Daylight saving time proposal dawns in the Colorado House

[Gingersnap]

Daylight saving time proposal dawns in the Colorado House

By: Joey Bunch, ColoradoPolitics.com March 9, 2017 Updated: March 9, 2017 at 5:50 pm

They should call it the You First Act. The bleary-eyed can take heart Sunday morning when daylight saving time begins and they've lost an hour of sleep. The Colorado legislature feels their pain.

A bill introduced - well, reintroduced - in the Colorado House this week would make daylight saving time the year-round clock in Colorado. That would mean no more falling back in November and springing forward in March.

But what House Bill 1226 has with intent it lacks in expediency.

First, voters in next year's general election would have to approve a ballot measure locking down the Colorado clock.

And, even then, Colorado would make the switch only after other states on Mountain Standard Time switch, either as entire states or in regions.

Reps. Dan Pabon, D-Denver, and Phil Covarrubias, R-Brighton, introduced a similar bill earlier in the session, then pulled it to work on it more.

Trade groups have been concerned about putting Colorado on a different time zone from adjoining states. Ski resorts also have concerns, because fiddling with the clock could interfere with their ability to do morning avalanche patrols and other slope protocols before skiers and boarders come down.

The bill is assigned to the House Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee, but it hasn't been schedule for a hearing.

This year isn't the first time lawmakers have tried to address the inconvenience and, some experts say, bad health effects of losing sleep in the springtime.

Former state Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, tried twice, in 2011 and in 2013, to make daylight saving time the year-round standard. He also tried to refer a question to the ballot.

In 2011, the-Rep. Ed Vigil, D-Fort Garland, ran House Bill 1067 to repeal daylight saving time in Colorado.

In 2015 a Lakewood couple, Sean and Teri Johnson, tried to get year-round daylight saving time on the Colorado ballot and failed.

Oh, please - just lock it down on Summer time and forget Nebraska. We don't need buy-in from other states. Arizona perks along nicely without California or New Mexico doing the same.

Just pick one.

Gazette

[Michele]

All I care about out here are the kids who catch the 7:10am bus not having to wait in the dark and become a lions breakfast.

[Gingersnap]

All I care about out here are the kids who catch the 7:10am bus not having to wait in the dark and become a lions breakfast.

Love you but don't care. We waited in the freezing cold dark and......nothing happened. Mountain lions aren't hunting at that hour and they wouldn't attack a group in the dark. Now, almost no kids in our area actually use the bus and those that do are teens. Little kids get door-to-door.

Plus, they are now deciding that teens need later start times.

I'm actually up at all these times and it's only 2 months that are night dark at 7:00 a.m. now. I just don't think this an issue.

Just pick one and let's get over whatever it is. Our ancestors managed to function on sun time and we can too. Or any time - I don't care. Pick something. We'll figure it out.

[Michele]

Love you but don't care. We waited in the freezing cold dark and......nothing happened. Mountain lions aren't hunting at that hour and they wouldn't attack a group in the dark. Now, almost no kids in our area actually use the bus and those that do are teens. Little kids get door-to-door.

Plus, they are now deciding that teens need later start times.

I'm actually up at all these times and it's only 2 months that are night dark at 7:00 a.m. now. I just don't think this an issue.

Just pick one and let's get over whatever it is. Our ancestors managed to function on sun time and we can too. Or any time - I don't care. Pick something. We'll figure it out.

I know you don't care about kids...I do. And, I'm the one that lives here in rural Colorado and I'm up at 5:30-6am most mornings. Houses aren't on a sidewalk where a kid gets dropped off in front of his house but down a road or long driveway. And, lions are most certainly out at that time and have been seen and caught on camera. We've also had bears and coyotes cross the paths.
And, there is no "group" that waits. Kids wait on the side of the highway. And lastly, I don't care what you and your ancestors supposedly did. I do care about these rural kids who have to catch a bus to school.

[Gingersnap]

I know you don't care about kids...I do. And, I'm the one that lives here in rural Colorado and I'm up at 5:30-6am most mornings. Houses aren't on a sidewalk where a kid gets dropped off in front of his house but down a road or long driveway. And, lions are most certainly out at that time and have been seen and caught on camera. We've also had bears and coyotes cross the paths.
And, there is no "group" that waits. Kids wait on the side of the highway. And lastly, I don't care what you and your ancestors supposedly did. I do care about these rural kids who have to catch a bus to school.

All the same here. I waited on the highway. I was born rural and did all that. No lights, no door-to-door, waited in all weathers, etc. Coyotes, skunks, feral dogs, whatever - it was not a traumatic deal for me.

Home and school were traumatic.

Not the light.

[Michele]

All the same here. I waited on the highway. I was born rural and did all that. No lights, no door-to-door, waited in all weathers, etc. Coyotes, skunks, feral dogs, whatever - it was not a traumatic deal for me.

Home and school were traumatic.

Not the light.

Yes, of course you did all that and more. And, I never mentioned anyone being traumatized. Just that people who have kids and care for them, think about them being a 1/4 of a mile down the road to the highway where the school bus picks them up...and it would be nice if it happend with some daylight. But I'm sure the all knowing in Denver will do what's best for themselves...as they usually do.

[Gingersnap]

Yes, of course you did all that and more. And, I never mentioned anyone being traumatized. Just that people who have kids and care for them, think about them being a 1/4 of a mile down the road to the highway where the school bus picks them up...and it would be nice if it happend with some daylight. But I'm sure the all knowing in Denver will do what's best for themselves...as they usually do.

Well, I don't live in Denver so what they do is mysterious to me. I think picking Summer time for all year would be fine.

All things would be better in daylight. But you and I both know that's not a thing. You get the sun in the morning or the dark at night. I had to do my own thing home after band practice or swim team.

Astonishingly, that was not my worst encounter at the bus. My worst encounters were at school - not the dark bus stop

[Adam]

I've never really been convinced that these time changes produce any actual daylight or savings. The Brits used this in WWII, but they were having to do black-outs to avoid getting bombed. I'm pretty sure that neither Colorado nor Tennessee is under threat of Junkers Ju-88s bombing them any time soon.

Screw all of this switching back and forth. Pick one time and stick to it. And if that time means that kids are in the dark waiting on a school bus, then change the time that school starts. It's not like it would be that big of an adjustment on the start time for school: maybe an hour, but probably closer to half an hour.

[RobJohnson]

All the same here. I waited on the highway. I was born rural and did all that. No lights, no door-to-door, waited in all weathers, etc. Coyotes, skunks, feral dogs, whatever - it was not a traumatic deal for me.

Home and school were traumatic.

Not the light.

Times have changed. Not only are there wild animals the world is full of wild and dysfunctional adults. These same adults could be driving impaired while jacking around with their smart phone just about the time they hit a kid they didn't see.

[Gingersnap]

Times have changed. Not only are there wild animals the world is full of wild and dysfunctional adults. These same adults could be driving impaired while jacking around with their smart phone just about the time they hit a kid they didn't see.

The science isn't backing you up. There were more crazy people on the unlit roads back in the day.

Just pick a time. We'll work it out - whatever it is.

[Tom Servo]

I'm all for ditching this antiquated and pointless endeavor.

If you're worried about the kids getting run over in the dark or eaten by lions, give 'em a flashlight and a whistle. Or a gun. Y'all love guns. The rest of us who live in civilization should not have to suffer because you live in Wild Kingdom.

I just got on a semi-normal wake/sleep schedule (non-24 sleep disorder is a bitch) and the last thing I need is some stupid government rule sucking a much-needed hour of sleep from me when I just now got back regular for a few days.

[Michele]

I'm all for ditching this antiquated and pointless endeavor.

If you're worried about the kids getting run over in the dark or eaten by lions, give 'em a flashlight and a whistle. Or a gun. Y'all love guns. The rest of us who live in civilization should not have to suffer because you live in Wild Kingdom.

I just got on a semi-normal wake/sleep schedule (non-24 sleep disorder is a bitch) and the last thing I need is some stupid government rule sucking a much-needed hour of sleep from me when I just now got back regular for a few days.

Borrowing from Ginger, I don't care that you're inconvenienced or suffering.

[Michele]

Times have changed. Not only are there wild animals the world is full of wild and dysfunctional adults. These same adults could be driving impaired while jacking around with their smart phone just about the time they hit a kid they didn't see.

I doubt there's any science that would come into play either way. That would actually require the know-it-all's from Denver to come out of their mile-high towers and over the mountains to talk to the regular folks. I doubt this proposal will get much traction but if it does, the Western Slope will deal with it like we always do...by ourselves.

[gary m]

I know I am kind of slow sometimes and am from Michigan, but could someone explain this for me.

I leave for work at 6 am to get there at 7 am. Our local schools also begin classes at 7 am and buses start running about 6:15.
We were just getting to the point where I was not driving in total darkness and then along comes DST and here I am driving in the dark again.

So how does plunging us back into morning darkness for the last 3 months of the school year benefit kids going to school?
From what I see, about all DST does is guarantee that they will be going to school in the dark; literally, if not figuratively, the entire year.

Coming into Springtime and the increase of predator activity, animal and human, I don't see extending the morning darkness in the particular best interest of school kids.

[Tom Servo]

Borrowing from Ginger, I don't care that you're inconvenienced or suffering.

I know, caring about others is SO over-rated. That Mother Theresa, she's such a twat.