The mission of the Central Time Coalition is to promote the allocation of available sunlight and darkness in a manner that provides the greatest peace, safety and well-being to the citizens of Indiana. This mission will be accomplished when Indiana is restored to its geographically correct Central Time Zone.

CENTRAL TIME – INDIANA’S RIGHT TIME

NEWS

2012 LEGISLATION – Senators Mike Delph and Lindel Hume as well as Representatives Jeff Thompson and Dale Grubb are sponsoring resolutions in the 2012 General assembly requesting USDOT to restore Indiana to the Central Time Zone. Central Time supporters will be at the State house on Jan. 9, 23, and 30 as well as Feb. 6, 13, and 27 from 10 -1 to lobby legislators. We’ll be wearing our new red CT T-shirts (over white shirts) and passing out CT buttons and brochures. Join us to make a crowd. For information email shdillon@indy.rr.com.

BROCHURE – The Central Time new brochure is now available as a handy tool to email or print and hand out. In a concise way, it tells why Central Time is Indiana’s right time. click here.

PETITIONS – The Central Time Coalition is gathering signatures in support of restoring Indiana to the Central Time. You can help by gathering signatures, forwarding the petition to friends and by urging your school board to endorse the school resolution. To access the petitions Learn more here.

FALL 2011 VICTIM COUNT - This fall six students were hit by cars, five of whom were seriously injured. Two attempted abductions occurred, all prior to sunrise. Learn more here

CENTRAL TIME VIDEO – Look for the video that will be shown on television beginning in January. You can see the UTube version by clicking here

OPINIONS

COALITION’S POSITION - Indiana’s split time situation is divisive. It affects all Hoosiers, not just those living in boundary counties. The resulting confusion cost money in missed meetings, deadlines, deliveries, etc. Eastern Time has proven to be unsafe for Indiana’s school children, detrimental to their education, and wasteful of school funding. Eastern is an outdated time designation. Business transactions are now performed by computers and television is now digital with shows rarely broadcast live from New York. 68% of Indiana’s exports are shipped to time zones west of us. The 3-hour time gap between the West Coast and Indiana is a deterrent to conducting business. The observance of daylight saving time is beneficial to Indiana’s economic health by keeping our clocks in sync with the rest of the US, however, Eastern is the wrong time zone. Central is Indiana’s business-friendly and citizen-friendly time zone.

SOMETHING IS WRONG – WHAT, HOW, WHY = SOLUTION – Darkness reduces visibility. It poses a safety hazard to anybody standing or walking along roadsides and it increases danger for drivers. WHAT? The safety of Indiana’s most vulnerable sub-population (1.35 million school children or 1/5 of our population) is at risk every time they travel to school in the dark - which is more than half of their school year. HOW? Prior to 2006, only the four winter months were dangerously dark in the morning. With the adoption of Eastern Daylight Time, morning darkness in spring and fall has proven to be as dangerous for students as the winter months. WHY? Eastern Time produces an imbalance in the sunlight schedule in Indiana causing excessive darkness in morning and excessive lightness in the evening. SOLUTION Restore a more favorable balance of sunlight/darkness by returning Indiana to its geographically correct Central Time Zone.

Elected officials need to honor their oath of office in which they swore to uphold the Constitution of Indiana. Article 1 of the Indiana’s Bill of Rights states that the government of Indiana was formed by the people for the purpose of securing “peace, safety, and well-being” for the citizens. The obligation is encompassed in only three words – “peace, safety and well-being”. COST? The cost to fix it is nothing - just a matter of not setting our clocks forward one time. The cost of not fixing it is incalculable.

INFORMATION

GEOGRAPHY - The geographically and historically correct time zone for all of Indiana is the Central Time Zone. As established in the Standard Time Act of 1918, the geographic longitude for dividing the Central and Eastern Time Zones is the 82.5 longitude. It runs 25 miles east of Columbus, Ohio. Eastern’s unbalanced sunlight schedule in Indiana results in abnormally dark mornings. Learn more here.

EDUCATION’S CULPRIT – Eastern Time is the unrecognized culprit that in undermining and “dumbing down” education in Indiana. Learn more here

SAFETY – School buses begin picking up students at 6:30 all over Indiana and deliver most students to their homes by 4 PM. Incidents are distributed equally between Eastern Standard Time (winter) and Eastern Daylight Time (spring & fall). On Central Time the latest sunrise would be approximately 7:15 and the majority of travel to and from school would occur in sunlight.. Learn more here.

SCHOOL DELAYS - 2-hr. school delays waste tax money while classrooms are empty and students are at home waiting for the weather to clear. Figured at $7 per student per hour (salaries & utilities), the total amount wasted in Eastern Time school districts in 2010-11 was approximately $59 million. Central Time would turn 2-hr. delays into 1-hr. delays and cut wasted spending in half. Learn more here

SCHOOL PERFORMANCE - Circadian rhythms regulate the 24-hr. cycle of biological processes of waking and sleeping. Studies prove that when civil clocks are out of sync with biological clocks (as in Indiana’s Eastern Time counties) students have impaired school and adults impaired work performance. Learn more here.

LATE SUNSETS - Late sunsets make bedtime difficult and often result in sleep deprived students who are not alert at school and frequently are not prepared. Late sunsets diminished many darkness dependent experiences that are part of Indiana’s cultural heritage – July 4th fireworks, evening concerts, youth and family camping, campfires, seeing the stars. Learn more here.

TIME CONFUSION WITHIN INDIANA –Daylight Saving Time eliminated confusion for outsiders about what time it is in Indiana, but confusion still reigns within Indiana. Our population is split - 20% in Central with 80% in Eastern. 17 counties are split from adjacent counties by the time boundary. School athletic events, business meetings, appointments, church and community activities get confused. If all of Indiana (with the exception of certain metro-Louisville/Cincinnati area counties were in their correct Central Time Zone the population split would be 4% Eastern and 96% Central - much better. Learn more here.

WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN 2005 – Sen. Enrolled Act 127 adopted DST and urged Gov. Daniels to petition USDOT to hold hearings to determine which time zone was best for Hoosiers. He complied. Click here . Hearings held in various locations all over Indiana would have given Hoosiers the opportunity to voice their concerns. Instead, USDOT denied holding those requested hearings on the basis that Indiana’s petition didn’t specify where the time zone boundaries should be located. Click here to read USDOT’s ruling. USDOT decided instead to allow individual counties to petition moving from Eastern to Central and gave them 37 days to comply. Even with this short amount of time, 17 counties filed requests.

INDIANA TIME ZONE WHITE PAPER Released on Nov. 3, 2011, this thoroughly researched and documented white paper examines the history of Indiana time decisions and raises major questions about the processes. To access this report go to: http://sites.google.com/site/stjosephtimezone/

"TIME CHANGE: THE DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS” By Dr. John Gaski, Ph.D. Notre Dame professor, was published in the Indiana Policy Review, Summer 2011. To learn how “so many people got something so important so wrong” click here.