Atlantic Time Zone: What Switching Would Mean For Massachusetts

Massachusetts residents this weekend will "fall back" an hour, an annual practice that may soon be rendered moot if the Bay State decides to join the ranks of Atlantic Standard Time. A state commission voted Wednesday to recommend making the switch to Atlantic time – a change that, most significantly, would do away with daylight savings time altogether. The commission's proposal will now be sent to state lawmakers as a blueprint for potential legislation.

Massachusetts jumps an hour behind on the first Sunday of November and an hour ahead on the second Sunday of March. Under the proposal, the clocks wouldn't be reset at all during that four-month period. The argument in favor of the switch is that Massachusetts would enjoy longer daylight hours in the winter, which could benefit the state economically and result in reduced safety hazards often associated with the nighttime, such as crime and traffic accidents, the commission argued in its initial report last month.

An order to study the idea was tucked into a state economic development bill passed in summer of 2016. The commission was tasked with looking at how such a change might impact everything from trade to public health. At the time, those discussions were supposed to begin by November but were ultimately tabled until January.

A transfer to Atlantic Standard Time – which includes Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and eastern Canada – would mean jumping an hour ahead of the Eastern time zone (and Massachusetts' neighbors) from November to February. The time zones would align from March to October.

Such a switch could complicate interstate travel and television programming, as well as necessitate a different school start time, according to Boston Magazine. The commission recommends the state only make the move if the rest of New England is on board, a process which is already being examined in New Hampshire and Maine, the Wall Street Journal reported.

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