School buses are yellow. We all know that, but why is that?
Today, an estimated 26 million students in the United States use a yellow bus to get to school every day.
I mean, those of you who aren’t Americans know from the countless movies you’ve seen that American school buses are yellow.
But of course the yellow school buses are not thanks to the movies, but to a man named Frank Cyr.
School buses weren’t always yellow. (Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In the 1930s, Cyr conducted a study on school traffic and found that students traveled to school in vehicles of all kinds and colors.
In 1939, it was decided that a solid color would be appropriate for school buses, so in April of that year a group of industry experts and engineers met for a conference.
Cyr and many others believed that a standard color scheme for school buses would improve safety while reducing costs because manufacturers could mass-produce the buses.
Some states had already introduced yellow buses before the new standard was decided, but it wasn’t long before all school buses in the United States were yellow.
Minnesota was the last state to adopt the standards, trading its “Minnesota Golden Orange” for yellow in 1974.
Regarding the condition of school buses before the new standards came into effect, Cyr acknowledged that local districts were “in trouble.”
“All the local districts told me they were in trouble. They all said the state had standards for vehicle manufacturing and were constantly changing them,” he said at the conference, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The color change improved safety. (Getty Stock Photo)
Cyr added: “The ministries were even more dissatisfied. They lacked the expertise. They did not know how to set standards.”
“I’ve visited bus companies and they’ve had more problems than anyone else,” Cyr continued, dealing with the different rules, requirements and preferences of the 48 states.
“The bus companies had to set up different booths for painting each color.”
Much like the legendary red buses of London, the yellow US school buses have stood the test of time.
Cyr had previously stated that this was due to the incredible track record of improving the bus’s safety since its introduction.
And remembering what school buses looked like before the yellow color was introduced, Cyr concluded, “If you think about it, red, white and blue was a camouflage. It was meant to instill patriotism in the kids. It was well-intentioned, but it made the buses less visible. And I don’t think it really had much of an impact on patriotism.”
