“The wheels on the bus go round and round”, so goes the British folk song and no doubt with school back in session, it is being sung today in many classrooms. Approximately half of the K-12 students in the United States are transported to and from school each day in school buses. The modern school bus has a long history that dates to the late nineteenth century. Children in rural America attended one-room schools, many students lived too far from the school to walk, so transportation was provided for them. The first vehicles for transporting students were called “kid hacks”. The word, “hack”, referred to a particular type of horse drawn carriages. Usually the kid hacks were modified farm wagons often utilizing benches for seats. The door was in the back to prevent startling the horses when boarding and dropping off students. In 1909, the Parry Manufacturing Company received a patent for improvements to a SCHOOL WAGON (U.S. Patent No. 937,953). One of the improvements provided for in this patent enabled a driver to open and close the rear doors from the driver seat to “prevent accidental injury to playful and mischievous passengers”.
With the introduction of motorized vehicles, kid hacks became motorized as well. The wagons were mounted to truck frames. Frequently, the wagon, or parts of the wagon, were removable so the vehicle, when not being used for student transportation, could transport other things. One example of a patent pertaining to one such convertible vehicle is DETACHABLE TOP AND SEAT FOR SCHOOL WAGONS granted to Fred W. Kruger on March 3, 1922 (U.S. Patent No. 1,409,555).
In the 1930s, a major shift began in the school bus design and configuration. The design transitioned from modified wagons and trucks to singular-purposed vehicles for transporting students. For safety reasons, the entry door was moved to the front and the rear door became an emergency exit. In 1927, A. L. Luce (a Ford dealership owner and future founder of Blue Bird Body Company) produced a wagon body made with steel panels and a wooden frame. Manufacturers such as Wayne Works, took this a step further. They began making all-steel automotive-type designs; they discontinued the wagon-style box. In 1930, Wayne Works produced the first vehicle with an all-steel body permanently mounted on a truck chassis. This combined vehicle became known as a school bus. J. K. Farris was granted a patent for SCHOOL BUS (U.S. Patent No. 2,112,150) on March 22, 1938.
By 1939, it was apparent to Dr. Frank W. Cyr, a rural education expert at Columbia University, standards for school buses were needed to improve design consistency, to reduce the complexity of school bus production and to increase safety. Dr. Cyr organized a conference and invited transportation officials, representatives from body and chassis manufacturers and paint companies. At the conclusion of the conference, 44 standards had been adopted, including a standard paint color known as “school bus yellow”. The color, which has been officially named National School Bus Glossy Yellow, was adopted because it is the easiest to see in the early morning light and at dusk and contrasts well with black lettering.
Improvements and modifications to the school bus abounded through the years largely by the efforts of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and bus industry and safety advocates. More recent modifications include: Improvement in SCHOOL BUS DOOR OPERATOR (U.S. Patent No. 6,264,267); STOP-ARM WITH CAMERA SYSTEM (U.S. Patent No. 9,321,401), and SCHOOL BUS TRACKING AND NOTIFICATION SYSTEM (US 20070024440).
There have been many modifications to the original 44 standards, but one standard remains in tack—the adoption of the color, school bus yellow; it is the shade most associated with school buses in the U.S. and around the world.