" before and researched it and it's quite interesting. Until the 1960's the whole state was in Central Time Zone before they split it up.  Wikipedia has an excellent page with maps on it. Since that time, every few years the state changes some counties from Eastern to Central and vice versa. Recently, there has been a push to put the state wholly back into the Central Time Zone, citing the darkness in the mornings and claims that it messes up our biological clocks. Arguments against this are that part of the state's economic ties are to Cincinnati and Louisville, both of which are in Eastern Time Zone.

So what is the best solution for Indiana?

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Indiana is not "Eastern" to me.  Put it in the Central.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

There is a strong tendency for time zone boundaries to creep westward thanks to the general belief that mornings are wasted time.  Indiana should be in the Eastern Time Zone along with Illinois and everything else east of the Mississippi.  (Unless we have New England switch to the Atlantic Time Zone.)  Of course we should combine that with an elimination of Daylight Stupid Time.

[CountyTy90]

There is a strong tendency for time zone boundaries to creep westward thanks to the general belief that mornings are wasted time.  Indiana should be in the Eastern Time Zone along with Illinois and everything else east of the Mississippi.  (Unless we have New England switch to the Atlantic Time Zone.)  Of course we should combine that with an elimination of Daylight Stupid Time.

There is no way Illinois should be in Eastern.

[Torie]

The County appending Chicago should be in the Central Time zone (or whatever time zone Chicago is in); otherwise all Eastern.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

There is a strong tendency for time zone boundaries to creep westward thanks to the general belief that mornings are wasted time.  Indiana should be in the Eastern Time Zone along with Illinois and everything else east of the Mississippi.  (Unless we have New England switch to the Atlantic Time Zone.)  Of course we should combine that with an elimination of Daylight Stupid Time.

There is no way Illinois should be in Eastern.

If you really think local solar noon should be the center of the day, then perhaps you'd prefer working 8 to 4 instead of 9 to 5.  The sad fact is that our culture hates mornings and has for a long time now.  I have no problem with acknowledging that reality.

[jimrtex]

If you really think local solar noon should be the center of the day, then perhaps you'd prefer working 8 to 4 instead of 9 to 5.  The sad fact is that our culture hates mornings and has for a long time now.  I have no problem with acknowledging that reality.

7 to 5 is preferable to 9 to 7.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Most Hoosiers want to have our pre-Gov.Daniels era time structure where we don't change our clocks. Personally I think Indiana should be central time. So should Western Ohio.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Most Hoosiers want to have our pre-Gov.Daniels era time structure where we don't change our clocks. Personally I think Indiana should be central time. So should Western Ohio.

Yeah, if we wanted time zones in the US to closely match solar time, that would make sense.  But it's clear that not what most people want.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Most Hoosiers want to have our pre-Gov.Daniels era time structure where we don't change our clocks. Personally I think Indiana should be central time. So should Western Ohio.

Yeah, if we wanted time zones in the US to closely match solar time, that would make sense.  But it's clear that not what most people want.

In the Pre-Daniels days we spent half the year in the Eastern and half in Central.

[Adam Griffin]

I think the economic argument is rather silly, broadly speaking. I've glanced at the time zone lines throughout the US and while it seems that there are few developed metro areas within close proximity of them, Chattanooga is one that sits right on the line of the Eastern/Central divide.

Ernest is generally, right: the easternmost fringes of a time zone often get screwed with respect to evening hours of daylight. It's really depressing whenever I cross the Eastern/Central line in the winter and see it getting dark at 4:30 PM (keep in mind this is the South, and getting dark that early seems patently ridiculous to many of us). Of course, no matter what you do, this will always a problem for some...