Another radical idea, we could do the opposite: Use local astronomical time everywhere. One reason unified time zones were introduced were train timetables. I

Another radical idea, we could do the opposite: Use local astronomical time everywhere. One reason unified time zones were introduced were train timetables. I haven't used one directly in quite a while, instead I've used websites, apps and public displays. They could all accommodate for the fact that different train stations had slightly different times. Unified time is also important for TV show airing times. But scheduled TV is getting less and less important compared to video on demand. (Also if you really wanted to, future set-top boxes could modify the text of announced times on-the-fly. Text-to-speach has become pretty good :-)) I believe this would also encourage places to adjust their opening hours relative to sunlight, which would probably be healthier and better for the environment in the long run.