My DOT post of 18 Sep 2005 favoring Central Time for Indiana

Title: Time Zone Boundaries in the State of Indiana
Docket: OST-2005-22114-401

To: Joanne Petrie
via "http://dms.dot.gov/submit/"
Office of the General Counsel (C-50)
400 7TH ST SW
WASHINGTON DC 20590-0001

PETITION FAVORING CENTRAL TIME (supplement)
===========================================
I just wanted to add one more little bit of data for your consideration in deciding whether to issue a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) on any proposed time zone changes for Indiana.

The following table compares the earliest summer sunrise and earliest winter sunset times for Indianapolis with several other major cities approximately evenly spaced across the U.S., which also fall between the 38th and 42nd parallels (lines of latitude) like Indiana.

I have shown two entries for Indianapolis, illustrating where we would fall in the range depending on the time zone to which Indiana is eventually assigned.

As you can see, if Indiana remains in the Eastern Time Zone when we begin to observe Daylight Saving Time, our earliest summer sunrise and winter sunset would be 13-to-66 minutes later than all of these other major cities at our latitude.

Whereas if we are moved back to the Central Time Zone, we are near the early end of the range (although not the earliest), but still within 0-to-47 minutes of all of the other cities in this list.

City Earliest sunrise (mid-June) Earliest sunset (early Dec)
==== =========================== ===========================
Providence RI 5:10am 4:15pm
Chicago 5:15am 4:20pm
Indy (Central) 5:16am 4:20pm
New York 5:24am 4:28pm
Denver 5:31am 4:35pm
Reno NV 5:31am 4:35pm
Saint Louis MO 5:36am 4:40pm
Sacramento CA 5:41am 4:45pm
Washington DC 5:42am 4:46pm
Pittsburgh PA 5:49am 4:53pm
Kansas City MO 5:52am 4:56pm
Salt Lake City UT 5:56am 5:00pm
Columbus OH 6:03am 5:07pm
Indy (Eastern) 6:16am 5:20pm

Ref: http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.html (U.S. Naval Observatory sunrise/set times)

Sincerely, Bill Starr
Bartholomew County resident
Sun, 18 Sep 2005

My DOT post of 18 Sep 2005 favoring Central Time for Indiana