The "Simply...The Yellow School Bus" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Looking out the window next to my lounge chair, watching the big yellow school bus make one of its runs since school ended this past March.  Bus looked to be only half full, since many parents have opted to have their children stay at home and accomplish their education online.  Needless to say, many are still frightened and worried that their children may be exposed to the COVID-19 virus.  

School bus from 1943.  Tough to tell the color in a black & white photo.

The bus seemed to be filled with happy young faces looking out the bus window, some looking my way as they passed.  Ever since I can remember, America's school buses have been yellow.  The color makes it recognizable to all and perhaps causes some to be more digilent as they pass the bus or approach it coming in the opposite direction.  

A 1955 Steelcraft school bus.

The man who put the idea in people's minds was Frank W. Cyr who was an educator and author from Nebraska.  He did research in ten states to help design a standardized bus and color for school transportation.    It was in 1939, during a meeting at Columbia University, that Cyr aimed to reinvent the fine art of getting to school.  Up until that time children got to school in a variety of ways.  

A 1957 Chevrolet School Bus.

Some traveled in wooden wheat wagons while others road in the back of pick-up trucks with floorboards covered with cow manure.  Mr. Cyr first received a degree in agriculture, then worked for years as a teacher and school superintendent.  During this time he finally decided to address the issue of getting to and going home from public schools.  He knew the economic benefits of public transportation to and from school was a no brainer.  He invited state educators from across the country, engineers from Chevrolet, International Harvester, Dodge and Ford as well as paint experts from DuPont and Pittsburgh Paint to a teachers college to set bus safety standards.  During one point in his meeting he hung up no less than fifty color strips.  After days of meetings and looking at these strips, they attendees were asked to suggest a color for the school bus.  One said red, white and blue to help instill national pride in students.  Eventually the iconic school bus shade of lead-chromate yellow was selected.  Today it is called National School Bus Glossy Yellow.  The color seems to have a psychological effect on those that see the buses.  

School buses as we visualize them today.

An Ophthal- mologist revealed that the color is "right smack in the middle" of the peak wave- lengths that stimulate the photoreceptor cells, known as cones, our eyes use to perceive red and green.  By stimulating two cones, the bus is easy to spot.  Today the colorful vehicle is involved in less that 1% of annual road casualties.  

Smaller sized buses fo transporting fewer children are easier to drive.

Seems that if there is fog or any kind of bad weather, drivers will still be able to see the yellow school buses.  And, if you take notice, large road-building and other outdoor machines are yellow to keep others from accidentally running into them.  Color has always been an important factor in our daily driving.  Traffic lights are red, yellow and green in all US states as well as every country and island my wife and I have visited during our lifetime.  To see a school bus in any other color would be tough to imagine, much the same as seeing a traffic light in any colors but red, yellow and green would be tough to imagine.  

The more modern flat-front school bus.  Easier for the driver
to see when all students are away from the front of the bus.

And, I did read that there is a national routine that school bus driver's are supposed to adhere to; after all kids have de-boarded, drivers must walk the length of the bus to ensure that no one has been left behind.  Hey, I find it easy to fall asleep when riding in a car, so why not tired students at the end of a day.  Once the bus is all clear, the driver is supposed to put a sign in the back window to indicate that the bus is empty.  Have you ever seen these signs?  Quite a bit of effort has gone into the design, color and size of school buses.  But, it is to protect the lives of our children as they head to and from school during the school year.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.