We know that the wheels on the bus go round and round, and the wipers go swish, swish, swish. But why are they yellow? Why not red, blue, or even green?
The main reason why school buses are yellow is safety! They are painted bright yellow to stand out on the road. The colour, along with a ton of other safety features, helps make school buses the safest form of student transportation!
Yellow is more visible in a dark environment and at a distance. According to the American National Standards Institute, people can see yellow objects in their peripheral field (the outer area of the field of vision) 1.24 times better than red. Plus, the wavelength of this colour is special. School bus yellow hits the cone photoreceptors in our eyes just right, making it hard to miss. And it's easy to read black lettering on it, too.
We have a professor named Frank Cyr to thank for the yellow school bus design unique to North America. (He thought the sunny shade was more orange than yellow, though.) He did a study of school transportation in different parts of the United States. Kids were riding in all sorts of vehicles, from wagons to trucks. There were no design or safety standards. So in 1939, he organized a conference to create those standards, including picking the signature colour.
Some believe that yellow affects the left side of our brain more. The left brain is associated with reasoning and right-hand control. Yellow is also linked to energy and alertness, which helps drivers make good decisions.
School buses look different around the world. For example, in Germany, some buses are white and blue. In Japan, there are buses modelled after cartoon characters like Hello Kitty or Pikachu! If you got to design a school bus, what would it look like?