My editorial of 16 Oct 2005 on Indiana's time zone

I get a sense sometimes in reading the various arguments from champions of Eastern and Central time for Indiana that the Eastern advocates don't really understand why living on year-round Eastern time seems so extreme to Central backers.

I think an analogy might help explain it.

U.S. Code (Title 15, Chapter 6, Subchapter IX, Sections 261 and 263) defines the standard time of the Eastern zone as the mean solar time (MST) of the 75th degree of longitude and that of Central as the MST of the 90th degree.

I think most people would agree that the thought of putting Buffalo, New York on Central time sounds pretty outlandish. Buffalo is 11.1 degrees (565 miles) east of the middle of the Central standard time zone (which runs approximately through Peoria, Illinois). The sun rises and sets in Buffalo approximately 45 minutes earlier than at the middle of the Central time zone, but only 15 minutes later than the middle of the Eastern zone.

But Indianapolis is in almost exactly the reverse situation. It lies 11.1 degrees (590 miles) west of the middle of the Eastern standard time zone (which runs approximately through Philadelphia). The sun rises and sets in Indianapolis approximately 45 minutes later than at the middle of the Eastern time zone, but only 15 minutes earlier than the middle of the Central zone.

So to Central advocates like me, Indiana's observing Central time looks about as sensible as leaving Buffalo on Eastern time. And conversely, leaving Indiana on Eastern looks about as ludicrous as moving Buffalo to the Central zone. Indianapolis lies about as far from the center of the Eastern zone as Buffalo is from the center of the Central zone.

Continuing to have the extra hour of evening sunlight 7 or 8 months of the year on Central Daylight Saving Time (to which we have been accustomed) sounds fine to me -- but not an extra hour beyond that by observing Daylight Saving Time on top of being one time zone to the east of our natural location.

Some Eastern supporters have correctly pointed out that winter sunrises (November through March) on Eastern time would be the same time as we have been used to for decades. This is accurate, as far as it goes. But central Indiana has been used to having the sun rise earlier than 7:15am until the first week of November. With Eastern Daylight Time, the sun begins to rise later than 7:15am the first week of September -- two months earlier. At the other end of winter, we have been accustomed to having the sun start rising earlier than 6:30am at the end of March. With Eastern Daylight Time, we would have to wait about 1½ months longer -- until mid-May -- to see the sun rise before 6:30am.

For people, like my wife, who enjoy getting an early start on the day with a morning walk in a country neighborhood with no street lights, being on Eastern Daylight Time means losing an hour of morning sunlight for safer walking these 3½ months in the spring and fall, compared to what they have been used to and would still have with Central Daylight time.

Evansville Courier & Press, 19 Oct 2005

Also published as a Letter to the Editor in "The Republic", Columbus, Indiana, Sat, 22 Oct 2005.