Time in Indiana

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Time in Indiana: Counties grouped by tz database zones.
Standard DST US time zone
Red UTC−06:00 UTC−05:00 Central Time
Yellow and brown UTC−05:00 UTC−04:00 Eastern Time

Time in Indiana refers to the controversial time zone division of Indiana, and to the state's historical response to 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 is today.

Effective March 9, 2008 with the exception of twelve counties which observe Central Time, Indiana observes Eastern Time. The twelve counties observing Central Time are Jasper, Lake, La Porte, Newton, Porter, and Starke in the northwest, near Chicago, and Gibson, Perry, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh, and Warrick in the southwest, near Evansville.[1]

Since April 2, 2006 all counties in Indiana observe daylight saving time.

The most extensive study of time zone history in Indiana has been published in The American Atlas (1978) by Thomas G. Shanks, where the author identifies 345 distinct areas in the state with different timezone history for each.

The tz database lists 11 time zones for Indiana, where each zone is defined as a geographic area that observed the same offsets from UTC since January 1, 1970 the start of the unix epoch.

Contents

[edit] History

Before 1883 Before 1883 in the United States, most towns and cities set their own local time to noon when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. Since the sun reaches "high noon" four minutes later for every degree of longitude traveled towards the west, the time in every town was different. In Indiana, local mean time varied from GMT-5:39 in the east to GMT-5:52 in the west. With the emergence of the railroads, hundreds of miles could be traveled in a much shorter time, allowing a train passenger to experience several slight changes in time over the course of even a short rail trip.

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.[2] 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.

1918–1961. The Standard Time Act of 1918 placed Indiana in the Central Time Zone. However, some communities chose to observe Eastern Time. Some communities observed DST.
1961–1967. In 1961, The Interstate Commerce Commission divides Indiana between the Eastern and Central Time Zones. The new time zone line was never uniformly observed.
From 1967 to 1977, six counties in the northwest near Chicago, IL and six southwest counties in and around Evansville, IN observed DST in the Central Time Zone; The other 82 counties were located in the Eastern Time Zone. Five of them near Louisville, KY and Cincinnati, OH unofficially observed DST.
1977–1991. In 1977, Pike County in the southwest moved from Central Time to Eastern Time, and did not observe DST.
1991–2006. In 1991, Starke County in the northwest received approval to move to Eastern Time, and did not observe DST.
2006–March 2007. On April 2, 2006, two northwestern counties (Starke and Pulaski) and eight in the southwest (Knox, Daviess, Martin, Pike, Dubois, and Perry) moved from Eastern Time to Central Time, and the entire state began observing DST.
March 2007, to November 2007. On March 11, 2007, Pulaski County in the northwest returned to Eastern Time.
On November 4, 2007, five southwestern counties (Knox, Daviess, Martin, Pike and Dubois) returned to Eastern Time. Perry and Starke counties remained on Central Time.

1919 Congress repeals daylight saving time from the Standard Time Act of 1918, though some communities continue to follow it.[2]

1942–1945 Daylight saving time is once again mandated by Congress to conserve energy during World War II. After the war, the mandate to observe daylight saving time is lifted again.[2]

1949 In a heated rural vs. city debate, the Indiana General Assembly passes a law to put all of Indiana on Central Standard Time and to outlaw daylight saving time. However, the law has no enforcement power, and it is largely ignored by communities who wish to observe Eastern Standard Time.[2]

1957 The Indiana General Assembly passes a law to make Central time the official time zone of the state but to permit any community to switch to daylight saving time during the summer. The law did, however, make it illegal for communities to observe "fast time" during the winter months. Governor Handley vows to enforce the law by withdrawing state aid from communities who attempt to observe "fast time" during the winter, though legal obstacles force the Governor to back down from his stance. Once again, the law is not enforceable, as individual communities continue to observe whichever time zone they prefer.[2]

1961 The Indiana legislature repeals the 1957 law making Central Time the official time of Indiana, which allowed any community to observe DST.[2] The Interstate Commerce Commission divides Indiana between the Central Time Zone and the Eastern Time Zone. The time zone line is not uniformly observed and lack of uniformity of observance of the time zone boundary was compounded by lack of uniform observance of daylight saving time. (See 50 Federal Register 43745 for this account.)

1966 The United States Congress passes the Uniform Time Act of 1966 to specify where and when daylight saving time is applied in the U.S. Previous to this law, each state was permitted to decide where and when daylight saving time took place. However, with the new federal law, authority over time zones was shifted to the Department of Transportation.

1967 Having the state split in two time zones was inconvenient and so, Governor Roger D. Branigin petitioned the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) to place all of Indiana back in the Central Time Zone.

1967–1969 The Department of Transportation conducts several hearings in response to Governor Branigan's petition. Citizens of Northwest and Southwest Indiana appear to favor location in the Central Time Zone with observance of DST, while other citizens favor location in the Eastern Time Zone with no observance of DST.

The Department of Transportation divides Indiana between the Central Time Zone and the Eastern Time Zone. Six counties near Chicago (Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Jasper, Newton and Starke) and six counties near Evansville, Indiana (Posey, Vanderburgh, Warrick, Spencer, Gibson and Pike) were placed in the Central Time Zone in observance of DST. The remainder of the state was placed on Eastern Standard Time throughout the year. The state was given dispensation by the Department of Transportation to exempt parts of itself from DST.

Most portions of the state that were in the Eastern Time Zone did not observe DST. However, some counties (namely Floyd, Clark and Harrison, which are near Louisville, Kentucky, and Ohio and Dearborn, which are near Cincinnati, Ohio) unofficially observed DST due to their proximity to the major cities of Louisville and Cincinnati, and those cities' observance of DST.

1968 While the Department of Transportation was considering where the time zone line should be, several broadcast companies filed a federal lawsuit to compel the Department to enforce the observance of daylight saving time in Indiana. The Department was ordered to stop informing Indiana residents that the Uniform Time Act will not be enforced and to provide a plan for the enforcement of daylight saving time in Indiana. See Time Life Broadcast Company, Inc. v. Boyd, 289 F. Supp. 219 (S.D. Indiana, 1968) (Time Life being the then-owner of WFBM-TV (Channel 6) in Indianapolis).

1972 The Indiana General Assembly overrides a veto from Governor Whitcomb to place the Northwest and Southwest corners of Indiana in the Central Time Zone on daylight saving time, and to place the rest of the state on Eastern Standard Time, upon federal approval(See IC 1-1-8.1). Congress approves an amendment to the Uniform Time Act of 1966 (15 U.S.C. 260-67) to permit a state that lies in two time zones to exempt part of the state from daylight saving time, and President Richard Nixon signs it into law. Indiana enacts the statute, officially placing Northwest and Southwest Indiana in the Central Time Zone, in observance of daylight saving time and the rest of the state in the Eastern Standard Time throughout the year. Several Eastern Indiana counties (Ohio and Dearborn counties, near Cincinnati; and Floyd, Clark and Harrison counties, near Louisville) choose to unofficially observe daylight saving time, despite the Indiana statute requiring them to remain on Eastern Standard Time throughout the year.

1977 Pike County requests to be moved from the Central Time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone. The Department of Transportation grants the request.

1981 Starke County requests to be moved from the Central Time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone. The Department of Transportation did not find a sound reason to change Starke County from the Central Time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone. (See 46 Federal Register 23500; 46 Federal Register 51786)

1985 The Indiana General Assembly (Senate Concurrent Resolution 6 from 1985) requests the Department of Transportation to move the five counties in Southwest Indiana (Posey, Vanderburgh, Warrick, Spencer, and Gibson) from the Central Time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone. The Department of Transportation denies the request, finding that the change would not serve the convenience of commerce. (See 50 Federal Register 25856; 50 Federal Register 28959; 50 Federal Register 43745)

1986–1987 Jasper County and Starke County petition the Department of Transportation to be moved from the Central Time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone. The Department of Transportation denies the petitions of both counties. (See 51 Federal Register 43644 and 52 Federal Register 10119)

1991 Things began to change in the 1990s, as Indiana's convoluted time zone situation was seen as impeding the state's economic growth. Interstate travel and commerce were difficult as people wondered, "What time is it in Indiana?"[3]

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 Mitch 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,[4] 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.[2]

2006 As a result of a review by the Department of Transportation, eight counties were moved from the Eastern Time Zone to the Central Time Zone, effective April 2, 2006. These were Starke and Pulaski Counties in the northwest; and Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin, Perry and Pike Counties in the southwest.

The placement of Martin County into the Central Time Zone, while leaving adjoining Greene and Lawrence Counties in the Eastern Time Zone presented a particular problem for NSWC Crane, a large US Navy base that straddles all three counties. With the Eastern/Central dividing line running through the base, NSWC Crane was unable to fully comply with the realigned time zones. The base opted to recognize Central Time, since the portion in Martin County was larger than the portions in Greene and Lawrence combined. This decision presented a larger regional problem, for even though NSWC Crane is Martin County's largest employer, two-thirds of the base's employees live in Greene, Lawrence, Monroe, and other Eastern Time Zone counties. This meant that the vast majority of Crane's employees would live in one time zone but work in another. Furthermore, a business park under construction at Crane's West Gate would straddle the new dividing line, with businesses on one side of the street being in a different time zone than those on the other. After one year under this awkward arrangement, Martin County reconsidered their bid to be placed in the Central Time Zone and formally petitioned for a return to the Eastern Time Zone.[5]

Independent from the situation facing Martin County, Pulaski County also formally petitioned for a return to the Eastern Time Zone. Pulaski County Commissioners and County Council both voted unanimously on February 6, 2006, to declare home rule and stay on Eastern Time if a federal agency did not grant an appeal to change the time-zone ruling. However, the county conceded on March 27, 2006, officially accepting Central Time and switching time zones on April 2, 2006.[6] 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.[7] 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.[8] The confusion involving the time status of these counties led to their 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".[9]

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.[10]

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 3, 2007. A petition from Perry County to move to the Eastern Time Zone was denied.[11]

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.

[edit] 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 saving time, 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 9pm to 9:30pm, the farmer is still in the field, while others have been off work for hours.[12]

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 are part of the Chicago, Illinois metropolitan area. Many residents commute to Chicago, which 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 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.[13] The confusion caused to outsiders featured prominently in the plot of an episode of The West Wing in which presidential aides unfamiliar with Indiana's non-observance of DST miss their return flight to Washington, D.C., on Air Force One and express consternation with the variances in the state's time measurement.[14]

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,[15] while supporters of Daylight 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.[16]

Another wrinkle in the issue is that some businesses in Indiana still prefer Eastern time to Central time because it is the time zone of Wall Street, despite its geographic location over 700 miles (1,100 km) east of Indianapolis. This complicates matters because in the western Indiana counties where Eastern time is observed (South Bend and Fowler south to Terre Haute and Vincennes), around the summer solstice, the sun neither sets until after 9:20 pm, nor does it reach solar noon until almost 2:00 pm.[17] During the winter months when standard time is observed, school buses in western regions 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 notable observation is that schools in the Eastern Time Zone of Indiana tend to have far more 2-hour delays, mainly due to the fact that sunlight is required for many road de-icing components to work. With the sun rising as late as 8:20 am in some areas, available sunlight is inadequate to safely thaw the roads for school buses to pick up all their passengers on time. The argument is that if the same area were in its geographically natural Central time zone, the sun would be up an hour sooner, and it would have an additional hour to thaw the roads every morning.[18][19]

[edit] Central Time Coalition

In 2009, the Central Time Coalition was formed, a grassroots organization of businessmen, educators, politicians, and others who like DST but believe that Indiana needs to be restored to its geographically (and historically) correct time zone. Their reasons for restoring Central Time to Indiana include:

  • Geography. The Eastern Time Zone is based on the time of the line of longitude of 75 degrees west, running east of Columbus, Ohio, while the Central Time Zone is based on 90 degrees west, running through Illinois. All of Indiana is geographically situated in the Central Time Zone.
  • Significant cost to education, both in terms of lost hours of education - the common two-hour school delays mentioned above could be reduced to either one-hour delays or even no delays at all (in many cases) with an extra hour of sunlight in the morning, thereby saving the state thousands of dollars in lost education time - and in terms of the safety of school children. According to the Indiana School Bus Drivers Association, since adopting DST (without taking the logical accompanying step of restoring Indiana to the Central Time Zone) in 2006, there has been a marked increase in incidents of school children being hit, injured, and killed by vehicles while walking to school or waiting for buses. Furthermore, the Coalition maintains, morning rush-hour automobile accidents have increased since 2006, due to the unnaturally pitch-black Eastern Time mornings. During the winter months, road chemicals require sunlight to be effective. This causes Indiana to experience dangerous, slippery, dark morning rush hours. On Central Time, afternoon rush hours would darken during the winter (as they do in most other areas of the country), but by then, road chemicals would have had a chance to work. Also, school children would already be home in such a scenario.
  • The Indiana business community would also benefit from a realignment with the Central Time Zone for several reasons. First, today's communication is instant, and the old 1950's argument requiring Indiana banks to observe the same time zone as New York banks is now irrelevant. Likewise, businesses no longer require observation of the same time zone as Wall Street. Second, while Indiana businesses conduct more business with those in the Eastern Time Zone, they conduct far more business with the other three time zones combined. With the recent push to promote Indianapolis as a logistics hub, it is imperative that Indiana return to the Central Time Zone. Furthermore, while many Indiana businesses benefit from Indiana's finally observing DST, the Central Time Coalition cannot find any Indiana businesses which benefit from the state's alignment with the Eastern Time Zone versus the Central Time Zone.

[edit] tz database

Indiana is covered by the following zones in the tz database. Columns marked with * contain the data from zone.tab.

c.c.* coordinates* TZ* comments* UTC offset DST Location and counties within Indiana Notes
US +394606-0860929 America/Indiana/Indianapolis Eastern Time - Indiana - most locations -05:00 East of the 1961 divide: (all unlisted counties)
West of the 1961 divide:
US +410305-0863611 America/Indiana/Winamac Eastern Time - Indiana - Pulaski County -05:00 North West: Pulaski
US +382931-0871643 America/Indiana/Petersburg Eastern Time - Indiana - Pike County -05:00 South West: Pike
US +384038-0873143 America/Indiana/Vincennes Eastern Time - Indiana - Daviess, Dubois, Knox & Martin Counties -05:00 South West: Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin
US +382232-0862041 America/Indiana/Marengo Eastern Time - Indiana - Crawford County -05:00 South West: Crawford
US +381515-0854534 America/Kentucky/Louisville Eastern Time - Kentucky - Louisville area -05:00 South East: Clark, Floyd, Harrison only part of the zone is in Indiana
US +384452-0850402 America/Indiana/Vevay Eastern Time - Indiana - Switzerland County -05:00 South East: Switzerland
US +404251-0740023 America/New_York Eastern Time -05:00 South East: Dearborn, Ohio only part of the zone is in Indiana
US +415100-0873900 America/Chicago Central Time -06:00 North West, near Chicago: Jasper, Lake, LaPorte, Newton, Porter
South West, near Evansville: Gibson, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh, and Warrick		 only part of the zone is in Indiana
US +411745-0863730 America/Indiana/Knox Central Time - Indiana - Starke County -06:00 North West: Starke
US +375711-0864541 America/Indiana/Tell_City Central Time - Indiana - Perry County -06:00 South West: Perry
Counties grouped by zones as defined in the tz database

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.in.gov/portal/files/TimeZones.pdf Retrieved 2011-01-01
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "A Brief History of Time (in Indiana)" (Press release). The Indianapolis Star. 2005-04-30. http://www2.indystar.com/library/factfiles/history/time/. 
  3. ^ "What Time is it in Indiana?". Monroe County Community School Corporation. http://www.mccsc.edu/time.html#what. Retrieved 2006-11-25. 
  4. ^ "Senate Bill 0127". State of Indiana. http://www.in.gov/apps/lsa/session/billwatch/billinfo?year=2005&request=getBill&docno=127. Retrieved 2006-11-25. 
  5. ^ "Martin County Rescinds Time Zone Change Decision". Inside Indiana Business. March 15, 2006. http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=17202. 
  6. ^ Coyne, Tom (March 28, 2006). "Pressured, Pulaski shifts to Central". South Bend Tribune. http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060328/News01/603280393. Retrieved 2006-11-25. 
  7. ^ Coyne, Tom (April 1, 2006). "Some counties resisting zone change". South Bend Tribune. http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060401/News01/604010303. Retrieved 2006-11-25. 
  8. ^ "Dubois wants Eastern time". South Bend Tribune. April 28, 2006. http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060428/News01/604280365. Retrieved 2006-11-25. 
  9. ^ Smith, Mike (April 22, 2006). "Time debate just keeps ticking on". South Bend Tribune. http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060822/News01/608220312. Retrieved 2006-11-25. 
  10. ^ "Document OST-2006-26442-109" (Press release). United States Department of Transportation. 2007-02-09. http://dms.dot.gov/search/document.cfm?documentid=450729&docketid=26442. Retrieved 2007-02-19. 
  11. ^ Corbin, Bryan (September 21, 2007). "Five Counties to Return to EST: Perry County petition is denied". Evansville Courier & Press. http://www.courierpress.com/news/2007/sep/21/five-counties-to-return-to-est-perry-county-is/. Retrieved 2006-10-25. 
  12. ^ Clewly, Robin (March 31, 2001). What time is the noon meeting?. Wired. http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2001/03/42754 
  13. ^ Davey, Monica (November 13, 2005). A time-honored debate in Indiana: to spring forward, fall back or neither. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/national/13indiana.html. Retrieved 2007-11-25 
  14. ^ Maureen Groppe. "'President' to tackle Indiana time zone issue," Greater Lafayette Journal and Courier, September 15, 2002.
  15. ^ Lahart, Justin (February 27, 2008). Daylight saving wastes energy, study says. The Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120406767043794825.html. Retrieved 2008-04-01 
  16. ^ Daylight Saving Time - Saving Time, Saving Energy
  17. ^ www.srrb.noaa.gov
  18. ^ Shatz, Amy (October 19, 2005). Central, not eastern! Indiana sports guy tackles time zones; after Daylight Saving shift, Mr. Sagarin asks Hoosiers to keep sync with sun. The Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition). New York, NY. Pg. A1 
  19. ^ Hoosiers for Central Time
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