A new Mexican law means less scheduling snafus this spring for people who cross the border between Tijuana and San Diego. The new law synchronizes daylight savings schedules in U.S. and Mexican border cities in 2010.
Since 2007, different daylight savings time schedules have caused an hour gap between US Mexico border cities for a few weeks every spring and fall.
In March 2007, the US and Canada switched to a new daylight savings schedule to save energy, but Mexico did not.
Gaston Luken, the Tijuana congressman who sponsored the bill to synchronize the clocks, says the benefits are multi-fold, "We'll save energy because we'll take more advantage of the sun. There are savings in terms of transactional costs along the border, for commerce, for industry, for maquila, for tourism."
Synchronizing clocks will also save tens of thousands of people from choreographing their schedules to compensate for the hour gap.
The measure faced little opposition in Mexico's Congress, but Luken says it highlighted the disconnect between border cities and Capitol lawmakers. He says there was little awareness of the problem in Mexico City.
