3 ms·

It depends on what you are optimizing for and where you are optimizing for. Standard and Daylight times have different meanings in different sides of the time z

It depends on what you are optimizing for and where you are optimizing for. Standard and Daylight times have different meanings in different sides of the time zone. On Eastern edges of a time zone Standard time truly is more "standard" with respect to solar noon. On Western edges of a time zone Daylight time starts to be more preferable and closer to solar noon. Half-hour between the two might favor the "middle" of the time zone perhaps and/or it might just leave all the populations on either side of the time zone unhappy. Arguably our timezones have grown too wide to accommodate preferences of both edges. Our timezones were optimized for train schedules and full hour-wide zones made some sense based on the speed of train travel. Maybe instead of trying to pick just "Standard" Time or just Daylight Time we should instead be talking about narrowing our time zones (to half-hour wide, perhaps) and better figure out what geography we are best trying to represent versus solar noon, the center of a timezone, one edge or the other.

windows2020 5y ago
It's an interesting idea. 'Micro time zones' of sorts. People already survive on time zone boundaries. Why stop at 30 minutes? It'd be most convenient for local events, but maybe not for non-local events. I'd open my bar at the most eastern point.
- snarkyturtle 5y ago
  This is the case as it is in Australia, they have five timezones. https://www.timeanddate.com/time/australia/time-zones-background.html https://www.timeanddate.com/time/australia/time-zones-backgr... I don't know exactly how that fares with scheduling and whatnot but it's been implemented.
- WorldMaker 5y ago
  Historically time zones were the purview of cities. (Often it was the banks and/or churches in a city coordinating time for that city and its relation to solar noon.) It's why the IANA preferred timezone identifiers are cities like America/New_York, America/Mexico_City, Europe/Berlin, etc. Go back far enough in the IANA timezone database (which is used for all sorts of things on the internet and in general computing today) and you'll find all sorts of interesting historic timezone offsets for cities. Some not even to a round offset like 30 minutes, but to single minute or even fractional minute (seconds, milliseconds) offsets from UTC. I don't know if a return to per-city offsets is the best idea. Software could handle a lot of the messy details for us in ways that the railroads could not have taken advantage of with only so much space for physical clocks. But a return to per-city offsets isn't really the worst idea either if we are looking at what problems Daylight Saving Time was supposed to solve and didn't solve very well.
Tagbert 5y ago
As someone who has to schedule meetings with people in India, the half hour offset is really confusing and hard to get used to. Half the year is is 11.5 hours and the other 12.5 hours. I never remember which is which.
- iso1210 5y ago
  The change isn't because of India, it's because you change your clocks. The half hour is only confusing if you're not used to it. (Nepal has a 45 minute offset, which is a great timezone to check things work. Chatham Island in NZ too)

windows2020 5y ago

It's an interesting idea. 'Micro time zones' of sorts. People already survive on time zone boundaries. Why stop at 30 minutes? It'd be most convenient for local events, but maybe not for non-local events. I'd open my bar at the most eastern point.

snarkyturtle 5y ago
This is the case as it is in Australia, they have five timezones. https://www.timeanddate.com/time/australia/time-zones-background.html https://www.timeanddate.com/time/australia/time-zones-backgr... I don't know exactly how that fares with scheduling and whatnot but it's been implemented.
WorldMaker 5y ago
Historically time zones were the purview of cities. (Often it was the banks and/or churches in a city coordinating time for that city and its relation to solar noon.) It's why the IANA preferred timezone identifiers are cities like America/New_York, America/Mexico_City, Europe/Berlin, etc. Go back far enough in the IANA timezone database (which is used for all sorts of things on the internet and in general computing today) and you'll find all sorts of interesting historic timezone offsets for cities. Some not even to a round offset like 30 minutes, but to single minute or even fractional minute (seconds, milliseconds) offsets from UTC. I don't know if a return to per-city offsets is the best idea. Software could handle a lot of the messy details for us in ways that the railroads could not have taken advantage of with only so much space for physical clocks. But a return to per-city offsets isn't really the worst idea either if we are looking at what problems Daylight Saving Time was supposed to solve and didn't solve very well.

Tagbert 5y ago

As someone who has to schedule meetings with people in India, the half hour offset is really confusing and hard to get used to. Half the year is is 11.5 hours and the other 12.5 hours. I never remember which is which.

iso1210 5y ago
The change isn't because of India, it's because you change your clocks. The half hour is only confusing if you're not used to it. (Nepal has a 45 minute offset, which is a great timezone to check things work. Chatham Island in NZ too)