Indiana Lawmakers Consider Changing Time Zones Again
By Samantha Abernethy in News on Jan 10, 2012 11:00PM
Indiana lawmakers opened their 2012 session by looking at the option of changing the state to a single time zone, instead of straddling eastern and central. An organization called the Central Time Coalition wants to see the whole state move to central time, although a majority of the state sticks with eastern.
They say having more time in the morning hours would make it safer for school students traveling to school in the morning, citing a number of car accidents and child abductions.
Indiana tried to fix its time zone problem back in 2006, by making everyone recognize Daylight Savings Time and determining which counties recognize which time zone.
Currently only twelve counties in northwest and southwest Indiana are in the central time zone. The rest is on Eastern Standard Time. That whole Daylight Savings Time thing has continued to be a problem for the state.
Aside from the zone issue, many have never come to terms with the state's decision to change clocks twice a year, in line with most of the country. When the clocks first moved in spring 2006, a lot of Hoosiers were confused about the change, and many wanted to go back to not observing DST.
The benefits of sticking with EST, though, include workday/economic alignment with the eastern seaboard. Then again, isn't the state more economically dependent on Chicago and the Midwest?