Logan Voss
From significant safety without seatbelts to human psychology, there are many interesting things to learn about those friendly yellow vehicles. Here are four fascinating facts about the school bus.
School Carriages
Before there were automobiles, there were horse-drawn carriages. Before there were school buses, there were—school carriages? It’s true! Around 1886, people used horse-drawn carriages to pick up students who lived far from school and had a door in the back (to prevent children from spooking the horses). Kids who lived closer to school had to walk.
Why Yellow?
School buses all sharing that classic yellow-orange hue is very helpful when it comes to mass production, but that isn’t the only reason for the ubiquitous color. Yellow is the best color for the human eye to notice and we can spot it easily, even in our peripheral vision. The school bus color is a safety feature!
The Ultimate Carpool
Almost 500,000 school buses in the United States transport 25 million students to and from school every day. The American School Bus Council thinks that communities save over seven billion dollars each year by using buses instead of cars. School buses are also much safer than traditional transportation, since everything about their design is built for security.
Giant Steering Wheels
School bus steering wheels are truly gigantic. This isn’t meant as an intimidation tactic. Instead, it offers bus drivers the ability to handle such a large machine. If the bus’s wheel were the size of a traditional steering wheel, many drivers wouldn’t be able to turn it!
The size translates to better torque and leverage, allowing most people to drive buses. There’s actually a surprising amount of information on bus steering wheels, and torque just scratches the surface.
Hopefully, these four fascinating facts about the school bus satiated your desire for information. The next time one of these majestic machines passes your street, you’ll have a deeper appreciation.
