SPECIAL REPORT Are School Bus Ads a


Possible Distraction? Safety as well as legal risks are subjects of latest industry efforts against ad-revenue programs


By Ryan Gray


External ads adorn school buses in Colorado, which became the first state in the early 1990s to approve the revenue stream for districts. Photo courtesy Alpha Media.


Tis year, New Jersey and Utah enacted


laws allowing school districts to partici- pate in ad-revenue programs to offset rising transportation and other school district costs amid the need to slash bud- gets. And several states were looking to do the same. So what’s the rub for school transporters? Does budget relief spell in- creased safety risks for students and other motorists on the road? Bus advertising is not a new concept


as transit buses have acted as rolling bill- boards for at least the past four decades. According to the American Public Trans- portation Association, no credible studies have been performed that speak to any increased risk of the ads adversely affect- ing the behavior of other motorists. “As an advertiser you’re assuming the people are going to be looking at


it,”


observed David Strayer, a professor of psy- chology at the University of Utah and a leading researcher on the distracted driv- ing epidemic. “Why else would you pay the money to do that?” Strayer, who participated on a panel


on distracted driving at last year’s STN EXPO in Reno, Nev., said school bus ads could increase the list of potential road hazards, and many of them come at the hands — or eyeballs — of drivers as they talk or text on cell phones, converse with other passengers, eat or drink, fidget with the radio, or take their eyes off the road to read things, such as a billboard. Tat point is not lost on the school


transportation community. While it agrees there have yet to be any studies pointing to ads being inherently unsafe, those same ads could inherently increase risks to students on and around the school bus as well to other drivers, as sug- gested by the Florida Association for Pupil Transportation and NASDPTS. Both orga- nizations issued papers this year opposing the practice. A month and a half before the NAS-


DPTS position was released in March, the Florida Association for Pupil Transporta- tion published its own paper opposing external ads, a move brought on by New Jersey’s law and by an Associated Press ar- ticle last year that inaccurately insinuated that Florida was one of a half-dozen states to allow the bus ad programs. In reality, current Florida statute only makes a pro- vision for ads inside the bus, so legislators filed two bills earlier this year to change this. At this writing, two sets of compan- ion bills were in the House and Senate that could allow school districts to engage in the ad-revenue game. But can relative success of ads on tran-


sit buses spell similar, or opposite, ends for school buses and the children who ride them? According to APTA, 10.7 percent of the 10 billion-plus transit passengers each year are students. But the true number of primary and secondary students who take transit is actually much less as APTA also includes students pursuing higher-educa- tion degrees in this rider category.


32 School Transportation News Magazine May 2011 Meanwhile, school buses also boast


more than 10 billion annual student rides, so any risk of bus ads should have a greater effect on the safety of school bus riders. Right? It’s not that simple, according to the experiences of a leading provider of school bus ads. “Te communities we work in em-


brace these programs. Neither we nor our school district partners have received any negative feedback,”


said Michael Beau-


champ, president and CEO of school bus advertising firm Alpha Media of Houston that works with 30 districts nationwide. “Local businesses are happy to help local schools while getting unique and afford- able advertising. A number of businesses across the state of Florida have already ex- pressed interest in advertising on Florida school buses.” Te assertion that school bus ads ex-


ploit and target children is untrue, he added, as the ads only take up about 5 percent of the bus exterior. And the ads target other drivers or pedestrians. “NPR did a study in Colorado that found


that the majority of students polled did not even notice the buses,” Beauchamp said. “Tese new bills will give autonomy to the districts. Tey, of course, know what is best for them.” But the simple fact that those ads are


designed to capture the attention of other drivers worries Bob Riley. Te NASDPTS executive director said the latest indus- try guidance was necessary as states and


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