The Evolution of the Yellow Bus … And it’s Drivers As an insight into the extraordinary efficiencies of the pre-digital world, from
which there is no longer any escape, it is worth noting that the first “school buses” were buckboards that did not even have drivers. After the first day’s trip guided by the farmer whose child ostensibly lived the furthest from the school, the horse memorized the route, and followed it precisely for the remainder of the school year — waiting outside (or in a barn or shed during cold weather) until the school day finished, and then reversed the route for the return trip home. Tus, apart from the vehicle and fuel (mostly oats), there was no maintenance, no scheduling, no management, minimal policies and procedures. After all, what more could you teach such a driver? And, naturally, there were few if any accidents. Along with this, of course, was the near-absence of a budget, since the minimal costs were easily shared among the passengers’ families. In fact, the shape of even today’s school bus seats were a derivative of the bench seating on buckboards.
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variations I have seen, compounded by a collection of liability ruses or mindless educational policy decisions have led directly to an epidemic of needless safety is- sues. It is variations such as these that concern me, and which should concern us all. A handful of these themes, such as differences in crossing device requirements from
state-to-state and similar differences in retrofit requirements, have already been ex- plored in previous installments of “The Crossing Guy.” Some of these themes may be revisited briefly in upcoming articles. For the most part, however, the themes treated in future installments involve phenomena examined before in only a single state, and often by glimpsing at only a single or handful of incidents. But many of them will be new to STN readers, and many readers may find some of them shocking. In closing, my goal is not to lobby for complete uniformity in vehicle design, system
design, policies, procedures and operations — although there are strong arguments for uniformity in crossing-related policies and procedures in all but unique operating envi- ronments. Instead, this examination should provide insight into the types of variations that are responsible for a considerable amount of the carnage we continue to experi- ence, despite some deliberate efforts to conceal it. Te hope is that, recognizing these almost endless aberrations, state-to-state peer pressure will begin to shrink the degree of variation and will provide guidance to our community about the most fool-hardy and dangerous practices. Perhaps someday these might be modified or eliminated. While it will be comforting to learn that most states and school districts are execut-
ing basic crossing fundamentals correctly and sensibly, many of the deviations from the norm are outright frightening, not to mention an international embarrassment as viewed by nations without separate school bus services but which have far fewer crossing-related fatalities and serious injuries. Otherwise, in a nation currently obsessed with budget-cutting and concentrating wealth into an almost miniscule percentage of the overall population, we cannot afford to miss opportunities to reinforce the value of our contributions to a nation that shares these values yet is becoming increasingly less willing to pay to uphold them. ■
Einstein owns Transportation Alternatives in New York City and has 30 years of experience as an expert witness, a designer of paratransit, school-bus and transit systems, and as a consultant on federal and local government transportation programs. He may be reached at
einstein@transalt.com.
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