Here's a map of the time zones
https://www.time-zones-map.com/
NOTE - I don't think this map is hyper accurate by any means, but it's a general picture of the overal nature of the issue
Regarding DST, here's a list of talking points in no particular order ...
- I've heard excuses that claim "it's about the children" ... regarding kids having to get up too "early"for school ... as if that would matter to any sleepy-headed teenager??? I've recently seen a study that suggests kids should not start school until 10am. Are we supposed to center our world around kids would prefer to sleep until noon???
- DST was a great boon to the family farmer many decades ago who also worked a "day job" elsewhere. He (she) had more daylight upon returning home each evening. It helps if you have to get crops in the ground or harvested, but the small family farmer is a dying bread ... so this benefit is negligible for most of us
- time zones are anywhere from 600 to 1000 linear miles wide depending upon latitude for most of North America. Alaska and northern Canada can have some really small zones in terms of linear distance as they get nearer to the pole, obviously. As a generalization, in mid-North America it's around 800 miles (give or take due to local adherence). The time zone distance near Hawaii is large in linear distance, but the perception means little relative to the ocean around it.
- Depending on where you live, there can be some really big variances between cities in the same time zone ... Where I live (IN), it's about 650 miles to the DC area where my sister lives. However, if you consider that Maine is also in the Eastern zone, it would be approximately 1000 miles from the western part of IN to the eastern part of Maine, with a HUGE number of cities in between. Hence, it's always going to see "early" or "late' relative to some city significantly far away, even when in the same time zone ... The sun will come "up" a LOT eariler in east Maine relative to west Indiana
- Smaller easter States won't have as much " perceived differential" between them, whereas many other states actually have a time zone split them (ND, SD, TX, NE, KS, IN, TN, KY, etc).
- you can't really accurately say that a time zone it "too big" or "too small"; it's based on the division of the linear latitude of your area. If you move a line near your area, you distort the line elsewhere.
- Some local areas would prefer to be tied to a different zone merely because of local business conveniences (north-western IN for example runs on Central time due to proximity to Chicago, whereas most of the rest of IN is in Eastern. However, Evansville, IN is also in Central time)
- because of the wide nature of a time zone, you cannot really move it 1/2 hour forward or backward and think that would split the difference; it would not solve any problem relative to any city far away in the same zone. It's not fair to make your problem disapper only to exascerbate the problem for someone elsewhere
- some States already don't observe DST and they get along just fine without it.
- some people have suggested that we should adjust the clock each month, rather than twice a year. The concept would make for more gradual changes, but then again, most folks can't remember where they left their car keys ... And talk about a business nightmare !!! This makes sense for the human body, but is not at all practical for application in the real world.
What I know for sure is that the sun does not magically heave forward and then later do a brake-check, twice a year. The changes are obviously gradual, day to day. But advancing and retarding our chronological devices makes no sense to me. Pushing or pulling on the clock twice a year does not solve any problems; it only trades some problems for other problems.
As your mommy used to say ... if your friends jumped off a cliff, would you do it too? DST is only "normal" because most of your neighbors do it. But that doesn't make it right; it only makes it common.
My opinion is that we should pick one position or the other and stay there.
END clock abuse NOW !!!
