It’s a rare adult who doesn’t look back fondly on the daily ride to school. That yellow bus marked a last chance to just hang out with friends before a full day of study set in. But there’s one thing we usually take for granted about the school bus riding experience. It’s an element so ingrained in the idea of a school bus that even as an adult we don’t question it.
The yellow design of a school bus is an iconic piece of the American culture. But how did it become such a mainstay of vehicular design? In a country where city buses take on a wide variety of colors and shapes, how did school buses become so uniform?
A Man on a Mission
A large number of people lent their opinion, time and expertise into setting modern standards for school buses. However, the process as a whole began with a single individual. We can thank Frank Cyr for starting the country wide discussion about school buses.
Cyr had spent his life within the rural school system in one way or another. He was born in a sod house in the early 1900s. Cyr would go on to serve as a teacher and then superintendent within schools located in the open country of Nebraska and South Dakota. His experiences would eventually lead to a careful examination of public schools within ten different states. Two years after the culmination of this study, Cyr would gather together school transportation officials from every state. This unique group met in Columbia University to discuss a national construction standard for school transportation.
The Prior State of School Buses
Cyr had noticed a lack of uniformity in school transportation which would be shocking to modern sentiments. He saw school buses in a wide variety of shapes and colors. There was seldom any way for someone to instantly know that a bus would be full of children. And the variety of transportation options went to some almost laughable extremes. In one case he even saw a district which ferried kids to school on horse-drawn wagons.
Cyr had some strong arguments for a more unified transportation system. School children’s safety was perhaps the single most important reason for standardization. School buses behave very differently from most vehicles people will encounter on the road. School buses stop more frequently and idle for longer than a standard city bus. What’s more, small children can easily slip under people’s notice if drivers aren’t on the lookout for them. If a driver expects someone getting off of a bus to be of an adult stature, then he may easily fail to notice a small child crossing the road. Children are also far more likely to ignore common conventions of road safety than an adult when they get off a bus.
If a driver knows that he’s near a school bus, he can take extra precautions to ensure children’s safety. But in Cyr’s time there really wasn’t a firm rule anyone could use to know if he was driving near a school bus. Creating an easily recognized standard for school transportation would ensure that everyone could instantly recognize a school bus the second it entered into their field of vision.
Camouflaging School Buses in Red, White and Blue
Cyr had seen several different color schemes for school buses during his ten state review. Various shades of yellow were already showing signs of popular adoption. He noted that some color choices were obviously well intentioned but had overall negative effects. Of particular note was vocal support for school buses painted in red, white and blue. Cyr called this out as camouflage.
Proponents hoped that red, white and blue painted school buses would instill a sense of patriotism in school children. The end effect was that these buses were less rather than more visible to drivers. A combination of red, white and blue is aesthetically and emotionally pleasing to many Americans. But at the same time it’s a color scheme which Americans are continually exposed to throughout their day. Cyr knew that the conference needed to decide on a color scheme which was distinct and eye catching. He also had a plan on how everyone could get on the same page with their color preferences.
Color Swatches Aren’t Just for Interior Design
Cyr laid out 50 different shades for the committee’s consideration. Trying to work through representatives from every state would have been too unwieldy with that number of options. To make matters easier the committee first selected representatives to consider the options. This smaller group then settled on a familiar color which is instantly recognizable to the modern eye.
A Different Type of Yellow for a Singular Use
The committee finally decided on a specific shade of yellow for school buses in the United States. Interestingly enough, school buses aren’t simply painted yellow. Instead, school buses are painted in an exact shade which is now known as “National School Bus Glossy Yellow”.
This distinctive shade has helped make school buses just as safe as Cyr hoped. School buses are the most commonly used mass transit system in the country. And despite the ubiquity of school buses during most of the year, they’re seldom involved in any accidents. It’s estimated that a child is seventy times safer using a school bus to get to school than he would be with any other form of transit. Over the decades Cyr’s initiative has kept countless children safe in the midst of increasingly packed roads. And much of this safety is due to a distinct shade of yellow.
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