Indiana Moves to Observe Daylight Saving Time

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ndiana this weekend began observing Daylight Saving Time for the first time in more than 30 years, news services reported.

The change, approved by lawmakers last year, makes Indiana the 48th state to observe daylight time, the Associated Press reported. Hawaii and most of Arizona are the only two holdouts.

ST took effect at 2 a.m. Sunday morning when clocks were moved forward one hour.

In advance of the move, 18 counties in the western part of the state had asked the U.S. Department of Transportation to put them in the Central time zone.

DOT in January granted the requests for eight counties, putting a total of 18 Indiana counties on Central time and 74 on Eastern time. (Click here for previous coverage.)

Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) backed the move to daylight time last year, saying it would end confusion and promote commerce. Lawmakers passed the measure by a single vote.

Many Indiana residents have never changed their clocks. Under state law, most of Indiana has ignored daylight-saving time since the early 1970s, AP reported.

The result has been a patchwork of time zones, with 77 counties observing Eastern time but not changing clocks; five on Eastern time unofficially observing daylight-saving time; and 10 on Central time that observed daylight-saving time.