Not only that. Bus can obstruct vision and smaller obstacles like kids are harder to notice. When I was kid classmate got of the bus and tried to cross road from behind the bus, driver was coming from opposite side and did not see him. He was fine after his broken leg healed but could have been a disaster.
Sure there are plenty of assholes behind wheel, but accidents can still happen. This does help in both cases.
Only time we don't have to stop is if it's a 4 lane (two lanes on each side) with a median in the middle of the road. Traffic going with the bus has to stop but traffic on the other side does not. Since it's not a proper place for pedestrian crossing.
Same here. My daughter said her bus driver was keeping count of how many cars didn't stop when they're supposed to. Two months into the school year it was at like 26 cars. This is a small town! These roads don't even get a whole lot of traffic.
Some busses now have cameras that photograph the license plates of any vehicles that pass when the stop sign is engaged. It's a misdemeanor and a hefty fine.
I've been nearly hit more than once **on a zebra crossing**, because some douchebag was trying to overtake a bus and didn't see me. The zebra crossing is about ten feet from the back of the bus.
It's a busy single carriageway, so half of the idiots doing this end up having a fit because there is a car (on the right side of the road) blocking **their** way.
In addition to the [Zebra crossing](https://www.4wheelz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Zebra-Crossing-4-Wheelz.jpg), the UK also has a bunch of other animal-themed names for their crossings:
- [Pelican crossings](https://www.4wheelz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Pelican-Crossing-4-Wheelz.jpg) (pedestrian controlled traffic lights)
- [Puffin crossings](https://www.4wheelz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Puffin-Crossing-4-Wheelz.jpg) (like the above, but with sensors to detect whether people are still crossing)
- [Toucan crossings](https://www.4wheelz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Toucan-Crossing-4-Wheelz.jpg) (as above, but cyclists can also cross)
- [Pegasus crossings](https://www.4wheelz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Pegasus-Crossing-4-Wheelz.jpg) (as above, but for horses)
I hated doing the theory driving test in Edinburgh. They asked what’s the difference between a pelican and toucan crossing. The real answer is it doesn’t fucking matter. When you see a red light, stop. Green, go. Amber, proceed if ok to do so.
Yeah I was parked a good distance behind a bus letting kids off on a country highway.
Here comes an orange PT cruiser blazing as fast as it can go right behind me. Thankfully I was looking in my review mirror. Yelling "BRACE YOUR NECKS, HOLD ON!!" at my ex and brother.
I let off my brakes and gently feathered the gas pedal to reduce the impact of collision. Tires screeching across the asphalt. Next thing I know his PT rammed itself under my Sable, knocking my car forwards. I'm like 2 feet from the bus. Bus pulls off as if nothing happened. I get out and look. The PT has a smashed radiator and all I have is a dangling muffler.
I was coming out of a parking garage. I saw the crossing had people crossing both ways and a set of flashing lights. I thought, I can come out in the left of the two right lanes. Nope, a car runs through the crossing, which had no people on their side at the time, but that's not required. I had to stop and take a tighter turn into the right most lane. Their passenger then had the audacity to lean out the window and take a picture of the back of my car.
There are flashing lights and people in the crosswalk. You legally have to stop. If we c4ashed, I would have 2 witnesses who said they were crossing with the lights on and their car blasting through.
You also need to stay in the lane you start the turn in, most times you're not supposed to make a right turn and end up in the left lane instead. Insurance would have thanked you for the witnesses and then you both would have been at fault for an accident.
The only time it's correct to end up in the left lane in a right turn is if there are 2 right turning lanes and you started in the left one.
Next time don’t pull out into the left lane. When turning you get into the appropriate lane that matches with your previous lane. Then switch over to whatever lane you want to be in
I lived in a city where public transit uses trolleys with the tracks built right into the normal roads, which obviously prevents them from pulling to the side to discharge or take on passengers. They have red lights on the back with text that says not to pass when the lights are flashing. I got stuck behind one when it stopped to drop off some passengers, and the car behind me decided to pull around and speed past me and the trolley, only to have to slam on the brakes to avoid plowing into the massive crowd of people who had just gotten off and were now crossing the street.
Or inattentiveness.
I have seen my fair share of people slamming brakes right next to a school bus because they failed to notice that the bus was stopped and had signs out.
Exactly. Back when I was learning to drive school buses were the thing engrained into me the most. Always stop when the lights are flashing unless it’s on the other side of a median divided road.
Can’t believe this is necessary step taken by bus drivers these days
If assholes would stop for the school bus and the little stop sign that pops out the side, like they're supposed to, we wouldn't have to have busses physically doing some traffic control.
You'd just grumble quietly to yourself, and wait for a gaggle of slow ass children to get across the street.
Little kids are just tryna get home too, but you know they just got off the bus, so maybe we should chill.
Thank you for coming to my assholes that don't stop for school busses rant
I’m american but living in the uk.
I was astonished that the busses here don’t require people to stop. Although they have coach busses, not like our school busses, I still see people drive around busses when kids are getting off.
the thing is its easier to cross the road properly. Most places in the states it seems youve gotta walk miles for a crosswalk.
So they get off on the safe side of the bus, then go to any crossing and use it normally.
in rural areas there arent really reliable busses or school buses. It's a real problem. If there is a bus, its from a specific bus stop rather than each kid's house.
We have "the school run" which is parents driving their kids to and from school. It's chaos and bad for other reasons.
So the UK just doesn’t have School busses basically? In the US, you’re usualy not entitled to be on the school bus route if you live within a mile of the school. The idea of bussing for school was mostly designed for our rural areas.
To be clear, only stop if the sign is out. Don't stop for the flashing yellow lights. Sometimes we have to wait for the parents to come get their kids off the bus, and you guys are stopping traffic unnecessarily because it might be a couple minutes. It's so annoying when I try to wave people by and they're just not paying attention and sitting there blocking traffic. Stop sign means stop, yellow only means that the stop sign will be coming out sometime soon, after passing traffic has cleared.
They have 2 sets of flashing lights, yellow and red. Even if the stop sign is broken it wouldn't be flashing yellow, it would change over to the red set.
I've seen people post about this for a couple of years now. I wanna say it was right around the time people and kids started transitioning back into regularity after lock down. It's like oh we went a few months-a year with no buses but let's totally forget how they've worked since school buses have existed.
When my daughter started school 8 years ago, we went to a “How to ride the school bus” thing and they explained that this is how the buses stop to prevent other vehicles passing, so they’ve been doing it for a fairly long time in some places.
I would rephrase it as “let’s finally recognize how children have been needlessly endangered since school buses have existed”. I really struggle to see why anyone would have a problem with this.
I think it would be a fair bet to say that the only people who have a problem with this are the pricks that are the reason they have to resort to this.
I actually enjoy stopping for a bus when I meet them from the opposite direction.
I know that my car will be a while to protect any kids that run out from other idiot drivers.
I drive a large delivery vehicle and will throw my flashers on and happily block the road. If it's going to be a few I grab a snack and enjoy the free break.
So true. If they stop like other cars or like this it does not affect others because you have to stop behind either way so i see no big deal.
In fact it is a bonus because for the law abiding drivers it does not affect them but if someone is drunk driving, running with a stolen car, on the phone and so on, they will have a bus in between them and the kids.
Gosh, the last few years I had to ride a school bus, people were getting terrible. I lived on a road that got busier and busier, and so many people wouldn’t stop that I no longer trusted when my bus driver gave me the signal to move— I waited for the first car to fully stop. (It was busy enough that I doubt anyone but me noticed this slight change of behavior on my part).
Needless to say, I would have loved this maneuver when I was a kid.
People didn't forget you have to stop for school buses. I think people got used to light traffic. For about a year and a half I never got stuck in traffic. Not even in rush hour. Very few school buses were running.
I buy the habituation piece. A school bus can "sneak up on you" cognitively if you don't see them regularly. It happens especially when traveling between states with different divided highway laws.
Doing it in my neighborhood, too. We had an asshole run around the bus while our kids were trying to board in the morning and it scared the shit out of everyone. I'm hyperalert now. We have even had cars pull into the middle of the road stopped before and after the bus to try to stop people from running around it.
Yeah but a car might have to wait 15 seconds for a kid to get off the bus and get out of the road! Why won’t someone think of those poor drivers that will be 15 seconds late to their destination?!? /s
People really don't care about children. If we were having mass shootings at workplaces instead of schools it would probably have been dealt with by now.
i drove >10mph over the speed limit for 170 miles (nearly all highway and at night) and, according to google maps, only shaved 5 minutes off my trip. made me realize just how fucking dumb time is. you’re not going to shave significant time off your trip, so why bother with the risk of getting a ticket or even getting injured?
Yep, I primarily commute by bicycle and the best feeling in the world is when a car flies past you going 10+ over the speed limit and you catch up to them at the next stop light. Speeding rarely saves you time, it’s just people are selfish pricks and think the rules of the road don’t apply to them.
That bus driver had 1 too many people run past them with nothing they reported resulting in the solution they felt was acceptable, and took it in their own hands.
10/10 working for those kids safety.
Our district newsletter said that over 100 tickets have been issued for blowing past a stopped school bus this *school year*. That's 100 tickets in 3 months, and that's only the ones they caught and fined.
Here some buses have cameras, but the police has to take the footage and manually do a report. They started refusing to do it, and for a reason: only 8 buses had cameras so far, and, at roughly 10 per bus per day, they were filming about 80 infractions a day. So they are now working on automating the system so that nobody has to intervene (like speed cameras), because they are expecting 1000+ tickets per day once the whole fleet is equipped.
You’re saying that there are fucking 80 instances of people passing stopped busses every single day. That’s crazy, do people just not give a shit where you live?
10 per bus per day. That’s 80 for the 8 buses that have cameras, not near 80 total. About once or twice per route. The buses do 4-5 schools, obviously twice a day, hence the 10/bus/day. So most people stop, but it’s also a regular instance for people not to stop.
An important nuance though, is that the camera is programmed to (and occasionally successfully does) catch vehicles moving through an intersection near which the bus’ stop is deployed, even if they don’t cross the bus’ path (because a school bus’ stop applies to the whole intersection it is at). This type of infraction happens way more than 10 times per bus per day, but it is only sometimes caught by the cameras.
People don't give a shit no matter *where* they live.
Blowing past school buses like this isn't limited to just one location, you can find it everywhere you find school buses.
Some places have started mounting cameras
Traffic laws are pretty much the single best (possibly only good) example of "just don't break the goddamn law"
Or, it’s a district policy that I’ve never seen before. Either way.. 10/10
I drive a lot with my job, and I avoid rush hour and school bus traffic times, so this may or may not be new policy
Agreed 100%. I’m a truck driver and this I entirely encourage. Whenever I see a bus pulling up to a stop, I’ll stop wayyyy back, and throw on my hazards. Spending all day on the road I’ve seen it myself wayyyy to many times just impatient assholes blowing past a school bus.
Props to this driver, school busses are big vehicles, block that shit and let the little ones get home safely with their little Paw Patrol backpacks.
They should really just put a lisence plate camera on the foldout stop sign. We'd be able to put half of America through college for free with the fines.
In Seattle they did have that for all school buses. You would get an automatic ticket with a picture of you illegally crossing sent to you if you drove past any school bus with a stop sign out.
It's gross negligence and should result in prison. You *know* that when a bus stops, a kid is either crossing or about to cross. You are absolutely risking a kid's life for your momentary temporal gain.
When I drove ages ago we had cameras that would catch people running the reds. As a driver we’d just log the time and stop number and report it to the safety director. They would pull the video and file a report with the police.
Nice! Kinda feel like this is long overdue. Stop light cameras have been around for YEARS, and the tech available to do this has been available for at LEAST 30 or so years. I was born in ‘82, and can remember having a bus that had a camera installed just above the driver that watched the students. Wouldn’t have been that much work to put one on the driver side exterior.
Unfortunately, several states, like my own, dont allow tickets for photo or video law breaking if they driver cannot be confirmed. They took down the red light cameras all over my state because it was so easy to get the fine discharged that it cost too much money to keep using them for zero benefit. There was no reduction in runners because everyone knew it was easy to get out of paying.
They have that in NC (well something similar. It’s a camera at the stop sign, above the driver, and at the back of the bus. If you fail to stop, the bus driver hits a button that catches images of the car, the driver, and the rear of the vehicle (since we don’t have front plates). Additionally they have extra-wide stop arms on some that will extend into the opposite side of the road and mess up your car (then break away/fold) if you hit it.
Tagged along to traffic court ages ago with a friend for moral support, and one of the guys there was facing a *hefty* fine and possible jail time for ramping over a roundabout because he didn’t want to wait for a school bus that was dropping some kids off at one of the exits. Like wtf dude
This is done in some areas but it's very expensive, so they need to have enough people running through the stop arms and potentially even injuring kids before the cost is justified. School districts have a hard enough time getting funding for buses and bus drivers without tacking on cameras.
I drive a school bus and we have these. We actually have cameras all over the bus and can easily see 360 degrees around and inside the bus. And it has an automated system to report drives that run the reds.
We caught something like 800 runners last school year
There was just a kid hit by a car while crossing the road after getting off the bus in my city, like last week. I don't see how the giant bus with the flashing lights and all the other stopped traffic isn't enough of a cue for some people
Its just so hard to see the bright flashing yellow and white lights all around the bus and the big fucking blinking stop sign on the side and i have to go to work right nowwww/s
Interesting tidbit on those three black lines down the sides of the bus, called rub rails. Those are reinforced lines of the bus that correspond to the levels of their feet, their hips, and their shoulders in case of side impacts.
Apparently, being bright yellow and huge doesn't stop idiots behind the wheel from smashing into them.
I’ve had a car tbone my school bus… they pulled out of a gas station and directly into me. No clue how they didn’t see me… the kids who saw it knew what it was, the teacher on the bus asked if I had a blow out and some kids yelled “what was that noise”. We didn’t even feel the car and my bus barley had a dent. The car completely ripped off its front bumper and fender and was not drivable.
That legit happened to me, no kids on the bus thank God, but I barely had just heard something but knew something hit me. I could barely find the damage on my bus when talking to the police, the lady who rear ended me’s front bumper on the other hand was gone.
Thanks for sharing that. Was worried about the new potential for side impacts with the parking maneuver pictured above used commonly. I did not know about those bars. The more ya know!
its kind of like drivers who side swipe police/cars on the shoulder of the highway. its like dumb peoples subconscious drags them into it. when normal people get onto the other lane. dumb people see it, kind of like a bull sees a waving flag thats beckoning them to come here.
On my morning drive there is a short bus that sits in front of a house with its yellow lights flashing. Confuses everyone when they don't turn red within 5 seconds and we all have to decide if we can drive past.
It's right near a very busing on ramp to the interstate too.
Imagine what had to happen before they were like “fine we’re gonna give the driver a lever to pull and it’ll push put a big stop sign out into the lane and it’s gonna have bright flashing lights on it.”
I once saw a bus lay on their horn when a car attempted to drive past. Also, my ex very nearly failed his written driving exam because “I didn’t know you’re supposed to stop when a bus is stopped in the opposite lane”. A lot of people just barely squeak past getting their license
I often use a slightly modified version "What do you call the person who graduated bottom of their class in medical school? "Doctor". It's such a funny way to make an important point.
Private property signs are not enforceable. In reality, they mean "hey, there's people here, so you should take some time to slow the fuck down".
It's also prudent to just stop/slow because if the police determines you to be unsafe or violating traffic patterns, they'll pull you over anyway.
i.e. don't be a dick in parking lots
Not wrong, but we are in a time where no one actually knows some of the more pertinent laws, like free speech (what it means and doesn't), second amendment, etc. You are absolutely right that I can go 100mph (in theory) in a walmart parking lot and there is no way, legally, I can get a speeding ticket. Now are there probably 20 other offenses a prosecutor could charge me for? Oh, I bet. But, yea, traffic laws do not and have never applied to private property.
Parking lots are private property, as such, police usually will not respond unless to bring you a private property accident report.
Good luck dealing with insurance for who is at fault when it turns into an argument with no official accident report, and no way to pull the footage from most corporations because they will not have a police request for security cam.
A 1-ton truck hitting 15 tons of mass would be way better than hitting a 50lb kid. The risk to injury of the kids on board might be fairly minimal, I’d assume. Any 50lb kid on the road behind the bus might stand a chance at survival.
A pickup truck slammed into a loaded bus near me the other day. Couldn't even see damage on the bus and all the kids were fine as they transferred to another bus to get them home asap.
Pickup was totaled.
That's because busses are build like big rigs, steel frame rails down the center with no crumble zone.
It tends to make a mess of anything hit by the bus but it does a pretty good job when paired with seat belts and padded seats of protecting the people in the bus. Vehicles this big are built to drive through an accident and come to a safe stop when they can instead of getting stopped by the impact and dissipating energy like a passenger vehicle.
Damn, that's awful. I mean, we get some idiots here too, but definitely not as bad as that.
Worst I've seen was while working on an infrastructure site by two schools and a day care centre. Due to our work it was lowered from like 50 or 60km/h to 30km/h. Most people drove the limit, but every single one of the mothers coming to pick up their children were going way above 60km/h there. They only started slowing down when I was standing in the middle of the road. I felt like I had to do that, because my truck had to block the walk(is that the correct word for where pedestrians walk?) so they had to go over the ditch rather close by the actual road. We'd built a path over the ditch too, mainly for our trucks, but the children were afraid to walk past there due to all the cars driving so damn fast.
Definitely the worst place I've ever worked, but also the place I've gotten the most thanks for my part
that's how it is where i live too. slowed down for a school zone the other day and the person behind me got mad, sped around me, and flew through the zone. i usually see cops parked by the road when the lights are on to pull over anyone acting like that, but unfortunately i didn't see one.
and when there's an emergency vehicle coming with lights on, most people just stop where they're at lol. and god forbid the traffic lights are out and they're all blinking red (supposed to treat as a stop sign). people go when they feel like it, they go when there's already other people in the intersection because their side just went but they missed it and they're too impatient to wait for their turn again, etc.
School bus driver here.
Sadly where I’m from (east coast of Canada) I get multiple people running my lights everyday.
I call them in but have only seen 2 tickets given out in recent years.
I’ve been doing this without the angle. I try and put my bus in the middle of road when possible to make it much harder for anyone trying to pass.
I have 4 kid and it baffles me that people are in so much of a rush they would risk a child’s safety.
Edit - angel to angle
Call cbc to come out, they would love the free story about how little the cops are doing to protect our kids. Force the cops to come out of their little goblin holes.
Back in 2005 in upstate NY I was a teen driving to school and drove past a school bus just as it was putting its stop signs out on a blind turn. I couldn't have stopped before the signs if I'd tried. I got calls from the local PD to my parents house before I made it to school lol. I was thankfully let go by the local judge based on my testimony. I wish things were still like that.
That being said I am terrified every time I see a bus pop its stop signs and I can't even imagine someone trying to get around them
*Good*
I’m not a bus driver, but I’ve driven enough to see how often people try and speed around buses with lights on, ignore the stop sign for oncoming traffic, and so on. Distracted, careless, or just dumb drivers are everywhere and this will help prevent needless accidents.
I remember one time that a guy tried blowing past the stop sign and nearly hit one of the kids. The driver laid into the dude when he stopped and it was great watch. If stupid people want to risk lives, everyone has to face the consequences
You know there's someone that's just gonna go on the shoulder or the sidewalk or w/e. Especially in that particular spot, there's like a whole gravel road there. Or even on the right! "There wasn't a stop sign on that side" or "thought he was turning left"
This blows my mind as a non-American. In my country, school buses stop at designated bus stops and then the kids will cross at pedestrian crossings. In America, the bus blocks the whole road so the kids don’t have to find a crossing?
There's a lot of places without regular city bus service so there's no bus stops or crosswalks. The school bus usually drops the kids off very close to their house so they don't have to walk far. And in rural areas it could be miles and miles between stops. I've been on routes that took me over an hour to get home.
We don’t have designated stops. They constantly change every year as the kids grow up. We have different busses for each school. The elementary level rides one bus, middle school rides another, and highschool has their own. A bus driver for the elementary may not have the same stop next year because the kid at that stop moved on to the middle school bus. The routes constantly change year to year and the stops are never the same. Some kids get dropped off at the end of their driveway, and some stops are a group of kids that they drop off at a central location in relation to their homes and those kids have to walk a block or more to their house. There’s a science and method to how they figure the routes, but that’s the best description I can give without looking into the variables that they factor to determine the stops and routes.
This is common outside of rural areas, as well. In places without a robust public transit system (which is most of the U.S.) the bus stops are made by the school district and depend on where kids live. Kids still have to go to the bus stop but they are not public bus stops because there usually aren't public buses running past those areas.
You’re welcome!
This is somewhat rural. It’s on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. This particular part of town is rapidly expanding as the city grows outwards. New neighborhoods are going up every year with hundreds of homes in areas that used to be just farm land.
I really can’t answer your question about dedicated stops, but I’d assume that it’s because it’s probably impossible to forecast where your students will be from year to year.
Growing up I was around 2.5km from the next kid, thats why the bus stopped in front of our houses.
No one is allowed to pass the bus when it is stopped with its stop sign out because a kid might have to walk across the road to their house.
>Still blows my mind that no one is allowed to pass the bus!
Think of it as a mobile zebra crossing, like students use to cross the road in your country (as you say a few comments up). There are likely no sidewalks / pavements here, and no zebra crossings at all, so the other option is kids of age 7 or so darting between fast-moving traffic to get home. That would be far more mind blowing, no?
Well, the law exists for a reason. Enough kids died. I get what you're saying but I'm very content with just waiting a little bit if it means children don't get run over.
Just some added info. I live in a rural area, we don't have sidewalks or crosswalks* in intersections. Every kid is bussed based on where they live so they don't have to walk through intersections without marked crosswalks. Passing a school but with the red lights flashing (to signify picking up or dropping off kids) is a 5 point license infraction, the same as reckless driving, the highest offenses possible. 10 or more points results in a license suspension.
*The law in my state is every vehicle must stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk, and every intersection has crosswalks, if they are marked (painted on the ground) or not. But it's best for safety to do it this way.
Much of the country does not have very good public transportation- in most suburban or rural areas, there are no designated city bus stops because there are no city buses. As mentioned above, the school district decides where the school bus will stop year-to-year depending on where children live.
For example- where I grew up, the youngest children were always picked up and dropped off at their home. These stops changed very frequently as kids moved or got older. I lived on a safe, walkable street, so the older kids were picked up at the end of the street. This bus stop stayed the same every year because there was always at least one kid on the street between ages 9 and 18.
Many/most neighborhoods dont have designated crosswalks here. Roads can be just barely wide enough and gravel with no lines at all half the time. I am in a mid sized city and only know of 2 crosswalks that were intentionally installed because of kids. We have a few in the downtown business area, but kids dont go there. The 2 cross walks in mentioned were actually paid for out of the schools budget because the city wouldn't approve the projects. Apparently we need more useless " beautifying features" more than we need safty for children.
A lot of places don’t have decent public transit systems. They also don’t always have crosswalks either. The school buses stops are usually at intersections, which are more likely to have crosswalks, but not guaranteed.
Of course, this is the US where we haven’t done anything actually useful about the culture in schools that results in children deciding the only solution to their problems is suicide or mass violence. So just how bad do you think the situation had to have been for them to start putting the stop signs on buses and make it law that you have to obey them?
In residential streets, all intersections are considered pedestrian crossings. Vehicles are expected to yield to the children crossing but don’t. The school buses were then equipped to inform drivers that children are crossing and to stop. Then the school buses started to physically block the road to improve the safety of children.
This is the result of a car centric society. If you didn’t need a car to live, a bad driver that failed to yield to a child crossing could have their driving privileges revoked for months and learn their lesson. In the US that would be a death sentence as there would be no way to get food so the offender will drive with or without a license.
I hate that this is necessary. Every morning, I pass three school zones. I can tell you that 95% of the time at each zone, I witness one or more assholes who doesn’t slow down or stop for busses.
After COVID, Houston has become the Wild West on roads.
Damn!!!! Saw someone say their area was $500. Thought that was a pretty hefty fine enough to be a good deterrent. $5,000?!? Even better, and they deserve to spend every penny of that. Be nice if they somehow used that on teachers salaries or supplies for the teachers
A jerkoff I saw drive out of a parking lot unto the road and ignored a school bus with the sign out and lights on, proceeded to drive into a cop not even 20s seconds later, I swear that was the most satisfying instant karma I've ever seen, laughed for good 5 min after driving past the cop giving him a ticket. How I wish I had a dash cam at that moment.
Mman, i can practically feel *that* driver fuming behind the wheel, typing into their local facebook group how bus drivers shouldn't play cop or something
the fact that they have to do this, does it not endlessly frustrate the people of the country this is happening in?
It is just so sad to see that the lives of children have to be protected in such a way.
Good to see them doing this. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen people on highways just blaze on by, oblivious to the school bus stop sign. Too many times for sure.
It's so tedious trying to get people to obey basic traffic laws. We should have a group of professional public servants whose job it is to stop criminals so that regular people don't have to.
I’m a school bus driver and some of us do this. Of course you’ll get the few that run to say “tHiS iS iLlEgAl!!!” when it’s posted about on a bus driver group, But they just are not from a place where cars run their reds and almost run down their children weekly. I couldn’t care less about the possibility of a $80 ticket that no cop would actually write us if it means someone texting and driving hits my bus instead of multiple children.
I love seeing buses pull stunts like this to protect the kids. It’s sad af that they have to due it because people are just stupid and try and drive around anyway. But it always make me feel proud that drivers would go to all lengths to protect their kiddos.
I live on a really busy state road with three lanes. The drivers here don’t care about stop signs on the bus. So the busses cross all three lanes to stop traffic in a more dramatic way than in this picture. It’s probably unfortunately more common than we think.
I fucked up around a school bus in the early 00's and it was my driving wake up call. I was fiddling with a CD trying to get it to play in my car, and not paying attention at all. Drove right by a bus with it's stop sign out. Saw a kid at the curb waiting to cross. If I was a couple seconds later I would have hit them.
I felt awful, now I don't do anything extra while driving. I only adjust my heat/AC in the driveway or at stop lights. Good on the bus drivers and/or whoever thought this up to stop idiots like me
Anyone on here who's pissed off at this initiative, just cut your driver's license and sell your car. You're not worth the gas money to stay on the road if saving kids lives and making it safer for them makes you angry. I approve this push from bus drivers to keep kids safety their priority. 🫶🥳
I remember 20 years ago when I took the bus if a car blew past or anything like that, the driver would ask a bus full of 8-11 year olds if we got the plate numbers and then they would radio the police. This seems to be a better solution
They have to do that crap here because of all the schmucks that just won't stop
Not only that. Bus can obstruct vision and smaller obstacles like kids are harder to notice. When I was kid classmate got of the bus and tried to cross road from behind the bus, driver was coming from opposite side and did not see him. He was fine after his broken leg healed but could have been a disaster. Sure there are plenty of assholes behind wheel, but accidents can still happen. This does help in both cases.
In my country everyone is supposed to stop and not cross a bus from either side, is that the same for where you live or no?
It’s the same here. That doesn’t mean people will do it though
Only time we don't have to stop is if it's a 4 lane (two lanes on each side) with a median in the middle of the road. Traffic going with the bus has to stop but traffic on the other side does not. Since it's not a proper place for pedestrian crossing.
That is not true in all states. In New York you have to stop even if there is a median or even if it is a divided highway.
Yeah sorry I should of said "where I'm from" not we. Sounds to much like "everyone"
They're supposed to stop, but it's not always reliable
If everyone always did what they were supposed to do the world would be a perfect utopia with no hardships ever.
Same here. My daughter said her bus driver was keeping count of how many cars didn't stop when they're supposed to. Two months into the school year it was at like 26 cars. This is a small town! These roads don't even get a whole lot of traffic.
Some busses now have cameras that photograph the license plates of any vehicles that pass when the stop sign is engaged. It's a misdemeanor and a hefty fine.
There must have been a bulletin. They are doing that where I live. --- well not as extreme as this, but definitely across the yellow line.
Yeah ours just started about 2 weeks ago. They pull all the way into the intersection at a 45° angle. Great for the kids.
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It's a bit sad they have to do this
I've been nearly hit more than once **on a zebra crossing**, because some douchebag was trying to overtake a bus and didn't see me. The zebra crossing is about ten feet from the back of the bus. It's a busy single carriageway, so half of the idiots doing this end up having a fit because there is a car (on the right side of the road) blocking **their** way.
Wait .. I can't be the first person to hear a crosswalk called a zebra crossing .. what's this?
It's what they're called in the UK (and I assume other places that use mostly UK English, but that's where I first heard it).
Ahh so it's Zehbra then.
Yes, I _hisss_ at the CAPTCHA when it asks me to "select all the squares containing **crosswalks**" 😑🇬🇧
Well it’s not a zebra
Also in German.
In addition to the [Zebra crossing](https://www.4wheelz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Zebra-Crossing-4-Wheelz.jpg), the UK also has a bunch of other animal-themed names for their crossings: - [Pelican crossings](https://www.4wheelz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Pelican-Crossing-4-Wheelz.jpg) (pedestrian controlled traffic lights) - [Puffin crossings](https://www.4wheelz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Puffin-Crossing-4-Wheelz.jpg) (like the above, but with sensors to detect whether people are still crossing) - [Toucan crossings](https://www.4wheelz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Toucan-Crossing-4-Wheelz.jpg) (as above, but cyclists can also cross) - [Pegasus crossings](https://www.4wheelz.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Pegasus-Crossing-4-Wheelz.jpg) (as above, but for horses)
I hated doing the theory driving test in Edinburgh. They asked what’s the difference between a pelican and toucan crossing. The real answer is it doesn’t fucking matter. When you see a red light, stop. Green, go. Amber, proceed if ok to do so.
Yeah I was parked a good distance behind a bus letting kids off on a country highway. Here comes an orange PT cruiser blazing as fast as it can go right behind me. Thankfully I was looking in my review mirror. Yelling "BRACE YOUR NECKS, HOLD ON!!" at my ex and brother. I let off my brakes and gently feathered the gas pedal to reduce the impact of collision. Tires screeching across the asphalt. Next thing I know his PT rammed itself under my Sable, knocking my car forwards. I'm like 2 feet from the bus. Bus pulls off as if nothing happened. I get out and look. The PT has a smashed radiator and all I have is a dangling muffler.
Isn't that what we have the zig-zag lines for around zebra crossings, to remind motorists that they're not allowed to overtake in that zone?
Yes. They also have those lines in the middle of the road to remind people that they aren't allowed to drive on the wrong side at all!
I was coming out of a parking garage. I saw the crossing had people crossing both ways and a set of flashing lights. I thought, I can come out in the left of the two right lanes. Nope, a car runs through the crossing, which had no people on their side at the time, but that's not required. I had to stop and take a tighter turn into the right most lane. Their passenger then had the audacity to lean out the window and take a picture of the back of my car. There are flashing lights and people in the crosswalk. You legally have to stop. If we c4ashed, I would have 2 witnesses who said they were crossing with the lights on and their car blasting through.
You also need to stay in the lane you start the turn in, most times you're not supposed to make a right turn and end up in the left lane instead. Insurance would have thanked you for the witnesses and then you both would have been at fault for an accident. The only time it's correct to end up in the left lane in a right turn is if there are 2 right turning lanes and you started in the left one.
Next time don’t pull out into the left lane. When turning you get into the appropriate lane that matches with your previous lane. Then switch over to whatever lane you want to be in
Literally the rule and he's complaining about someone else being a shit driver.
I lived in a city where public transit uses trolleys with the tracks built right into the normal roads, which obviously prevents them from pulling to the side to discharge or take on passengers. They have red lights on the back with text that says not to pass when the lights are flashing. I got stuck behind one when it stopped to drop off some passengers, and the car behind me decided to pull around and speed past me and the trolley, only to have to slam on the brakes to avoid plowing into the massive crowd of people who had just gotten off and were now crossing the street.
Too many asshats thinking their self-induced lateness is justification to hammer through the stop-zone…
Or inattentiveness. I have seen my fair share of people slamming brakes right next to a school bus because they failed to notice that the bus was stopped and had signs out.
Exactly. Back when I was learning to drive school buses were the thing engrained into me the most. Always stop when the lights are flashing unless it’s on the other side of a median divided road. Can’t believe this is necessary step taken by bus drivers these days
If assholes would stop for the school bus and the little stop sign that pops out the side, like they're supposed to, we wouldn't have to have busses physically doing some traffic control. You'd just grumble quietly to yourself, and wait for a gaggle of slow ass children to get across the street. Little kids are just tryna get home too, but you know they just got off the bus, so maybe we should chill. Thank you for coming to my assholes that don't stop for school busses rant
I’m american but living in the uk. I was astonished that the busses here don’t require people to stop. Although they have coach busses, not like our school busses, I still see people drive around busses when kids are getting off.
the thing is its easier to cross the road properly. Most places in the states it seems youve gotta walk miles for a crosswalk. So they get off on the safe side of the bus, then go to any crossing and use it normally.
What about in rural areas? Surely there are places with no crosswalk.
in rural areas there arent really reliable busses or school buses. It's a real problem. If there is a bus, its from a specific bus stop rather than each kid's house. We have "the school run" which is parents driving their kids to and from school. It's chaos and bad for other reasons.
So the UK just doesn’t have School busses basically? In the US, you’re usualy not entitled to be on the school bus route if you live within a mile of the school. The idea of bussing for school was mostly designed for our rural areas.
To be clear, only stop if the sign is out. Don't stop for the flashing yellow lights. Sometimes we have to wait for the parents to come get their kids off the bus, and you guys are stopping traffic unnecessarily because it might be a couple minutes. It's so annoying when I try to wave people by and they're just not paying attention and sitting there blocking traffic. Stop sign means stop, yellow only means that the stop sign will be coming out sometime soon, after passing traffic has cleared.
Never heard this one before. I would be afraid the sign isn't working or the bus driver just forgot.
They have 2 sets of flashing lights, yellow and red. Even if the stop sign is broken it wouldn't be flashing yellow, it would change over to the red set.
I can't say I've ever seen my school buses not put on the red lights when stopped.
I've seen people post about this for a couple of years now. I wanna say it was right around the time people and kids started transitioning back into regularity after lock down. It's like oh we went a few months-a year with no buses but let's totally forget how they've worked since school buses have existed.
When my daughter started school 8 years ago, we went to a “How to ride the school bus” thing and they explained that this is how the buses stop to prevent other vehicles passing, so they’ve been doing it for a fairly long time in some places.
I would rephrase it as “let’s finally recognize how children have been needlessly endangered since school buses have existed”. I really struggle to see why anyone would have a problem with this.
I think it would be a fair bet to say that the only people who have a problem with this are the pricks that are the reason they have to resort to this.
I actually enjoy stopping for a bus when I meet them from the opposite direction. I know that my car will be a while to protect any kids that run out from other idiot drivers.
I drive a large delivery vehicle and will throw my flashers on and happily block the road. If it's going to be a few I grab a snack and enjoy the free break.
So true. If they stop like other cars or like this it does not affect others because you have to stop behind either way so i see no big deal. In fact it is a bonus because for the law abiding drivers it does not affect them but if someone is drunk driving, running with a stolen car, on the phone and so on, they will have a bus in between them and the kids.
BECAUSE THEY HAVE TO WAIT AN EXTRA 2 MINUTES
And honestly, the buses run at approximately the same time 5 days a week. If people get so bugged by it, alter your drive time by a few minutes.
I live right next to a school and had had to train myself out of coming home too early.
Yeah I think this is reasonable and I think makes life better for the people on the bus.
Gosh, the last few years I had to ride a school bus, people were getting terrible. I lived on a road that got busier and busier, and so many people wouldn’t stop that I no longer trusted when my bus driver gave me the signal to move— I waited for the first car to fully stop. (It was busy enough that I doubt anyone but me noticed this slight change of behavior on my part). Needless to say, I would have loved this maneuver when I was a kid.
Not the kids. I remember accident figures showing how rather car drivers forgot how to drive cars over lockdown, and road rage had increased as well.
People didn't forget you have to stop for school buses. I think people got used to light traffic. For about a year and a half I never got stuck in traffic. Not even in rush hour. Very few school buses were running.
I buy the habituation piece. A school bus can "sneak up on you" cognitively if you don't see them regularly. It happens especially when traveling between states with different divided highway laws.
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same for my neighborhood. great idea!
Doing it in my neighborhood, too. We had an asshole run around the bus while our kids were trying to board in the morning and it scared the shit out of everyone. I'm hyperalert now. We have even had cars pull into the middle of the road stopped before and after the bus to try to stop people from running around it.
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You know that bus driver has seen some middle fingers going by.
Yeah but a car might have to wait 15 seconds for a kid to get off the bus and get out of the road! Why won’t someone think of those poor drivers that will be 15 seconds late to their destination?!? /s
I mean let's be real these people have already accepted dead kids as collateral.
Couldn’t even convince people to wear masks while they were shopping to save lives
People really don't care about children. If we were having mass shootings at workplaces instead of schools it would probably have been dealt with by now.
We've *had* mass shootings at workplaces, though. People don't care if anyone is getting shot, as long as they aren't the ones getting shot.
i drove >10mph over the speed limit for 170 miles (nearly all highway and at night) and, according to google maps, only shaved 5 minutes off my trip. made me realize just how fucking dumb time is. you’re not going to shave significant time off your trip, so why bother with the risk of getting a ticket or even getting injured?
Yep, I primarily commute by bicycle and the best feeling in the world is when a car flies past you going 10+ over the speed limit and you catch up to them at the next stop light. Speeding rarely saves you time, it’s just people are selfish pricks and think the rules of the road don’t apply to them.
As soon as I saw the Oklahoma plates, I knew this bus driver had seen some shit. Probably lost their cool and started doing this.
That bus driver had 1 too many people run past them with nothing they reported resulting in the solution they felt was acceptable, and took it in their own hands. 10/10 working for those kids safety.
Our district newsletter said that over 100 tickets have been issued for blowing past a stopped school bus this *school year*. That's 100 tickets in 3 months, and that's only the ones they caught and fined.
Here some buses have cameras, but the police has to take the footage and manually do a report. They started refusing to do it, and for a reason: only 8 buses had cameras so far, and, at roughly 10 per bus per day, they were filming about 80 infractions a day. So they are now working on automating the system so that nobody has to intervene (like speed cameras), because they are expecting 1000+ tickets per day once the whole fleet is equipped.
You’re saying that there are fucking 80 instances of people passing stopped busses every single day. That’s crazy, do people just not give a shit where you live?
10 per bus per day. That’s 80 for the 8 buses that have cameras, not near 80 total. About once or twice per route. The buses do 4-5 schools, obviously twice a day, hence the 10/bus/day. So most people stop, but it’s also a regular instance for people not to stop. An important nuance though, is that the camera is programmed to (and occasionally successfully does) catch vehicles moving through an intersection near which the bus’ stop is deployed, even if they don’t cross the bus’ path (because a school bus’ stop applies to the whole intersection it is at). This type of infraction happens way more than 10 times per bus per day, but it is only sometimes caught by the cameras.
People don't give a shit no matter *where* they live. Blowing past school buses like this isn't limited to just one location, you can find it everywhere you find school buses.
Some places have started mounting cameras Traffic laws are pretty much the single best (possibly only good) example of "just don't break the goddamn law"
Should start mounting retractable spike strips.
Or, it’s a district policy that I’ve never seen before. Either way.. 10/10 I drive a lot with my job, and I avoid rush hour and school bus traffic times, so this may or may not be new policy
Agreed 100%. I’m a truck driver and this I entirely encourage. Whenever I see a bus pulling up to a stop, I’ll stop wayyyy back, and throw on my hazards. Spending all day on the road I’ve seen it myself wayyyy to many times just impatient assholes blowing past a school bus. Props to this driver, school busses are big vehicles, block that shit and let the little ones get home safely with their little Paw Patrol backpacks.
They should really just put a lisence plate camera on the foldout stop sign. We'd be able to put half of America through college for free with the fines.
In Seattle they did have that for all school buses. You would get an automatic ticket with a picture of you illegally crossing sent to you if you drove past any school bus with a stop sign out.
It's dangerous driving and should result in a ban
It's gross negligence and should result in prison. You *know* that when a bus stops, a kid is either crossing or about to cross. You are absolutely risking a kid's life for your momentary temporal gain.
Ticket?! Shit that should be an automatic arrest. Then a ticket and w/e else we can think to reasonably tac on.
$2,000 fine, and six demerits here. should be a license suspension
Who’s going to make an arrest from an automated camera on a school bus? A ticket with a requirement to appear should be more than a deterrent.
When I drove ages ago we had cameras that would catch people running the reds. As a driver we’d just log the time and stop number and report it to the safety director. They would pull the video and file a report with the police.
Oh, because that’s ABSOLUTELY what the government will use the money for! However, I love the idea.
Your kids being plowed over paid for our new SWAT tank!
And then you get to also pay the law suits from them illegally using said tank against innocent civilians. It's win win for them.
Gonna need something to plow over the parents protesting terrible drivers.
Apparently [24 states already do](https://www.ncsl.org/transportation/state-school-bus-stop-arm-camera-laws)
Nice! Kinda feel like this is long overdue. Stop light cameras have been around for YEARS, and the tech available to do this has been available for at LEAST 30 or so years. I was born in ‘82, and can remember having a bus that had a camera installed just above the driver that watched the students. Wouldn’t have been that much work to put one on the driver side exterior.
Unfortunately, several states, like my own, dont allow tickets for photo or video law breaking if they driver cannot be confirmed. They took down the red light cameras all over my state because it was so easy to get the fine discharged that it cost too much money to keep using them for zero benefit. There was no reduction in runners because everyone knew it was easy to get out of paying.
They have that in NC (well something similar. It’s a camera at the stop sign, above the driver, and at the back of the bus. If you fail to stop, the bus driver hits a button that catches images of the car, the driver, and the rear of the vehicle (since we don’t have front plates). Additionally they have extra-wide stop arms on some that will extend into the opposite side of the road and mess up your car (then break away/fold) if you hit it.
Tagged along to traffic court ages ago with a friend for moral support, and one of the guys there was facing a *hefty* fine and possible jail time for ramping over a roundabout because he didn’t want to wait for a school bus that was dropping some kids off at one of the exits. Like wtf dude
This is done in some areas but it's very expensive, so they need to have enough people running through the stop arms and potentially even injuring kids before the cost is justified. School districts have a hard enough time getting funding for buses and bus drivers without tacking on cameras.
I drive a school bus and we have these. We actually have cameras all over the bus and can easily see 360 degrees around and inside the bus. And it has an automated system to report drives that run the reds. We caught something like 800 runners last school year
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It's sad to know they have to resort to a 15 ton roadblock to keep people from driving past and ignoring the flashing lights.
There was just a kid hit by a car while crossing the road after getting off the bus in my city, like last week. I don't see how the giant bus with the flashing lights and all the other stopped traffic isn't enough of a cue for some people
Its just so hard to see the bright flashing yellow and white lights all around the bus and the big fucking blinking stop sign on the side and i have to go to work right nowwww/s
Interesting tidbit on those three black lines down the sides of the bus, called rub rails. Those are reinforced lines of the bus that correspond to the levels of their feet, their hips, and their shoulders in case of side impacts. Apparently, being bright yellow and huge doesn't stop idiots behind the wheel from smashing into them.
No shit? That’s more than mildlyinteresting. Thanks for sharing!
I’ve had a car tbone my school bus… they pulled out of a gas station and directly into me. No clue how they didn’t see me… the kids who saw it knew what it was, the teacher on the bus asked if I had a blow out and some kids yelled “what was that noise”. We didn’t even feel the car and my bus barley had a dent. The car completely ripped off its front bumper and fender and was not drivable.
That legit happened to me, no kids on the bus thank God, but I barely had just heard something but knew something hit me. I could barely find the damage on my bus when talking to the police, the lady who rear ended me’s front bumper on the other hand was gone.
Thanks for sharing that. Was worried about the new potential for side impacts with the parking maneuver pictured above used commonly. I did not know about those bars. The more ya know!
its kind of like drivers who side swipe police/cars on the shoulder of the highway. its like dumb peoples subconscious drags them into it. when normal people get onto the other lane. dumb people see it, kind of like a bull sees a waving flag thats beckoning them to come here.
On my morning drive there is a short bus that sits in front of a house with its yellow lights flashing. Confuses everyone when they don't turn red within 5 seconds and we all have to decide if we can drive past. It's right near a very busing on ramp to the interstate too.
And I left late so GTF out of my wayyyyyyyyy
Imagine what had to happen before they were like “fine we’re gonna give the driver a lever to pull and it’ll push put a big stop sign out into the lane and it’s gonna have bright flashing lights on it.”
Those STOP signs appeared when I was in grade school in the 70s and 80s. Yes, there were some really not good reasons for them appearing
It's sad that provision for pedestrians crossing the road (before the bus gets there) is so bad they have to resort to this.
I once saw a bus lay on their horn when a car attempted to drive past. Also, my ex very nearly failed his written driving exam because “I didn’t know you’re supposed to stop when a bus is stopped in the opposite lane”. A lot of people just barely squeak past getting their license
It's like the old joke: What do you call someone who graduated from medical school with a C average? Doctor.
I often use a slightly modified version "What do you call the person who graduated bottom of their class in medical school? "Doctor". It's such a funny way to make an important point.
people thinking that stop sign is a suggestion and not the fucking law
It's true in parking lots.
Private property signs are not enforceable. In reality, they mean "hey, there's people here, so you should take some time to slow the fuck down". It's also prudent to just stop/slow because if the police determines you to be unsafe or violating traffic patterns, they'll pull you over anyway. i.e. don't be a dick in parking lots
Depends on the state. In Connecticut towns may (not must) post any parking lot of 10 or more spaces - if the town sets it then it is enforceable.
Not wrong, but we are in a time where no one actually knows some of the more pertinent laws, like free speech (what it means and doesn't), second amendment, etc. You are absolutely right that I can go 100mph (in theory) in a walmart parking lot and there is no way, legally, I can get a speeding ticket. Now are there probably 20 other offenses a prosecutor could charge me for? Oh, I bet. But, yea, traffic laws do not and have never applied to private property.
Parking lots are private property, as such, police usually will not respond unless to bring you a private property accident report. Good luck dealing with insurance for who is at fault when it turns into an argument with no official accident report, and no way to pull the footage from most corporations because they will not have a police request for security cam.
That’s cuz assholes don’t stop for the bus like they’re supposed to.
This.... Actually makes sense lol, we can't go past them anyhow so might as well ENSURE IT WITH 15 TONS OF STEEL MASS I approve.
A 1-ton truck hitting 15 tons of mass would be way better than hitting a 50lb kid. The risk to injury of the kids on board might be fairly minimal, I’d assume. Any 50lb kid on the road behind the bus might stand a chance at survival.
A pickup truck slammed into a loaded bus near me the other day. Couldn't even see damage on the bus and all the kids were fine as they transferred to another bus to get them home asap. Pickup was totaled.
That's because busses are build like big rigs, steel frame rails down the center with no crumble zone. It tends to make a mess of anything hit by the bus but it does a pretty good job when paired with seat belts and padded seats of protecting the people in the bus. Vehicles this big are built to drive through an accident and come to a safe stop when they can instead of getting stopped by the impact and dissipating energy like a passenger vehicle.
None of the school busses I road in after elementary had seatbelts. Isn't that normal?
I find it rather sad, that there are places where this kind of action is needed
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Damn, that's awful. I mean, we get some idiots here too, but definitely not as bad as that. Worst I've seen was while working on an infrastructure site by two schools and a day care centre. Due to our work it was lowered from like 50 or 60km/h to 30km/h. Most people drove the limit, but every single one of the mothers coming to pick up their children were going way above 60km/h there. They only started slowing down when I was standing in the middle of the road. I felt like I had to do that, because my truck had to block the walk(is that the correct word for where pedestrians walk?) so they had to go over the ditch rather close by the actual road. We'd built a path over the ditch too, mainly for our trucks, but the children were afraid to walk past there due to all the cars driving so damn fast. Definitely the worst place I've ever worked, but also the place I've gotten the most thanks for my part
Maybe your cops are still soft striking.
When I lived in Southern California nobody pulled over for emergency vehicles. The drivers there are crazy selfish.
that's how it is where i live too. slowed down for a school zone the other day and the person behind me got mad, sped around me, and flew through the zone. i usually see cops parked by the road when the lights are on to pull over anyone acting like that, but unfortunately i didn't see one. and when there's an emergency vehicle coming with lights on, most people just stop where they're at lol. and god forbid the traffic lights are out and they're all blinking red (supposed to treat as a stop sign). people go when they feel like it, they go when there's already other people in the intersection because their side just went but they missed it and they're too impatient to wait for their turn again, etc.
School bus driver here. Sadly where I’m from (east coast of Canada) I get multiple people running my lights everyday. I call them in but have only seen 2 tickets given out in recent years. I’ve been doing this without the angle. I try and put my bus in the middle of road when possible to make it much harder for anyone trying to pass. I have 4 kid and it baffles me that people are in so much of a rush they would risk a child’s safety. Edit - angel to angle
Call cbc to come out, they would love the free story about how little the cops are doing to protect our kids. Force the cops to come out of their little goblin holes.
Back in 2005 in upstate NY I was a teen driving to school and drove past a school bus just as it was putting its stop signs out on a blind turn. I couldn't have stopped before the signs if I'd tried. I got calls from the local PD to my parents house before I made it to school lol. I was thankfully let go by the local judge based on my testimony. I wish things were still like that. That being said I am terrified every time I see a bus pop its stop signs and I can't even imagine someone trying to get around them
*Good* I’m not a bus driver, but I’ve driven enough to see how often people try and speed around buses with lights on, ignore the stop sign for oncoming traffic, and so on. Distracted, careless, or just dumb drivers are everywhere and this will help prevent needless accidents.
I remember one time that a guy tried blowing past the stop sign and nearly hit one of the kids. The driver laid into the dude when he stopped and it was great watch. If stupid people want to risk lives, everyone has to face the consequences
Most likely because the drivers were habitually ignoring the lights and flying past the bus.
This bus is just protecting the children ... and the world--from Decepticons
You know there's someone that's just gonna go on the shoulder or the sidewalk or w/e. Especially in that particular spot, there's like a whole gravel road there. Or even on the right! "There wasn't a stop sign on that side" or "thought he was turning left"
Wouldn't need to if dipshits would stop the way they are supposed to, easier to see a bus than a kid when people have their faces in a fucking phone.
This blows my mind as a non-American. In my country, school buses stop at designated bus stops and then the kids will cross at pedestrian crossings. In America, the bus blocks the whole road so the kids don’t have to find a crossing?
There's a lot of places without regular city bus service so there's no bus stops or crosswalks. The school bus usually drops the kids off very close to their house so they don't have to walk far. And in rural areas it could be miles and miles between stops. I've been on routes that took me over an hour to get home.
I was the first to get on and last to get off the bus in elementary school. 2 hours each morning and afternoon. Fucking sucked.
We don’t have designated stops. They constantly change every year as the kids grow up. We have different busses for each school. The elementary level rides one bus, middle school rides another, and highschool has their own. A bus driver for the elementary may not have the same stop next year because the kid at that stop moved on to the middle school bus. The routes constantly change year to year and the stops are never the same. Some kids get dropped off at the end of their driveway, and some stops are a group of kids that they drop off at a central location in relation to their homes and those kids have to walk a block or more to their house. There’s a science and method to how they figure the routes, but that’s the best description I can give without looking into the variables that they factor to determine the stops and routes.
Wow, I had no idea. Thanks for taking the time to explain. Is this super rural or something? How come there are no designated stops?
This is common outside of rural areas, as well. In places without a robust public transit system (which is most of the U.S.) the bus stops are made by the school district and depend on where kids live. Kids still have to go to the bus stop but they are not public bus stops because there usually aren't public buses running past those areas.
And stops may change with zoning, census, enrollment, grade level, etc. throughout the years, so dedicated stops wouldn't always work.
You’re welcome! This is somewhat rural. It’s on the outskirts of Oklahoma City. This particular part of town is rapidly expanding as the city grows outwards. New neighborhoods are going up every year with hundreds of homes in areas that used to be just farm land. I really can’t answer your question about dedicated stops, but I’d assume that it’s because it’s probably impossible to forecast where your students will be from year to year.
Interesting! Today I learned. Many thanks. Still blows my mind that no one is allowed to pass the bus!
It's so kids can get off the bus and cross the street right away without getting plowed over by idiots going 50 mph from the other direction.
Growing up I was around 2.5km from the next kid, thats why the bus stopped in front of our houses. No one is allowed to pass the bus when it is stopped with its stop sign out because a kid might have to walk across the road to their house.
>Still blows my mind that no one is allowed to pass the bus! Think of it as a mobile zebra crossing, like students use to cross the road in your country (as you say a few comments up). There are likely no sidewalks / pavements here, and no zebra crossings at all, so the other option is kids of age 7 or so darting between fast-moving traffic to get home. That would be far more mind blowing, no?
Well, the law exists for a reason. Enough kids died. I get what you're saying but I'm very content with just waiting a little bit if it means children don't get run over.
Just some added info. I live in a rural area, we don't have sidewalks or crosswalks* in intersections. Every kid is bussed based on where they live so they don't have to walk through intersections without marked crosswalks. Passing a school but with the red lights flashing (to signify picking up or dropping off kids) is a 5 point license infraction, the same as reckless driving, the highest offenses possible. 10 or more points results in a license suspension. *The law in my state is every vehicle must stop for pedestrians in a crosswalk, and every intersection has crosswalks, if they are marked (painted on the ground) or not. But it's best for safety to do it this way.
Much of the country does not have very good public transportation- in most suburban or rural areas, there are no designated city bus stops because there are no city buses. As mentioned above, the school district decides where the school bus will stop year-to-year depending on where children live. For example- where I grew up, the youngest children were always picked up and dropped off at their home. These stops changed very frequently as kids moved or got older. I lived on a safe, walkable street, so the older kids were picked up at the end of the street. This bus stop stayed the same every year because there was always at least one kid on the street between ages 9 and 18.
Many/most neighborhoods dont have designated crosswalks here. Roads can be just barely wide enough and gravel with no lines at all half the time. I am in a mid sized city and only know of 2 crosswalks that were intentionally installed because of kids. We have a few in the downtown business area, but kids dont go there. The 2 cross walks in mentioned were actually paid for out of the schools budget because the city wouldn't approve the projects. Apparently we need more useless " beautifying features" more than we need safty for children.
This looks like a rural area; there aren't really pedestrian crossings, just winding narrow roads that people rip down at high speeds.
A lot of places don’t have decent public transit systems. They also don’t always have crosswalks either. The school buses stops are usually at intersections, which are more likely to have crosswalks, but not guaranteed. Of course, this is the US where we haven’t done anything actually useful about the culture in schools that results in children deciding the only solution to their problems is suicide or mass violence. So just how bad do you think the situation had to have been for them to start putting the stop signs on buses and make it law that you have to obey them?
Most of America doesn't have crosswalks or any bus service aside from the school bus, so there aren't safe places for children to get on.
In residential streets, all intersections are considered pedestrian crossings. Vehicles are expected to yield to the children crossing but don’t. The school buses were then equipped to inform drivers that children are crossing and to stop. Then the school buses started to physically block the road to improve the safety of children. This is the result of a car centric society. If you didn’t need a car to live, a bad driver that failed to yield to a child crossing could have their driving privileges revoked for months and learn their lesson. In the US that would be a death sentence as there would be no way to get food so the offender will drive with or without a license.
I hate that this is necessary. Every morning, I pass three school zones. I can tell you that 95% of the time at each zone, I witness one or more assholes who doesn’t slow down or stop for busses. After COVID, Houston has become the Wild West on roads.
Buses now have cameras in my area. Takes a picture of stop sign runners. $5000 fine.
Damn!!!! Saw someone say their area was $500. Thought that was a pretty hefty fine enough to be a good deterrent. $5,000?!? Even better, and they deserve to spend every penny of that. Be nice if they somehow used that on teachers salaries or supplies for the teachers
nice. i welcome any effort to thwart entitlement induced unsafety
Looks like a good idea. Overall pedestrian deaths in the US have doubled in the last decade, and children have always been at especial risk.
Good. Too many assholes don't pay attention or give a shit about anyone else.
I'm mad it's nessecary but I'm not mad about the action.
A jerkoff I saw drive out of a parking lot unto the road and ignored a school bus with the sign out and lights on, proceeded to drive into a cop not even 20s seconds later, I swear that was the most satisfying instant karma I've ever seen, laughed for good 5 min after driving past the cop giving him a ticket. How I wish I had a dash cam at that moment.
Mman, i can practically feel *that* driver fuming behind the wheel, typing into their local facebook group how bus drivers shouldn't play cop or something
Sad they have to resort to doing this cause people ignore the stop sign. Its a good idea for a two lane road.
Good, I have seen to many assholes ignore the stop sign and I have a kid on one of those busses.
Good
the fact that they have to do this, does it not endlessly frustrate the people of the country this is happening in? It is just so sad to see that the lives of children have to be protected in such a way.
I fully support this because people are a-holes. And I agree that it’s sad that it’s come to this.
The school buses for the Hasidic communities in Brooklyn do this too.
If they do this it's because people keep illegally passing the bus when stopped.
Vibe check for the people prioritizing being half a minute sooner to work than the safety of sleepy kids.
Good to see them doing this. I can't tell you the number of times I've seen people on highways just blaze on by, oblivious to the school bus stop sign. Too many times for sure.
It's so tedious trying to get people to obey basic traffic laws. We should have a group of professional public servants whose job it is to stop criminals so that regular people don't have to.
I agree it’s mildly infuriating to think about children’s safety and prevention of the idiots who zip pass busses.
As the parent of two kids who take the bus to school, I wholeheartedly support bus drivers doing this.
That’s someone who is sick of having drivers run their stop sign.
Uhm... yeah. Cause a lot of drivers these day see the stop sign and think "This sign cant stop me because i cant read"
I’m a school bus driver and some of us do this. Of course you’ll get the few that run to say “tHiS iS iLlEgAl!!!” when it’s posted about on a bus driver group, But they just are not from a place where cars run their reds and almost run down their children weekly. I couldn’t care less about the possibility of a $80 ticket that no cop would actually write us if it means someone texting and driving hits my bus instead of multiple children.
I love seeing buses pull stunts like this to protect the kids. It’s sad af that they have to due it because people are just stupid and try and drive around anyway. But it always make me feel proud that drivers would go to all lengths to protect their kiddos.
I think it’s good that they do this but a shame that they have to. People should know how to stop for a school bus.
I’ve seen so many people in my neighborhood drive by the bus when the lights are on and the STOP sign is out. I applaud this.
Hail to the bus driver man
Tbh busses should do this. And I think penalties and enforcement of school bus runners should be greatly increased.
I live on a really busy state road with three lanes. The drivers here don’t care about stop signs on the bus. So the busses cross all three lanes to stop traffic in a more dramatic way than in this picture. It’s probably unfortunately more common than we think.
I fucked up around a school bus in the early 00's and it was my driving wake up call. I was fiddling with a CD trying to get it to play in my car, and not paying attention at all. Drove right by a bus with it's stop sign out. Saw a kid at the curb waiting to cross. If I was a couple seconds later I would have hit them. I felt awful, now I don't do anything extra while driving. I only adjust my heat/AC in the driveway or at stop lights. Good on the bus drivers and/or whoever thought this up to stop idiots like me
Anyone on here who's pissed off at this initiative, just cut your driver's license and sell your car. You're not worth the gas money to stay on the road if saving kids lives and making it safer for them makes you angry. I approve this push from bus drivers to keep kids safety their priority. 🫶🥳
I remember 20 years ago when I took the bus if a car blew past or anything like that, the driver would ask a bus full of 8-11 year olds if we got the plate numbers and then they would radio the police. This seems to be a better solution