[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

Uh ... I think you'd get really spoiled on having an extra hour of daylight in the evenings, like it does in Georgia. It gets too dark WAY too early in Alabama, especially in the winter. Freaked me out that it was pitch-black dark by 4-4:30 p.m. It equally freaked me out that the sun came up at 5:30 in the morning in the summer! CREEPY!

In the summer in Georgia, it doesn't start to get dark until well after 9 p.m. It's really nice!

Now, if you really want extremes go to the Upper Great Plains or Rocky Mountain states in late June and July, when the sun comes up around 4:30 a.m. and doesn't full set until about 10:30 p.m.!

Depends on if you're a night owl or not. I have to roust kids from bed, get one to school, and get ready for my day. Trust me, it is a gigantic pain in the ass getting them out of bed while it's still dark. It's so bad in the fall that I've thought about investing in a pair of marching band cymbals and crashing them together at 6:15 in the morning.

[Nemean]

Honestly, the question shouldn't be "Should Alabama be EST?" but rather "WTF is Indiana doing in EST?" When they finally decided to observe DST, from what I gathered, Indianians (?) were a bit suprised about being Eastern as opposed to Central.

[Toxic Toast]

Originally Posted by Nemean

Honestly, the question shouldn't be "Should Alabama be EST?" but rather "WTF is Indiana doing in EST?" When they finally decided to observe DST, from what I gathered, Indianians (?) were a bit suprised about being Eastern as opposed to Central.

There are people in Indiana who think we should be on Central time. I do wish the whole state was on one time. I realize that can be impractical when you are on the border of the time zone. Your last sentence, no. No one was surprised to discover Indiana was in the Eastern time zone. We've known for some time.

(BTW It's Indianans or Hoosiers)

[Unsettomati]

Originally Posted by Gnutella

Does it seem kind of ridiculous to anybody else that you can drive I-20 from Birmingham all the way to its western terminus at I-10 in the west Texas desert without crossing into a different time zone? Does it also seem a bit odd that Phenix City is in a different time zone than Columbus, GA right across the river? Or how about being able to change time zones in southern Indiana by driving north or south?

No. That's what happens when one time zone ends and another starts. The lines have to go somewhere, and in the fairly dense eastern U.S. this means that they will invariably separate some towns from very nearby towns. The best that can be done is to avoid the larger population areas. Following state boundaries is generally useful, as being in sync with ones state is often - not always, but often - as useful as being in sync with an out-of-state town across the border.

Every time zone is supposed to be approximately 15° of longitude (360/24 = 15), and the closest line of longitude that's a multiple of 15 is 90°W, which passes well to the west of the Alabama/Georgia line. In fact, it passes west of the Alabama/Mississippi line as well, which illustrates just how absurd the current time zone boundary setup is.

And why do you suppose this alteration is made? Because of we just used every 15th meridian west of Greenwich as a time zone line, CONUS would have five time zones, as follows:
A: Everything E of Philadelphia (75°W)
B: Everything else E of St. Louis (90°W)
C: Everything else E of half of Denver (105°W)
D: Everything else E of half of Lake Tahoe (120°W)
E: Everything W of half of Lake Tahoe (again, 120°W)

This would be idiotic, since the width of CONUS is only about 58° of longtitude - slightly less than the span of four time zones.

75°W drops right along the border between Philadelphia and New Jersey. Since Maine only extends as far east as 67°W, and since half the population of lightly-populated state lives west of 70°W, it makes little sense to start Eastern Time hundreds of miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. Instead, Eastern Time is essentially based on the meridians 70°W and 85°W. Doing this allows the entire eastern megalopolis from Virginia to Boston to be unified in a time zone, in addition to the even more important aforementioned fact of giving CONUS four time zones instead of five. Local time zone lines are tweaked to be as convenient as possible - but, again, the lines need to go somewhere, and it's going to me more disruptive in the east than in the west, where it is often possible to put them through swaths of wilderness more vast than anything east of the Mississippi.

It would be idiotic for NW Indiana not to be in the same time zone as metro Chicago, and it would also be idiotic for SW Indiana to be in a different time zone than Indianapolis just because someone thinks it's weird that you could drive due north into another time zone. But that is only as long as Indiana insists on being in Eastern Time - an argument could definitely be made that they would be better situation in Central Time (their location - 85°W being very close to the Indiana-Ohio border, and the state's proximity to Chicago compared to their distance from the great urban areas of the East).

Every time zone is approximately 15° is width. But insisting that the easternmost zone starts at a multiple of 15° from the prime meridian, when there's nothing but thousands of miles of empty ocean east of that time zone, makes absolutely no sense at all.

Since 90°W passes directly through the urbanized areas of Memphis and New Orleans, it's not wise to place the time zone boundary there, so the best place for it would be the Alabama/Mississippi state line since there are no urban areas along it, and it's not too far to the east. For continuity's sake, this would also require all of Indiana to go Eastern, as well as Kentucky and Tennessee east of the Tennessee River.

Given the facts that CONUS essentially starts at 70°W, that 85°W roughly parallels the Alabama-Georgia border, and that the Central Time Zone is based on the corridor between 85°W and 100°W, no, it would not make sense to put Alabama in Eastern Time, where it would be out of place. And it would be for no compelling reason - ie, there are no large urban areas sitting on its eastern border.

Originally Posted by Gnutella

On a related note, Daylight Saving time should begin in May, the weekend before Memorial Day weekend, and end in September, the weekend after Labor Day weekend. That way, the United States will observe Standard Time for more than four months of the year.

We already do - from the first Sunday in November to the second Sunday in March. That's always 127 or 128 (leap years) days, which is more than four months.

[rnc2mbfl]

Redrawing that line makes sense to me and it also allows for all of Florida to be in one time zone.

[Europeanflava]

Originally Posted by Toxic Toast

There are people in Indiana who think we should be on Central time. I do wish the whole state was on one time. I realize that can be impractical when you are on the border of the time zone. Your last sentence, no. No one was surprised to discover Indiana was in the Eastern time zone. We've known for some time.

(BTW It's Indianans or Hoosiers)

Most of Indiana and Alabama should be on Central time with maybe a split down the middle of the states for Tennessee and Kentucky. Indianapolis in particular would benefit from a Central time slot.

All of Florida including its far western edges should be Eastern.

Lastly, Don't know if people will agree with this but a chunk of New England north of Rhode Island should be on Atlantic time. I mean they are far enough east after all.

[cpg35223]

If Alabama went to the Eastern Time Zone, I'd go postal. You've been warned.

[harry chickpea]

I think we all should be on Greenwich Mean Time - all around the world. No changing clocks, no time zones to worry about. I finally figured out that Wildblue/Exede is on GMT, as is the email system of one of my suppliers. It makes sense when communication regularly crosses time zones, and it eliminates governmental meddling. Local vulgar times could be based on local solar noon plus or minus so many hours to avoid confusion.

[sleepless in Bham]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

If Alabama went to the Eastern Time Zone, I'd go postal. You've been warned.

We'll look for you on the news.

[Toxic Toast]

Originally Posted by Europeanflava

Most of Indiana and Alabama should be on Central time with maybe a split down the middle of the states for Tennessee and Kentucky. Indianapolis in particular would benefit from a Central time slot.

The time zone in Indianapolis is not going to benefit the city one way or the other. My preference would be for Indiana to go back to not observing DST. In the absense of that, I just wish we were all on one time zone.