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One idea I experimented with for this was to use airport codes. Airports are the approximate correct frequency (the kinds of political entities that might make

One idea I experimented with for this was to use airport codes. Airports are the approximate correct frequency (the kinds of political entities that might make decisions about timezones usually have an airport), quite recognisable to people familiar with the relevant area and have an established short code and canonical list. There are disadvantages too of course, one of which is overlap between airport codes and currently existing timezone codes. This led me to discover a couple of airports that have the same code as their timezone.

schube 3y ago
Not to mention, there exist airports that are jointly administered by multiple country. One example I know of is EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse, located a few kilometers away from the meeting point of the French, German and Swiss borders. It is located on French soil but administered by both France and Switzerland and has three airport codes: MLH for France, BSL for Switzerland and EAP as a neutral code. The national codes could be used as proxies for timezones if France or Switzerland ever changed their timezone, but what EAP stands for would be challenging to define.