Letter to the editor: latest sunrise January 4

At 8:06am, the latest sunrise of the year in Indianapolis falls on January 4 (except for the very beginning and end of daylight saving time, after the five-week extension that starts in 2007).

A common thread of objection to eastern time for Indiana is that winter sunrises are "too late".

After so many years effectively in the wrong time zone from October through April, I suspect that many of us in Indiana have become less aware of the typical winter sunrise time for locations near our state's range of latitude. Many of us probably tend to just passively accept our abnormally late sunrises, without fully grasping that a simple administrative remedy could put us back in the same range as much of the rest of the country.

Before there were standard time zones, the local sunrise on January 4 for Indianapolis (and all points due east and west) was 7:22am. Knowing this median sunrise time helps calibrate me on what sunrise time to reasonably expect for our latitude.

With the one-hour-wide standard time zones, locations near Indiana's latitude in the eastern half of a standard time zone (like Chicago, Indianapolis, and New York) should experience their latest sunrise from 6:52 to 7:22am. Conversely, latest sunrise time in the western half of each time zone should range from 7:22 to 7:52am. The following table shows that this is approximately how it works out, and suggests that central time affords a more equitable distribution of our scarce winter sunlight than eastern time would.

Five Indiana cities are shown twice in the following table, to compare their latest sunrise time with that of several corresponding cities in other states. I conclude that our sunrise time is more in line with comparable areas of the rest of the country on central time (CST) than it would be if we remain on eastern (EST).

Ohio is about 29 percent of the width of a time zone, and is bisected by the original 82½-degree longitude line that divided the eastern and central zones. I believe it made sense for Ohio to petition to have the boundary moved westward to the Indiana/Ohio border in order to unite their state into a single zone. Indiana is only about 22 percent of the width of a time zone, and lies entirely within the original boundaries of central time.

Surely it makes at least as much sense for us to petition to push the boundary back to the Indiana/Ohio border in order to unite our state into a single zone as well. Who knows but whether the portions of Michigan north of Indiana and the portions of Kentucky south of us might not petition to be restored to central time as well, if we muster the political courage to take the lead on this. It may be that a sizable portion of their populations are as weary of abnormally late winter sunrises as many of us are.

I regret that the legislature did not explicitly address the time zone issue on a statewide basis when they passed the DST bill. I encourage others who share my dissatisfaction to petition their legislators to support a bill like SB 79 (tinyurl.com/792hw) in the forthcoming ten-week 2006 session, while the time zone boundaries in our state are still relatively malleable.

SB 79, filed by Senator Vic Heinold (R-Kouts), would require Governor Daniels to petition the U.S. DOT to locate all of Indiana in the central time zone. I have urged Senator Garton (who chairs the Committee on Rules and Legislative Procedure) to schedule a timely committee hearing for this bill. Even if the legislature simply passed a non-binding resolution of some sort, it would still provide valuable feedback and input to the DOT on a "sense of the legislature" on this issue.

SUNRISE ON JANUARY 4
====================
6:52am, Las Vegas NV
6:58am, Nashville TN
6:59am, Los Angeles CA
7:04am, Owensboro KY
7:06AM, FT WAYNE CST
7:06AM, INDY CST
7:07AM, EVANSVILLE CST
7:10AM, TERRE HAUTE CST
7:12AM, SOUTH BEND CST
7:14am, Boston MA
7:18am, Chicago IL
7:20am, New York NY
7:23am, Philadelphia PA
7:27am, Washington DC
7:37am, Kansas City MO
7:48am, Youngstown OH
=====================
8:06AM, FT WAYNE EST
8:06AM, INDY EST
8:07AM, EVANSVILLE EST
8:10AM, TERRE HAUTE EST
8:12AM, SOUTH BEND EST

Sincerely, Bill Starr
1421 N 475 E
COLUMBUS IN 47203-9380
Bartholomew County resident
GOP precinct committeeman
http://tinyurl.com/88nnw
Mon, 2 Jan 2006

cc: Indiana legislators, Governor Daniels, Mayor Stephen Luecke
cc: DOT Docket OST-2005-22114, RIN 2105-AD53, FR Refence Number: 70 FR 48460