Time in Indiana Totally Explained

Everything about Time In Indiana totally explained

Time in Indiana refers to the controversial time zone division of Indiana, and to the state's historical response to the innovation of daylight saving time. The official dividing line between Eastern Time and Central Time has, over time, progressively moved west, from the Indiana–Ohio border, to a position where it divided Indiana down the middle, to the Indiana–Illinois border as it's today.

History

Before 1883 Before 1883 in the United States, most towns and cities set their own local time to noon when the sun was directly overhead. Up until this time, travel was so slow, the difference in the clock from town to town was irrelevant. However, with the emergence of the railroads, hundreds of miles could now be traveled in a single day. It wasn't uncommon for a traveler to set his or her watch by the clock at a train station and travel to the next town only to realize their watch was off. Since, in the United States, the sun reaches "high noon" approximately 1 minute later for approximately every 12 miles traveled towards the West, "the time" in every town was different. 1883 The major railroads in the US agreed to coordinate their clocks and begin operating on "standard time" with four "time zones" established across the nation, centered roughly on the 75th, 90th, 105th, and 120th meridians. On November 18, 1883, telegraph lines transmitted GMT to major cities, where each city was to adjust their official time to their proper zone. The state capital in Indianapolis lies at approximately the 86th meridian (U.S. Census Bureau), closer to the center of the Central Time Zone at the 90th meridian than the center of the Eastern Time Zone at the 75th meridian. 1918 Time zones first adopted by the United States Congress with the Standard Time Act of 1918. All of Indiana is located in the Central Time Zone, with the dividing line between Eastern Time and Central time lying on the Indiana–Ohio state line. Daylight saving time (DST) is included in the original Standard Time Act. 1919 Congress repeals daylight saving time from the Standard Time Act of 1918, though some communities continue to follow it
   In 1991, Starke County petitions the Department of Transportation to be moved from the Central Time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone. The Department of Transportation grants the petition. Starke county is moved from the Central Time Zone to Eastern Time Zone effective October 27, 1991. (See 56 Federal Register 13609 and 56 Federal Register 51997) 2005 On April 29, 2005, with heavy backing from Governor Daniels' economic development plan, and after years of controversy, the Indiana legislature passed into law that on April 2, 2006, the entire state of Indiana would become the 48th state to observe daylight saving time. The bill was also accompanied by Senate Enrolled Act 127, which required Governor Daniels to seek Federal hearings from the United States Department of Transportation on whether to keep Indiana on Eastern Time with New York and Ohio or whether to move the entire state back to Central Time with Chicago. After some residents pledged to unofficially continue observing Eastern Time, the county changed work hours for most county employees so that they were in sync with Eastern Time work hours. Dubois, Daviess, Knox, and Pike Counties also decided to ask the federal government to return them to the Eastern Time Zone, the former voting to do so on April 27, 2006. The confusion involving the time status of these counties led to them being dubbed the "seesaw six." St. Joseph, Marshall and Fulton Counties overtly expressed interest in making another attempt to be changed to Central Time as of the end of 2006". 2007 On February 9, 2007, it was officially reported that the Department of Transportation had approved Pulaski County's returning to Eastern Time. The change went into effect on March 11, 2007, the date when daylight saving time resumed.
   On September 20, 2007, DOT approved a petition from the five southwestern counties Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin and Pike to return to the Eastern Time Zone. The change went into effect when daylight saving time ended on November 4, 2007. A petition from Perry County to move to the Eastern Time Zone was denied.
   With the exception of Perry and Starke counties, all counties that were moved to the Central Time Zone in 2006 were moved back to the Eastern Time Zone in 2007.

Controversy

The Indiana time zone debate remains controversial. Many argue that the entire state should move to Central Time, while many others believe the state should return to the non-observance of DST. This controversy is deeply rooted in Indiana.
   With a large agricultural heritage, many farmers oppose DST because their days are controlled by the sun; not the clock. During daylight savings, the sun rises an hour later, costing farmers sixty minutes of valuable morning productivity. Farmers are often dependent on young children whose parents want them home by dinner, and when the sun is up later in the evening, farmers miss out on recreational activities that only happen late. When the sun is still up at 8:30 or 9pm, the farmer is still in the field, while others have been off work for hours.
   Opponents of putting the entire state on one time zone often cite out-of-state cities as their reason of opposition. For example, counties in Northwestern Indiana border and commute to and from the metropolis of Chicago, Illinois for business and pleasure. Chicago is on Central Time. Counties in the southeastern corner of the state are suburbs of cities such as Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky, who both observe Eastern Time. In the southwestern corner of the state, Evansville, Indiana serves as the central hub of a tri-state area that includes southern Illinois and western Kentucky (both on Central Time).
   Supporters of daylight saving time (DST) and a common time zone in Indiana often claim Indiana must adopt the time-keeping system of the rest of the nation to preserve business. It is believed that Indiana businesses have lost hours of productive time with out-of-state colleagues because the time quirks are just too confusing to keep track of on a daily basis.
   Detractors of daylight saving time point out that scientific studies assessing the impact of the time policy change to DST in Indiana have identified a significant increase in energy usage and spending on electricity by Indiana households. Indiana households paid an additional $8.6 million in electricity bills according to University of California, Santa Barbara economics professor Matthew Kotchen and Ph.D. student Laura Grant. While opponents of Daylights Saving Time point to studies such as Professor Kotchen, the Department of Transportation and organizations such as the California Energy Commission claim that the United States saves approximately 1% of energy when Daylight Saving Time is being observed.
   Another wrinkle in the issue is that many companies in Indiana prefer Eastern time to Central time so Indiana businesses may observe the same time as Wall Street, despite the geographic location of the state 700 miles west of the eastern sea border. This complicates matters because (during the summer when the State observes DST), with most of Indiana on Eastern time, the sun doesn't set until after 10pm on some days in the summer, and the sun doesn't reach its highest point until after 2pm in some places. During the winter months (when DST isn't being observed), school buses lose a valuable hour of the sun's rays as they pick up children in the morning due to the unnatural geographic location of this Eastern time zoned-region. Another observance is that schools in the Eastern Time Zone of Indiana tend to have far more 2-hour delays, mainly due to the fact that the sun needs to be up for many of the road de-icing components to work. With the sun rising as late as 8:20 in some areas, the sun isn't able to safely thaw the roads for school buses to pick up all the children on time. The argument is that if the same area were in the geographically-natural Central time zone, the sun would be up at 7:20, rather than 8:20, and it would have an additional hour to thaw the roads in the morning..

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