Why California Needs Three Time Zones All Its Own

By Resetting Its Clocks, the Golden State Could Save Energy, Help Kids Study Better, and Synchronize Its Politics

Do you know what time it is, California?

It’s time for new thinking about time, and time zones.

By putting Proposition 7 on this November’s ballot, the state legislature has granted us this opportunity to rethink our whole relationship to time. The measure has been described in the media as ending daylight saving time, but that’s not right. In fact, the measure would merely undo the 1949 ballot initiative that locked daylight saving time in place in California.

That would only be a dawn, not a dusk, in this tale of time, because …