Should Maine join the Atlantic time zone?

[danwxman]

TICK TICK TICK
Maine could soon be leaving the rest of the east coast behind… by an entire hour. State Representative from South Portland Kevin Glynn has introduced legislation that would change Maine from the Eastern Time Zone to the Atlantic Zone. That means Maine would join New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island in being an hour ahead of the eastern U.S.; and give us an extra hour of daylight in the evening. Supporters say the plan move would allow ski areas to stay open later and would be good for business in general. Others say it’s a silly idea that would just complicate their lives.

[J. J.]

TICK TICK TICK
Maine could soon be leaving the rest of the east coast behind… by an entire hour. State Representative from South Portland Kevin Glynn has introduced legislation that would change Maine from the Eastern Time Zone to the Atlantic Zone. That means Maine would join New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island in being an hour ahead of the eastern U.S.; and give us an extra hour of daylight in the evening. Supporters say the plan move would allow ski areas to stay open later and would be good for business in general. Others say it’s a silly idea that would just complicate their lives.

Since some states do it by county lines, I don't see why this would be confusing, or at least any more confusing.

[Storebought]

What truly is silly is the fact that the UK is an hour ahead of continental Europe even though it lies farther east than Spain and Portugal. Or that China is one great big time zone. Or that India is staggered :30 min off the rest of the world, or...

[7,052,770]

I think that states shouldn't be divided by time zone

[danwxman]

TICK TICK TICK
Maine could soon be leaving the rest of the east coast behind… by an entire hour. State Representative from South Portland Kevin Glynn has introduced legislation that would change Maine from the Eastern Time Zone to the Atlantic Zone. That means Maine would join New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island in being an hour ahead of the eastern U.S.; and give us an extra hour of daylight in the evening. Supporters say the plan move would allow ski areas to stay open later and would be good for business in general. Others say it’s a silly idea that would just complicate their lives.

Since some states do it by county lines, I don't see why this would be confusing, or at least any more confusing.

It wouldn't be any more confusing then those who are in the Central or Mountain time zones...it's just that they are used to it. I've heard that in eastern Maine the sun comes up at 3:30 AM in the summer. That is just too early!

[KEmperor]

It would be the only state in this time zone.

[J. J.]

It would be the only state in this time zone.

And?  I'm not seeing that as particularly important.

[Lt. Gov. Immy]

It would be the only state in this time zone.

Aren't Alaske and Hawaii the only states in their time zones?

[J. J.]

It would be the only state in this time zone.

Aren't Alaske and Hawaii the only states in their time zones?

Hawaii and the Aleutian Island are in the same time zone.  The rest of Alaska is an hour ahead.

[KEmperor]

It would be the only state in this time zone.

Aren't Alaske and Hawaii the only states in their time zones?

Alaska and Hawaii are isolated anyway.  Maine would be the only state on the East Coast to be in a different time zone.

[Platypus]

we have a half-hour time zone unique to an extremely underpopulated area-1.5 million people or so in an area the size of Western Europe

[J. J.]

It would be the only state in this time zone.

Aren't Alaske and Hawaii the only states in their time zones?

Alaska and Hawaii are isolated anyway.  Maine would be the only state on the East Coast to be in a different time zone.

And why would this be a bad thing?

[Bono]

What truly is silly is the fact that the UK is an hour ahead of continental Europe even though it lies farther east than Spain and Portugal. Or that China is one great big time zone. Or that India is staggered :30 min off the rest of the world, or...

Portugal is in the same timezone as the UK.

[minionofmidas]

What truly is silly is the fact that the UK is an hour ahead of continental Europe even though it lies farther east than Spain and Portugal. Or that China is one great big time zone. Or that India is staggered :30 min off the rest of the world, or...

Portugal is in the same timezone as the UK.

And many people in Western Spain would like to get into it as well, I hear. Sun sets pretty late in Summer on Europe's Atlantic shores.

[muon2]

If ME switched to Atlantic Time it would provide some valuable daylight hours to their tourist industry. There would be some confusion, but I think that if the whole state moved it would be less confusing than the current situation in IN.

Here's IN time: Currently 10 counties in NW and SW IN follow CT. The 5 NW counties do this to match Chicago. There are 5 counties in SE IN that are on ET and match Louisville and Cincinnati. For those 15 counties Daylight Savings Time occurs as it does for the rest of the US. For the remaining 77 countines in IN, they are on ET, but never go to Daylight Savings. That means they match EDT during the winter and CDT during the summer.

See, ME on AT would be EZ in comparison.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

If it were to happen, Maine would be joining Puerto Rico, which is also in the Atlantic Time Zone. 

If I had my druthers, I'd change the time zones as follows for the contiguous US.

Eastern to Atlantic
MA,  ME, NH, RI, and VT

Central to Eastern
upper prnnisula of Michigan
SW Indiana,
Tennesee and Kentucky east of the Tennessee River,
Alabama, and
panhandle of Florida.

Mountain to Central
Stanley, Jones, Melette, and Todd Counties in South Dakota,
Cherry, Grant, Hooker, Arthur, Kieth, Perkins, Chase, and Gundy Counties in Nebraska, and
W Kansas.

Central to Mountain
Culberson County, Texas.

Mountain to Pacific
Adams, Washington, Valley, Payette, Gem, Boise, Canyon, Ada, Emore, Camas, Owyhee, Gooding, Limcoln, Twin Falls, Jerome, Minidoka, and Cassia Counties in Idaho,
E Oregon, and
Nevada.

Plus, I'd eliminate the abnormal rules for Daylight time that Indiana and Arizona use.

[ilikeverin]

Don't diss Indiana's interesting Daylight Savings Time configuration

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Well, they aren't the normal rules, which by definition makes them abnormal.  So I wouldn't say that I dissed them.  Besides, with time zone boundaries generally shifted westward, the reason for Indiana's abnormality diappears.

[jimrtex]

TICK TICK TICK
Maine could soon be leaving the rest of the east coast behind… by an entire hour. State Representative from South Portland Kevin Glynn has introduced legislation that would change Maine from the Eastern Time Zone to the Atlantic Zone.

Time zones are a matter of federal law and regulation (the DST rules for Arizona, Hawaii, and Indiana is delegated by Congress).   At best the Maine legislature would be expressing a local preference that the US government might consider.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

To be specific, States are allowed to popt out of Daylight Savings Time, so long as any patr of State that is is one time zone follows the same time zone rules.  Technically, if Indiana wanted to be wierd, it could choose to use EDT but not CDT, if it were crazy enough to so do.  As for the time zones themselves, they are subject to amendment by the Dept. of Transportation, having regard for the convienience of commerce.  As a practical matter most applications for changes in time zones have been approved, and the trend over time has been for the boundaries to ease west.  I can't imagine any reason why the request would be denied, especially if Maine also decided to not use Daylight time, so that during the summer (the non-ski-season) Maine remained on the same time as the rest of New England.

[12th Doctor]

Ummm... Perhapes I am missing a key point of logic, but how would this increase ski time by an hour?  Wouldn't people just go to bed an hour earlier and wake up an hour later?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Call it a quirk of human psychology.  Most people are likelier to go out and recreate in the afternoon, than in the morning, and what daylight time does is steal an hour from the morning to make the afternoon an hour longer.

[minionofmidas]

Call it a quirk of human psychology.  Most people are likelier to go out and recreate in the afternoon, than in the morning, and what daylight time does is steal an hour from the morning to make the afternoon an hour longer.

People will also have to get up an hour earlier (de facto) and have an hour more of daylight after they are released from work.