Gaski: Daylight Saving Time Redux

January 22, 2025

by John Gaski, Ph.D.

Officials of both the executive and legislative branches of the federal government have recently sounded off on the prospect of eliminating Daylight-Saving Time, i.e., ditching the inconvenient semi-annual clock change observed in most of the U.S.  The highest official of all, President Trump, is a proponent.  This development resurrects the specter of Indiana’s tumultuous history with Daylight-Saving Time (DST) and time-zone policy decisions.  The most recent such conflict occurred about 19 years ago when the state abandoned year-round Standard Time, accepted the DST regimen, and then wrestled with which time zone, Eastern or Central, would be best.  As we know, most counties in the state chose the Eastern Zone (to their detriment).

The key issue for now, especially for a state like Indiana which is near the natural and legislated time-zone boundaries and could conceivably opt anew for either Eastern or Central, is to manage and mitigate any adverse consequences from looming abolition of DST.  First, some background:

To understand these issues and the present discussion, it is essential to distinguish between time zone and Daylight-Saving Time.  The two are separate policies.  Regardless of what time zone a locality or state is in, it may or may not be subject to the twice-a-year Daylight-Saving/Standard Time switch along with (most of) the rest of the country.  There is a valid argument for Indiana to observe DST when most of the nation does, i.e., to prevent the confusion of being out of sync sometimes with out-of-state business contacts.  That was our pre-2006 situation when most of Indiana always remained on Standard Time, ignoring DST while nearly all other states abided by it.  As I would explain it to non-Hoosiers then, “Indiana never changes.”

However, DST is detrimental in several vital ways.  Abundant medical literature confirms mental and physical health disorders resulting from the semi-annual time changes which render clock time divergent from natural circadian bio-rhythms.  “Seasonal affective disorder” is the term given to human day-night dysfunction due to not conforming well to daylight and darkness respectively.  (In effect, the body knows when it should be day or night, light or dark, and the clock may not agree because of DST.)  There is also a finding from research the renowned Bloomington statistician, Jeff Sagarin, and I published in 2011 which reveals a 16-point decrement in SAT scores attributable to DST—with corresponding damage to economic welfare.  Except for those who attach supreme value to late-evening daylight for activities such as recreation, elimination of DST should create an improvement in national, or state-wide, well-being. 
Brief Detour into Time Zone

The problems of time zone, in particular imposing the wrong zone on a piece of geography, are oblique but similar.  Relegation to the Eastern Zone has always been economically unsuitable for Indiana, and not only because of the invisible wall it creates between us and the economic engine of Chicago.  The Central Time Zone aligns with the entire nation’s work day better than the Eastern Zone does; likewise with interstate export traffic alignment.  (Domestic trade volume-weighted discrepancy from the other U.S. continental time zones is minimized by Central time, that is.)  In practical terms, a Central Time Zone business can live with being two hours discrepant from its West Coast customers and suppliers, but a much greater impediment is the Eastern Zone’s three-hour difference.  Moreover, with modern digital-age communication, no longer does being on the same time as New York City provide a substantial advantage.  To the contrary, the Central Time Zone allows for some after-hours service to the entire Eastern Zone.  Has anyone ever heard of a “before-hours” commercial advantage? 

Transcending the Central Time Zone’s economic superiority is the humane factor.  The natural boundary between the Eastern and Central Time Zones vertically splits the middle of the state of Ohio.  Indiana lies near the middle of the natural, geographic, solar Central Time Zone.  (The mid-point of the Eastern Zone runs through Central New York and down toward the city of Philadelphia.)  Compelling Indiana into the Eastern Time Zone, as our politicians have done—exempting a few counties bordering Illinois—does create later sundown and dusk, but also later sunrise and dawn (about an extra hour late compared with natural, solar time, exactly an hour later versus legislated Central Time).  Later evening dark-fall via extended sunlight may enable some recreational benefits, but extended morning darkness kills children!  For much of the school year, Indiana school kids are forced onto streets and highways in early-morning darkness.  What could go wrong?  Child (under age-18) traffic fatalities were above trend at a rate of 8.32 per year during the first five years after Indiana’s imposition of the mortal combination of Eastern Daylight-Saving Time in 2006 (per a 2012 study published in the Geographical Bulletin and consistent with general findings of the National Bureau of Standards in 1976).  Extrapolating to the present, that is about 158 aggregated child fatalities attributable to the wrong time zone compared to what the death toll would have been if we had remained on the prior schedule of Chicago time (equivalent to Central Time) for two-thirds of the year—even with Central DST.  Further, for emphasis, these numbers apply only to child fatalities, not total traffic carnage induced by the wrong time zone.  (True, Indiana did not change to Eastern Time in 2006, but acceptance of DST achieved the same material outcome, to a two-thirds extent, because eight of our annual months of Eastern Standard—equal to Central Daylight—became Eastern Daylight.)  What descriptor should we apply to the political crime responsible for the bloodbath: reckless endangerment or negligent mass manslaughter?

The combination of Eastern Time and DST (or “double fast time” as Hoosiers know it), inflicted on Indiana for eight months per year now and since 2006, appears to be the worst possible condition for public safety.  The ultimate enemy, in this regard, is the hazard of early a.m. darkness, whether resulting from Eastern Time, DST, or both in our state’s tragic case.  If DST is abolished nationally, Indiana politicians may not have sense enough to choose the Central Time Zone, but at least the scourge of Eastern + Daylight Time will be gone—yet child fatalities will still likely be unpardonably excessive due to the wrong time zone.  What about evening after-school fatalities if we would have earlier sundown with Central Time or the absence of DST?  Not a corresponding problem; daily school dismissal is early enough so the last afternoon yellow buses would continue to run before dusk throughout the state. 

Back to the Future

Now distilled is one forecast for Indiana’s upcoming temporal future:  If Daylight-Saving Time disappears, Indiana will opt to remain on Eastern (Standard) Time.  If not eliminating the highway slaughter of children that is caused by time-policy ignorance, at least the mortality would be reduced. 

So, when we have Eastern Standard Time all-year-round, would that not be identical to the former, pre-’06 temporal regimen for Indiana?  Not quite because, back then, the rest of the U.S. changed to DST each spring—putting Indiana on Chicago time for eight months per year.  Such a salutary by-product will not be possible when there is no DST. 

Prediction No. 2:  After a year without DST, when summer sunrises are uncomfortably too early by about an hour (4:30 a.m. anyone?) and dusk also comes around earlier than people are accustomed to, especially during winter, the American populace and politicians will remember why DST had been the norm.  Thus, despite some adverse consequences, DST will be re-appreciated and re-instituted, with the no-DST interim to be known thereafter as “Trump’s folly,” even though no-DST makes a fair amount of sense.  There may even occur a movement for year-round DST until elders recall and others realize that we tried that half a century ago with disastrous results, including much-too-late winter sunrises. 
Again, for Indiana, it looks like some improvement, maybe temporary, in clock time via possible relief from the clock-change nuisance as national leaders reject continued DST-Standard Time fluctuation, but still too many Indianans killed in morning darkness on streets and roads.  Perhaps Indiana pols will finally realize that the Central Time Zone is optimal for us but, sadly, that blessing of re-uniting with Chicago time may be too much to hope for.  Nevertheless, brace for changes in your time environment.  Remember, there are two aspects to this issue: DST or not, and time zone.  What are the odds that our politicians will get both right?  The clock may soon be ticking for them. 

John F. Gaski, Ph.D., is an adjunct scholar of the Indiana Policy Review and both a long-time registered Democrat and a long-time registered Republican — intermittently, not simultaneously or sequentially — which should dispatch any misplaced suspicion of partisanship. 
 



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