It wouldn’t be dark so early tomorrow if Maine switched to Atlantic Time
Editor’s word: This story was initially revealed on Nov. 6, 2021. It’s being republished as clocks will “fall again” an hour at 2 a.m. on Sunday, Nov. 6.
Mainers will get up Sunday probably feeling a bit odd, as we often do after we “fall again” and change the clocks again from Daylight Saving Time. Within the night, the solar will set at 4:15 p.m. By December, the solar will set earlier than 4 p.m. We received’t see the solar after 5 p.m. once more till mid-February. By most accounts, it’s a complete bummer.
It doesn’t need to be that manner, although. All it might take can be for Maine to modify to Atlantic Customary Time, the one-hour-later time zone shared by our neighbors in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, in addition to a lot of the Caribbean and South America.
Geographically, it is sensible. The solar units round 4:40 p.m. within the first weeks of December in Toronto, Ontario. Some 600 miles east in Portland, it units round 4 p.m., though the 2 locations are at nearly the identical latitude and are in the identical time zone.
“How far east we’re within the time zone doesn’t have an effect on how a lot daylight we get; it impacts when that daylight falls on the clock,” mentioned Jacquelyn Gill, a local weather scientist and geographer on the College of Maine. “We’re far sufficient on the japanese fringe of the time zone that it’s noticeable, due to the space.”
It’s not that wild of a proposition. Payments to help transferring Maine to Atlantic Time and ending Daylight Saving Time right here have been launched within the Maine Legislature a number of occasions. In 2017, each the Maine Home and Senate handed such laws in preliminary votes, nevertheless it died after the 2 chambers didn’t reconcile conflicting variations. In 2019, it was launched once more, however died in committee.
Comparable payments have been proposed in all New England states however Vermont, together with Rhode Island in 2016, Massachusetts in 2017, Connecticut in 2021 and New Hampshire in 2019 and again this year. Massachusetts even commissioned a special report on the prospect of switching, knowledgeable by politicians, medical doctors, educators and different officers. Each state, nevertheless, had stipulations that the change may solely happen if different New England states additionally agreed to modify.
Switches to completely different time zones on the state stage haven’t occurred in latest U.S. historical past, although counties and cities have generally completed so, most just lately with Mercer County in North Dakota switching from Mountain to Central in 2010. Time zone switches of any form need to be permitted by the U.S. Division of Transportation or by Congress.
There are professionals and cons to remaining on Jap, or switching to Atlantic. A number of the positives about switching can be that with extra daylight within the night, individuals are extra more likely to spend that point doing issues exterior of the home, like procuring, eating out and exercising. Crime charges are typically decrease throughout months with extra daylight within the night, with robberies particularly 27 percent less likely to happen in the course of the night commute whether it is mild out, in comparison with darkish.
There are additionally potential enhancements in public well being, because the yearly transition to Customary Time corresponds with an uptick in every little thing from traffic fatalities to coronary heart assaults. There may very well be vitality financial savings as properly, as there can be extra daylight within the evenings, which implies fewer lights on.
There are drawbacks, nevertheless. There can be challenges in scheduling journey between New England and the remainder of the East Coast. Night broadcasts just like the nightly information would begin an hour later, and plenty of sports activities broadcasts wouldn’t finish till properly after midnight.
Probably the most frequent arguments in opposition to switching to Atlantic Time is that it might put us out of sync with the remainder of the East Coast. However there are many states that straddle two time zones — Kentucky and Tennessee are cut up almost in half by Jap and Central, and Arizona doesn’t observe Daylight Saving Time in any respect.
Most faculties in Maine begin the day earlier than 8 a.m. If the state switched to Atlantic Time, college students would commute to highschool in darkness or twilight for a number of months of the yr — although that additionally means they’d have an additional hour of daylight within the night for actions and the after-school commute. That mentioned, some schools in Maine have already shifted center and highschool begin occasions to after 8 a.m., primarily based on recommendations from medical doctors and educators that later begin occasions lead to improved educational efficiency and basic properly being amongst youngsters.
Total, the advantages appear to outweigh the drawbacks. So why haven’t Maine and different New England states completed it?
There are many attainable causes, starting from it being onerous to coordinate a number of state legislatures and populations to all comply with the identical motion, to it merely not being a excessive precedence when there are such a lot of different points that require extra speedy legislative consideration.
And, after all, there’s nonetheless a debate about it — some individuals would like to have an additional hour of daylight on the finish of the day, whereas others would hate to have the solar not rise till simply after 8 a.m. for many of December and January.
Ultimately, a lot of the talk about Maine switching to Atlantic Time is just like the bigger debate about whether or not the U.S. as a complete ought to abolish Daylight Saving Time. And that’s a debate that occurs yearly when the time change rolls round — plunging evening owls into darkness, and giving early birds one thing to crow about when their mornings have extra mild.
Will both of these issues ever occur? Because the previous saying goes: time will inform.
Correction: An earlier model of this reported misidentified the state the place Mercer County is situated.
