What do you call a huge bumblebee on wheels?
I call it a school bus.
Like the color of a bumblebee, the color of a school bus is distinctive.
People don’t usually consider yellow a color of love. But in the case of our yellow school buses, that’s precisely what it is.
“The father of the yellow school bus” is Professor Frank Cyr of the Columbia University Teachers College. He was a rural educator for more than 30 years.
And it’s no accident that school buses are yellow.
Did you know that yellow gets attention faster than other colors? I would’ve thought that red would be more eye-catching.
But scientists cite that “Lateral peripheral vision for detecting yellow is 1.24 times greater than red.” Even in fog or storms, yellow is most visible.
The eye-catching yellow translates into better bus safety for our precious pre, elementary, middle, and high school riders.
American school buses are the color of safety, the color of love, the color yellow.
In 1939, transportation for school children consisted of everything from raggedy buses, trucks, to horse-drawn wagons. Let’s not also forget that many children had no transportation. They walked to school. Believe it or not, some walked miles to school. There was no horsepower, only foot power. Sometimes my mom revisits the stories and folklore of walking 10 miles or more to school.
Professor Cyr, school transportation officials, and bus manufacturers met and established national school bus construction standards. Standardization facilitated mass production of buses, which lowered cost and make bus travel safer.
He presented “50 shades ranging from lemon yellow to deep-orange red” to transportations, school, and other officials. And they chose yellow.
At the time, the selected color was a matter of visibility and preference and not based on proven science.
The yellow school buses are the largest mass transit system in the United States?
The yellow also makes the black writing on the buses POP!
Many of the original bus standards have changed since 1939 for many reasons, with safety being a priority. According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), traveling to school by bus is 70 times safer than riding in cars or other passenger vehicles. And the most regulated vehicles on the road are school buses.
Even with all the changes since 1939, the color remains the same, yellow.
To my surprise, neither NHTSA nor any other federal organization or law requires school buses to be yellow. State and local governments establish school bus policies. But NHTSA has voluntary guidelines. And Guideline 17 ”recommends that school buses be painted ‘National School Bus Glossy Yellow.’”
The yellow school bus represents safe access to education in our society.
A yellow school bus represents love and care for tomorrow’s leaders.
Thank you, Professor Cyr.