It’s hard to imagine a society without school buses. The big yellow bus has been ferrying children to school, to field trips, and safely back home for generations. While school buses aren’t usually associated with the latest in technological breakthroughs, the modern school bus is full of new features many parents don’t expect. Today’s buses are safer and more efficient than ever.
A Brief History of School Buses
School buses as we know them only appeared in the 1970s, although they underwent quite an evolution along the way. The oldest records we have of something resembling a bus come from the mid-1880s. They came in the form of a horse-drawn wagon called “kid hacks” — a nickname for hackney carriage. In the past, children had just walked to school or taken their family’s horse. But growing rural populations and an increase in school attendance necessitated a way to transport more children at once.
Hacks didn’t last long in the fast-moving world of automobile development. By the 1920s, Model Ts had become the basis for motorized student transportation. Bus bodies shifted from wood to steel paneling as buses became a viable long-term transport option for workers and students.
Up until the late 1930s, manufacturers built school buses to whatever specifications they desired. At that point, educator Frank W. Cyr decided that students deserved a standard for safety in transportation.
In 1939, Cyr organized the very first school transportation conference, where a group of concerned officials and representatives decided on 44 standards to implement in all school buses going forward. The standards governed every detail of a bus, from the spacing between seats to the overall size of the body.
Most of the original standards have fallen by the wayside, but the bright yellow paint job remains. As the original safety standard, the uniform yellow reminds us that school buses are first and foremost designed to protect students. Today, student transport has more safety features than ever thanks to robust growth in school bus technology trends.
Real-Time GPS Tracking
GPS tracking was one of the first major technology advancements for school buses and has made the most significant impact so far.
For parents, GPS tracking offers a substantial increase in peace of mind. Almost 62 percent of families with children have both parents employed, so time spent worrying about where the bus is can significantly impact scheduling and stress levels for parents.
With some forms of GPS tracking, parents can simply check on the bus location from an app. There’s no more standing outside for 45 minutes, waiting for a late bus that still may not arrive for some time.
In addition to the convenience for parents, school bus GPS offers safety benefits to students. In areas prone to heavy inclement weather, students are at risk of unnecessary exposure.
In Arizona, temperatures regularly reach a maximum average of 98°F in May. For the students waiting for a bus home in the afternoon, a few extra minutes of exposure can cause heat stroke. On the other side of the thermometer, waiting for buses in the cold increases the chances of kids catching frostbite or other cold-related ailments.
1. Operator Benefits
School bus drivers benefit from GPS, too. Paper maps and comprehensive knowledge of the route area are no longer enough to maximize efficiency. With traffic congestion growing in all areas of the country and more drivers using GPS, it’s no longer possible to find the fastest and most efficient routes via traditional analog methods.
With school bus GPS navigation, new drivers don’t get lost and overwhelmed by school bus driver job duties, and experienced drivers enjoy the guarantee of having the quickest route provided. GPS helps drivers focus on staying safe and proactive on the road.
For fleet management, GPS provides cost-saving safety features. These systems can document improper driving patterns such as speeding, sudden braking, and deviation from the route. Many insurance companies consider GPS systems anti-theft tools and offer lower premiums for buses that have them.
There’s also an environmental benefit — GPS tracking reduces unnecessary drive time by optimizing routes, thereby decreasing fuel usage. It can also reduce unnecessary idling time.
The advantages of GPS tracking offer equal benefit to parents, students, drivers, and the companies who manage bus fleets. It’s difficult to picture a more significant advancement in technology for school buses.
Stop-Arm Cameras
The stop-arm was one of the most significant innovations early on in school bus technology development. Unfortunately, this invention was born of necessity when it became clear that increasingly speedy drivers needed an extra nudge to stay safe around buses loading or unloading children.
The typical stop-arm has not changed since its implementation in the 1950s. A red stop sign attached to the driver’s side of the bus extends when children are in the boarding process. Historically, the stop-arm was operated by the bus driver independently of the doors. Today, the stop-arm sign may or may not come out automatically when doors open, and usually has one or more flashing lights to draw attention.
Despite a big red stop sign and flashing lights, dangerous drivers still blow by and endanger students in the process. Even the fact that passing a stop-arm sign is highly illegal in all 50 states has not deterred this reckless behavior. One of the largest-scale surveys on stop-arm violations revealed some terrifying statistics.
1. Overwhelming Violations
The study took place in Illinois under the guidance of the state’s Department of Transportation (DOT). The Division of Traffic Safety (DTS) surveyed 135 school bus drivers. The drivers recorded every instance of stop-arm violations over a period of 41 school days. In those 41 days, drivers recorded a total of 3,450 violations. The DTS extrapolated these findings and found that the number of stop-arm violations worked out to more 1.9 million annually.
Needless to say, the inherent danger in ignoring stop signs for kids boarding or leaving buses is astronomical. The problem is creating accountability. A bus driver has little recourse when it comes to reporting stop-arm violations, and law enforcement can’t assign a squad car to follow every bus in the nation.
School bus stop-arm cameras offer the best deterrent. These systems integrate with stop-arm systems and feature a camera placed near the stop sign.
2. How Do School Bus Stop-Arm Cameras Work?
Stop-arm cameras generally record continuously. Here is the process to capture illegal driving in action:
Illegal Passing: It all starts with someone deciding to bypass the stop-arm. A sensor fixated underneath the stop-arm activates when a vehicle passes by while the bus is stopped, the stop-arm is engaged, and flashing lights are on.
Camera Capture: The system has two cameras, one facing each direction to capture traffic passing both ways. The cameras are positioned to record license plates as the violators speed by.
Data Tagging: The system automatically tags the video recording with pertinent information such as GPS location, date and time of the violation.
Upload: Depending on the camera service, the violation is uploaded to a central server or into a cloud-based solution for storage.
Review: Once the video finishes processing, the evidence can be provided to local law enforcement. The amount of manual review required to create an evidence package differs by department. Someone may need to create the package, or the process may be automated.
Owners and operators may be concerned about school bus stop-arm camera cost, but the reduction in liability offers savings on insurance. Most importantly, when taking into account the extra measure of safety for the children and deterrence these cameras supply, the results are invaluable.
Onboard WiFi
You may think of onboard WiFi as a luxury add-on for cruises or cross-country flights. Until recently, you would have been right—but WiFi is an increasingly popular addition to school bus transportation technology. It’s not there so students can relax after school and scroll social media feeds — it’s an innovative solution to a significant educational issue.
As education moves into the digital age, some students are being left behind. More and more homework has an online component, whether it be basic research or the use of specific applications to complete assignments.
It may seem like every household these days is equipped with WiFi, but researchers are finding this is not the case. The Pew Research Center found that five million families with school-age kids lack access to reliable Internet in the household. These three statistical insights help fill out the picture:
- 31.4 percent of households with annual income under $50,000 lack high-speed Internet.
- This low-income group constitutes 40 percent of families with kids in school.
- Low-income students are four times more likely to lack high-speed Internet compared to middle and high-income households.
Researchers are calling this digital divide “the homework gap,” and it visibly affects learning performance. In light of the homework gap, WiFi on school buses just makes sense.
Students in rural areas benefit the most from school bus Internet access. They are some of the most likely to lack Internet access at home, and they often face extremely long bus rides. Being able to occupy a previously unstructured time with homework represents a significant step toward bridging the gap.
1. Safety and Security in School Bus WiFi
Of course, kids will be kids and tend to get distracted. Internet access on school buses only works if it’s designed to keep students out of trouble. School bus WiFi offers compliance with the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and the ability to filter the sites students can access.
Filter control can range from blocking a few specific sites to blocking everything but a few select educational sites. When students know the fun stuff is inaccessible, they often choose to use their time for homework so they can save valuable recreation time for later.
2. School Bus WiFi in the Real World
The concept of school bus WiFi still seems far-out to some, but plenty of examples populate the real world.
Google’s “Rolling Study Halls” program equips buses with all the equipment necessary for safe Internet access, with the express goal of helping rural students close the homework gap. Their first pilot program launched in North Carolina in 2016. Partnering with a leading provider of school bus technology, Google outfitted 11 buses with WiFi.
The results of the experiment were so immediate and so promising that the program has expanded to South Carolina and Colorado. On-bus WiFi isn’t an impractical luxury. It’s a way to extend the classroom and provide students with expanded learning opportunities.
Motion Detectors
When transporting multiple children in a large vehicle, there are some inherent safety complications. One nightmare situation is when a child gets stuck on a bus. Drivers are expected to check the whole bus for stray students at the end of every route and before returning the bus to the yard. For the most part, this measure works.
Unfortunately, neglect is always possible when one human is the only safeguard. In 2015, a non-verbal autistic teen died after a bus driver failed to perform the required check. The student was left on the bus for hours as the temperature climbed to 96°F, and was pronounced dead on site.
This genuinely horrifying case makes a compelling reason to provide students with every protection possible. Had this bus contained a basic motion detector, it could have alerted the company that an individual was still on board.
1. External Motion Detection
Buses are massive, and even an expert driver can’t see what’s all around them at all times. It only takes a split second for a child to run into a danger zone where the driver can’t see them, and tragedy can sometimes, unfortunately, ensue.
Due to such a tragedy, New Jersey implemented a law requiring that all newly manufactured school buses contain motion sensing technology capable of sensing when something passes by or blocks the front or back of the bus. Known as “Abigail’s Law,” the bill was written after a bus struck two-year-old Abigail Kuberiet as she stood in front of it.
2. Cutting-Edge Sensitivity
The level of sensitivity available in school bus motion detection technology varies. Some AI-powered solutions can detect the faintest signs of movement, including the faint signs of breathing and heartbeat. Originally developed for passenger cars, this sensitive system partners with school bus telematics capabilities to alert the bus driver and fleet operator if a child is left on board.
Explore Your Options
Technology advancements for school buses continue to provide exceptional value to schools, parents and students. The variety of equipment options allows any fleet to improve on its safety and operations efficiency.
Whether you’re part of a school district looking to enhance learning outcomes and opportunities for students, or a fleet owner intent on saving money on insurance and maintenance costs, Rohrer Bus offers a solution.
If you have questions, contact us, and we’ll happily walk you through the answers. Are you looking for a safe, dependable bus for an event? Our bus rental service has you covered. Or, maybe you’re an individual seeking a career driving safe and reliable vehicles. Stop by and fill out our short form to learn more about our bus driving opportunities. No matter your needs, Rohrer Bus is your best source for all things buses!
