While car design has changed radically over the decades, School buses look almost exactly like them almost 100 years ago. Sure, they’re wearing now more security technology, but the big yellow bus with the bulbous front end has been around since 1939. It turns out it’s not a lack of imagination or nostalgia that has kept school buses constant, but rather standardized guidelines that have proven incredibly effective in keeping American children safe. As a result, School buses are among the safest vehicles on the road. The standardized guidelines School buses must be painted in the classic yellow and black style, have large flashing lights, and pop-up stop signs make school buses instantly recognizable to anyone on the road, and drivers know to pass large yellow passenger vans with caution.
Before 1939 there were no standardized requirements for this School buses. As cars became more popular, schoolchildren no longer rode to school in horse-drawn carriages called school wagons, but instead hitchhiked in the newly motorized wagons School bus, although school bus was a generous term. These wooden-bodied trucks seemed more suited to transporting livestock than transporting precious children. There were no safety standards for these buses, so some children had to climb into the back of the high-riding bus, and road disasters were more common. Still, school buses were important because they provided children in rural towns across America with reliable access to education, although of course black students faced discrimination and faced segregated school transportation because this is America.
In 1939, Frank Cyr, a rural education specialist at Columbia University, led a conference of transportation officials. School bus Require manufacturers and educators to set minimum standards for school buses. These standards included requirements for the length, aisle width and distinctive yellow color of school buses.
Today, modern School buses are subject to the regulation National Congress on School Transportation or NCSTwhich establishes standardized requirements for school transportation services throughout the country. School bus Safety requirements include a reversing alarm, anti-lock braking system, standardized emergency exits and wheelchair-accessible accommodations.
buses must be designed to withstand a penetration force equal to the curb weight or 20,000 pounds, whichever is less. Since School buses School buses are so large and heavy, especially when loaded with passengers, that they usually get away very well in accidents. Although there is no seat belt requirement, larger school buses are designed using an NHTSA-approved concept called “compartmentalization,” which requires the interior of buses to protect children with sturdy, closely spaced seats with energy-absorbing backrests. Small school buses with a GVWR of 10,000 pounds or less must be equipped with seat belts because they are lighter than larger buses. Despite their antiquated appearance, modern school buses are actually incredibly safe, 70 times safer than a regular car National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or NHTSA.
Accident statistics show that in a nine-year period between 2008 and 2017, only 71 passengers died in school bus accidents, and that number includes more than 26 million daily school bus drivers across the country. Thanks to their distinctive yellow color, flashing lights and stop signal, American school buses are also safe before an accident occurs, all of which are required by the National School Transportation Specifications and Procedures. These necessary features help keep school buses safe because American drivers know to be extra cautious around vehicles with these instantly recognizable signs. Due to their smaller size and increased vulnerability, smaller buses must be equipped with seat belts to ensure the safety of passengers in the event of an accident
Although modern school buses While at first glance they don’t look much different than the big yellow buses that used to ferry our grandparents to schoolhouses, important safety features and hidden technology continue to make school buses the safest form of transportation on the road. Thanks to the clear visual indicators that set school buses apart from other vehicles on the road and carefully developed safety features, school buses have required little modification over the years.
