CENTRAL TIME COALITION
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outdated time designation.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.
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