That’s why Arizona for the most part declines to participate. The state is in the western part of the Mountain time zone and the last thing we want in July is an 8:30pm sunset – we don’t go out until then.
I don’t know if the Navajo Nation opting in is due to local preference – being close to new Mexico – or imposed by the BIA.
I used to work at a little newspaper in North Platte, Nebraska. The western edge of the county happens to be on the line separating Central from Mountain. So we had to pay particular attention in the stories that we published that we definitely had the correct time. It would be a damn shame if we sent you to the big spaghetti feed over in Ogallala and you didn’t get to have any spaghetti because we told you that it was starting an hour later than it actually did.
On a related note, I’d be curious as to business hours for those near a time zone boundary. Do McDonalds or Home Depot or other national chains on the eastern side of a time zone open one hour earlier than sister stores on the western side of a time zone boundary? What about schools/businesses where the time of sunrise may be a factor. Do the schools in Michigan start later (on average) than the schools in New Hampshire?
I work for a regional store chain, not a national one, but the chain is sprawled across two time zones. If the stores are opening at 6 am then they open at 6 am local time, so yes, the stores in the Eastern zone open an hour earlier than those in the Western.
Of course, this could vary with the company.
Oh, there’s a nit that needs to picked right here!
Technically, Eucla runs on Central Western Time - a difference of 45 minutes from Western Standard time. CWT covers Eucla and 3 or 4 other highway roadhouses (petrol stops for those driving across the Nullabor). Total Population - about 250.
If you caught the Indian-Pacific train - it has it’s own time zone that only exists on the train. It’s so you gradually change your watch a total of 3 hours over 3 days.
In the long run, the sun determines what you do. The first thing that would happen is that school start times would be delayed because we don’t want the kiddies going to school in the dark. If they advanced schools by one hour, then the kids would have one hour LESS of afternoon daylight when DST would have been in effect. If schools start later, mom’s will start shopping later and stores will shift their hours accordingly.
Should New England switch to AST because now you’re out of sync with New York, Washington, and Florida four months a year?
I don’t know where you live, but at more Northern latitudes, it’s still dark in the mornings during standard time. When I lived in Alaska, Sunrise was about 1000 and sunset was about 1400, and it’s the opposite in the summer, yet they still change the clocks twice a year. I can understand why Arizona doesn’t do it because who wants an extra hour of blistering sunshine when it’s over 110.
Couldn’t we just set the clocks ahead 8 hours and have 24-hour daylight?
A year ago, Ontario passed a law to make Daylight Time (i.e. EDT) permanent. But the jurisdictions of Quebec and New York would have to agree. Quebec is “waiting”, but is not against it. New York introduced legislation a few months ago, but appears little has been done since. This would be the equivalent of Atlantic Standard time year-round.
If all three decided to go ahead - how many other states would follow? Presumably, the New England states. Would Philadelphia and Washington want to be left out? Would it end up being the whole Eastern time zone, or would a new line be drawn between ET and CT?
The problem is that for NY to go along, Congress has to pass a law allowing it. We have the same deal on the West Coast and we’re still waiting too.
Almost certainly the entire ETZ would go along. One of the reasons half the states in that zone are in it is to be on the same time as NY.
This is correct. A State can opt out of day light savings if they so choose. A State cannot change time zones without Congressional approval. California going on permanent day light savings is essentially California moving to the Mountain Time Zone. I believe that most of us want to do away with day light savings time but not at the expense of staying on standard time.
California going on permanent daylight savings time is essentially California moving to Mountain Standard Time. If the states in the Mountain time zone also go on permanent daylight savings time, then there’s still an hour difference between California and the Mountain time zone states.
But if you do away with daylight savings time, then standard time is the only option left, yes?
Or am I missing something here?
I should have said Pacific Standard Time.
I love right on the border of two states, Georgia and Alabama. Half a mile and a bridge will move me from the Eastern time zone to the Central time zone. The city on the central time zone side of the bridge (Alabama) nominally runs on the Eastern time clock to make businesses there consistent with the much larger and more populated city in the Eastern time zone side of the river (Georgia), but the suburbs and outlying areas use the official Central time. It gets mighty confusing if you’re trying to find out when a business is open in Alabama, because you don’t just need to know the store hours, but also which time zone they consider themselves to be in.
Biggest problem I have encountered:
Randomly picking up a cell tower from the other side of the river, and the time changes on my phone without warning or notification. This makes alarms go off at the wrong time sometimes because of it.
Another Indiana comment. I lived in Southern Indiana, next to Louisville. Back then Indiana didn’t change time, except for counties, like mine, that were close to big cities in other states. So, actually, this isn’t a time zone thing, but DST thing. For half of the year our county was at a different time than the county to the north.
When needed we would use “slow time” and “fast time” to clarify what time a thing was. I was in “fast time” so if a party was at “2:00 fast time”, then it’s 2:00. If it was at “2:00 slow time” then it was 3:00 according to my clock.
That would drive me batty. Can you not change your phone so it doesn’t automatically update the time? Can on an iPhone.
I set my phone to a specific time zone rather than have it pick for me. I also have the option whether to adjust for DST or not. This would mean that I might need to change this setting when I travel.
We used to go to Laughlin, NV and visit with family from Bullhead City, AZ. During standard time, get togethers were always scheduled “my time or your time?”
That reminds me of a USA time-zone trivia question: Two women are talking on the phone. The first one says, “I live in a state that borders the Pacific Ocean. The time here is 1:25”. The second one says, “I live in a state that borders the Atlantic Ocean. The time here is also 1:25”. In what states do they live?
I haven’t figured out exactly which states they are yet, but is it 1:25 am on the day of the Daylight Savings to Standard switch?