[Craziaskowboi]

Originally Posted by Unsettomati

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.

The Alabama/Mississippi line is more thinly-populated than the Alabama/Georgia line.

Originally Posted by Unsettomati

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.

I never said to use every 15th meridian as the lines for the time zones; I already acknowledged that it's impractical since 90°W passes through Memphis and New Orleans. That's why I proposed the Alabama/Mississippi line as the border between Eastern and Central, despite being closer to 88°W.

Originally Posted by Unsettomati

It would be idiotic for NW Indiana not to be in the same time zone as metro Chicago...

I forgot that four counties in northwestern Indiana are part of Chicago, and I acknowledged that earlier in this topic.

Originally Posted by Unsettomati

...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.

Southwestern Indiana already is in a different time zone than Indianapolis, and I said that it belongs with the rest of Indiana (minus the four northwestern counties).

Originally Posted by Unsettomati

...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.

In that case, not only would Indiana belong in the Central time zone, but so would all of Michigan except for the "thumb." Furthermore, the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles, the western third of Kansas, the western half of Nebraska, and the Dakotas west of the Missouri River/Minot would belong in the Mountain time zone. All of western Idaho would belong in the Pacific time zone.

Originally Posted by Unsettomati

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.

Great, 21 weeks of standard time compared to 31 weeks of Daylight Saving Time. Some "standard" it is, considering it's in effect for less than half of the year. It should start in May and end in September, if it even needs to be observed at all.

[Europeanflava]

Originally Posted by Toxic Toast

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.

But really what is the point of Indianapolis being on Eastern time when it has more in common with places like
Chicago, Omaha, and Milwaukee, than it does with Boston, Washington DC, and Cleveland.

Seems more like its on Eastern time for political reasons, not because it geographically makes sense.

[Toxic Toast]

Originally Posted by Europeanflava

But really what is the point of Indianapolis being on Eastern time when it has more in common with places like
Chicago, Omaha, and Milwaukee, than it does with Boston, Washington DC, and Cleveland.

Seems more like its on Eastern time for political reasons, not because it geographically makes sense.

Indianapolis is also buddies with Louisville, Michigan, and Ohio, places on Eastern time. Either way, we are going to be in a different time zone than neighboring states. There is no net benefit one way or the other.

[ttownfeen]

Originally Posted by cpg35223

Let's see. This morning I had to wake up in darkness at 6 a.m. It was barely dawn at 7 a.m. when I took my son to school. Why on earth would I want to wake up two hours before dawn instead of one? That makes zero sense.

Your issue is DST, not time zone placement.

[cpg35223]

Originally Posted by ttownfeen

Your issue is DST, not time zone placement.

So what are you saying? We become like some states where we don't have daylight savings time?

And, by the way, I've spent enough time in Atlanta to know how dark it is during the morning commute, particularly in the fall. No thanks.

[ttownfeen]

No.

What I'm saying is your complaint of dark mornings is a result of DST, not time zone placement. Even so moving time zones and DSTs is only going to go so far - at some point you're just going to have to admit it's you, not the Sun. I would suggest you alternate between living in Edinburgh and Tierra de Fuego during those locales' respectively summers.

[ttownfeen]

Originally Posted by Europeanflava

But really what is the point of Indianapolis being on Eastern time when it has more in common with places like
Chicago, Omaha, and Milwaukee, than it does with Boston, Washington DC, and Cleveland.

Seems more like its on Eastern time for political reasons, not because it geographically makes sense.

Well, in Alabama's case, we're not connected with either Central or Eastern time more than the other, but we are geographically much closer to the center of the Eastern time zone than that of the Central time zone, which is in Great Plains somewhere.

[ashpelham]

MOst of the difficulty of living in Alabama has nothing to do with time zones, but the residents concept of what 2014 should be. We don't live in 1950 anymore.

Political commentary aside , the fact that we are right up against the ET is what makes it a little uncomfortable at times. It's really a minor issue to me except in the dead of winter when it's dark by 5. That, to me, combined with colder than it should be temps, just makes for a tough place to live in winter, lack of deep snow not-withstanding.

[313 TUxedo]

Originally Posted by ttownfeen

Your issue is DST, not time zone placement.

It is time zone placement that makes the Sun rise at 7 instead of 6 in late March.

It is DST (really 2xDST) that makes it rise at 8 instead of 7.

I see some posts after my previous one that still have 90ºW as the natural edge of the Central zone. Again, it is actually 82º30'.

While we're on the matter of DST:

It's a classic example of how semantics can be used to make something sound better than it is.

If Obama were to address the nation and demand that all Americans go to work an hour earlier, even if it meant waking up an hour earlier (and do everything else an hour earlier), I'm sure people, especially Republican voters, would be completely outraged.

Instead, we have "Daylight Savings Time", where the clocks are set an hour fast. This means that instead of waking up at 6:00 am EST (1100 UTC), you wake up at 6:00 am EDT (1000 UTC) - it's the exact same thing as a government edict to change your schedule!

[KEVIN_224]

For reference, I've never been to Alabama. However, I have been to the central time zone twice with trips to Chicago and Nashville. I've also been to Indianapolis. Having said that, note the LONGITUDE of Indianapolis and Nashville. They're both a bit past 86 degrees west.

Indianapolis, Indiana, US
County: Marion County
Location: 39:46:35N 86:08:46W
Elevation: 717 feet

Nashville, Tennessee, US
County: Davidson County
Location: 36:09:57N 86:47:04W
Elevation: 440 feet

I was in Indianapolis on the night of Monday, August 23, 2010. That night, there was a pre-season NFL game on ESPN from LP Field in Nashville. At about 8:30 PM Eastern, I looked out the hotel room window, then looked at the TV screen. The amount of dim light in both cases was virtually identical!

Since we're talking about time zones, I've heard about people who want to put Maine on Atlantic Standard Time year round. Sure...that would be an awesome way to isolate them from the rest of New England. Cross the big green I-95 bridge from Portsmouth, NH to Kittery, ME in the winter and have the time jump by an hour? No thank you!