History of the Yellow School Bus
Rohrer Bus has been in the transportation business since the early 1920s. From the horse and wagon to wooden school buses and the yellow version we all know today, Rohrer Bus has been family-owned through it all. Today, Rohrer Bus is in its fourth generation of ownership and provides many more services than just transporting students.
School Transportation Before the Yellow Bus
It’s hard to think about what school transportation was like back in the 1900s — that’s because there wasn’t much of it. Students either walked or took a horse-drawn carriage to school if they had access to one. In the early 1920s, Howard E. Rohrer Sr. began taking children to school with his own horse and wagon in Allen’s Cove, Pennsylvania. This eventually evolved into building some wooden school bus bodies on top of a car chassis.
The bus evolution happened in many different parts of the country at different rates, and many of the buses looked very different than they do today. Some resembled carriages and were open to the elements, while others looked like very small versions of the buses we know today. These buses were all different colors, and some places were still using horses in the 1930s.
Meanwhile, a man named Frank W. Cyr was conducting studies of school transportation and promoting school bus standardization.
School Bus Conference of 1939 and the History of the Yellow Bus
The most important year in school bus history is 1939 because that was the beginning of establishing national standards for school buses in America. This is when Cyr took his many years of experience and deliberated on how to make school buses safer and more standardized.
To make buses safer, he wanted all to have the same bright color. During this conference, strips of many different colors were hung on the wall until the participants narrowed it down to the color they thought was the best — this is why school buses are yellow today.
The standardization process also involved setting body lengths, ceiling heights, and even aisle widths. This would go on to help schools save money, because the specifications made mass production possible.
Modern Day School Bus Transportation
Today, many of those standards have changed, and more have been added — but the one constant is the yellow color, which is ingrained in the history of the school bus.
The National Congress on School Transportation meets about every five years to vote on updated school bus specifications and procedures. Potential changes include mobile apps to track buses, a switch to electric buses and even a new color, though these have not been voted into standards yet.
Contact Rohrer Bus for Transportation Services
Rohrer Bus offers more than just student transportation — which currently uses over 1,200 vehicles. We have small, wheelchair-accessible passenger vans, huge 90-passenger buses and many options in between for anyone who needs transportation services. If you require transportation for a party, trip or wedding, contact us today!
