Altered Maps 15
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Lohrenswald
世界的 bottom ranked physicist
France, Netherlands, Belgium and maybe Luxemburg should be in the 0-zone.
gay_Aleks
from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!
And France and Algeria. England, you aren't special!
Marla_Singer
United in diversity
I've never figured out why there was a specific timezone for California that was different from the one in Arizona. I mean seriously, the Pacific zone, even including Nevada is something like 800km wide at best. That's nothing.
In Europe, we share a common time zone from Spain to Poland on an area which is 2,500 km wide. And that's great this way. I enjoy a lot the fact we share the same time. It makes things very convenient, especially now with the web.
If we would merge the Pacific and Mountain time zones, that would be only 1,800 km wide. No real reason to freak out. And that would mean it would only be 7pm in NYC when it is 5pm in LA. That would be much more convenient.
Another curiosity I just found in writing my post, is that apparently the time zone borders don't even follow states. Out of the 105 counties of Kansas, there are 4 of them in the mountain time zone! I can understand Gary being in the same time zone as Chicago (even if that would be easier making Indiana an exclusively Central time state), but those 4 counties in Kansas are mostly empty. It looks like over-complicating things that shouldn't be.
Hygro
soundcloud.com/hygro/
Marla_Singer
United in diversity
Funny, the last guy who told me that sentence was also an American on yesterday when I suggested the US should go all metric.Over my dead body.
TK fixes timezones
Spoiler :
You're welcome, World
That wouldn't be practical, though. For example a different time zone for the tourist-infested spanish chain of med islands to the mainland would just create needless issues, given they are not far away.
Lohrenswald
世界的 bottom ranked physicist
Spain, France, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxemburg belong in Greenwich time. There, the time on the clock and the time of the day would make sense together. And don't try to say this will be more trouble than worth. Spain and Portugal have different time zones, contigiuonus USA has 4, this is very manageable.
Marla_Singer
United in diversity
Over my dead body.
Your nitpicking respect of daylight rules will never reach this shore of the Atlantic. Don't count on us to put the city of Nice in a different time zone as the city of Marseille.
No that's not. I want my Champions League footie game to start at 9pm. No matter if we meet Real, Bayern or Juve. With your logic, Portugal, Ireland and Iceland should be in -2 time zones. That would add one extra time zone in Europe. No is no.
JohannaK
Heroically Clueless
I'm with Lohrenswald. Spain, France and Benelux should join UK, Portugal and Ireland in Greenwich time.
Marla_Singer
United in diversity
We often say that in America distances are bigger than in Europe.
This is true, but I often have the feeling that Americans actually like it this way, and does nothing really to make distances shorter. That's a very different philosophy from Europe.
Another example is rail. I've taken the train from Boston to NYC. That was supposed to be a fast train. We took 4 hours to make the 215 miles between Boston and NYC. 4 hours. It's like traveling back to the 1950's. That's archaic and old. I'm using that vocabulary on purpose to shock Americans and wake them up a bit. That's out-dated.
In France, we only need 3 hours to go from Paris to Marseille by train. There are 481 miles between both cities. That's more than thrice faster than the supposedly "fast" American train.
And don't believe that train is useless because otherwise there would be planes doing the job. To go from Downtown Boston to Downtown NYC by plane, that easily takes 3 hours the time to go to Logan, pass the security, operate the boarding, travel by plane, queue in order to disembark the plane, wait for your luggages and finally go from JFK to Manhattan. This is long. This is not fast. For a European, this is considered a pain for such a short distance.
Now this being said, the train was comfortable, with a large seat, wi-fi and USB. That was decent, much better than travelling in a small packed plane.
Same can be said about US cities. Everything is done to make them as extensive as possible. Atlanta's metro area represents something like 5 million people over an area of 7,500 sq. mi. . Paris hosts nearly twice that number on an area of 1,000 sq. mi. . It's not really that the US is bigger, population density is actually quite high in Eastern US states, it's that you accept a lot easier to drive an hour on the freeway to go to the office than we would do in Europe (not that going to work isn't a pain in large European cities, but that's another debate).
Anyway, I'm doing this post also because I'm getting enough of the Americans saying that everything is done quickly in Europe because the continent is so small. That's not the reason. Everything is done quickly in Europe because things are organized to be done quickly. As a matter of fact, distances between major Western Europeans cities aren't so different from distances between major Eastern US cities.
This is true, but I often have the feeling that Americans actually like it this way, and does nothing really to make distances shorter. That's a very different philosophy from Europe.
Another example is rail. I've taken the train from Boston to NYC. That was supposed to be a fast train. We took 4 hours to make the 215 miles between Boston and NYC. 4 hours. It's like traveling back to the 1950's. That's archaic and old. I'm using that vocabulary on purpose to shock Americans and wake them up a bit. That's out-dated.
In France, we only need 3 hours to go from Paris to Marseille by train. There are 481 miles between both cities. That's more than thrice faster than the supposedly "fast" American train.
And don't believe that train is useless because otherwise there would be planes doing the job. To go from Downtown Boston to Downtown NYC by plane, that easily takes 3 hours the time to go to Logan, pass the security, operate the boarding, travel by plane, queue in order to disembark the plane, wait for your luggages and finally go from JFK to Manhattan. This is long. This is not fast. For a European, this is considered a pain for such a short distance.
Now this being said, the train was comfortable, with a large seat, wi-fi and USB. That was decent, much better than travelling in a small packed plane.
Same can be said about US cities. Everything is done to make them as extensive as possible. Atlanta's metro area represents something like 5 million people over an area of 7,500 sq. mi. . Paris hosts nearly twice that number on an area of 1,000 sq. mi. . It's not really that the US is bigger, population density is actually quite high in Eastern US states, it's that you accept a lot easier to drive an hour on the freeway to go to the office than we would do in Europe (not that going to work isn't a pain in large European cities, but that's another debate).
Anyway, I'm doing this post also because I'm getting enough of the Americans saying that everything is done quickly in Europe because the continent is so small. That's not the reason. Everything is done quickly in Europe because things are organized to be done quickly. As a matter of fact, distances between major Western Europeans cities aren't so different from distances between major Eastern US cities.
Lohrenswald
世界的 bottom ranked physicist
Yes, Europe is so large that the previously mentioned five countries should change timezone 
Yes, Europe is so large that the previously mentioned five countries should change timezone
Time zones are a balancing act between convenience and sensible daylight hours.
France, Netherlands, etc are a lot more closely connected to Germany and other countries on Central European Time, with Schengen and whatnot, than to the United Kingdom, so it's reasonable that they follow the same time.
Portugal follows Greenwich though, and Spain is west enough that switching to Greenwich makes sense.
Lohrenswald
世界的 bottom ranked physicist
France is more closely connected to Germany than one part of USA to another part of USA?
Without a doubt.
Heck, France is closer to Germany than some part of Los Angeles to some other part of Los Angeles.
Lohrenswald
世界的 bottom ranked physicist
I still think they should change. One hour difference is not hard to keep track of.
I still think they should change. One hour difference is not hard to keep track of.
It actually is, a bit, especially if you have lots of contacts in the other timezone, and you go back and forth several times a day, as many people living along the Benelux-French-German borders do.
Like you wouldn't put New York on one timezone and New Jersey on another.
Lohrenswald
世界的 bottom ranked physicist
Do many cross the french-german border many times per day with serious business in mind?
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