Short Stuff: School Bus Yellow | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and there's Jerry. and the driver's seat just hopping along. bouncing along in our little stuff you. should know school bus two quick. questions off the top did you ever have. to ride a school bus to school with. regularity got two words for that oh yes. and please tell me you do do you. remember the name of your school bus. driver uh I got a several words no I.

feel really bad that I don't now that. you asked but no I don't remember the. name of my school bus driver oh that's. okay you may have had several uh I have. a theory that like a school bus driver. if you have the same one as one of those. that kind of sticks with you MH uh I. even though my dad was my principal I. usually rode to work with Dad um but I. did ride the school bus some because you. want to as a kid some uh Ruby's dying to. ride a school bus but they don't have. one at her school and it's always sad. when she sees them uh but I had Mr.

Wagman was my school bus driver which is. interesting now that I think of it. because before school buses you might. have been taken to school in a. wagon that was pretty good segue man. it's been a little while yeah it's true. uh until the 1930s the late 30s actually. the 40s probably yeah um if you were a. rural kid a ro juror or the kid a rare.

juror and you wanted to get to school. you very well may have been taken to. school in a a horse and and buggy. essentially or a cart a farm cart maybe. a truck who knows whatever could get you. to school that's what you got to school. in because there was no federal um. system or. standardization across the United States. there was whatever your school district. could think of to get you to school and. even trying to get you to school was a. fairly New Concept in the early 20th.

century after industrialization Drew. everyone to the cities yeah because your. school was in the city that's where most. people were you know before that it was. like good luck getting to school now it. was like okay we really need to get you. to school because we have to train you. to work in these factories dum dum. exactly uh thankfully there was a. gentleman uh and this is just kind of. the perfect short stuff why we invented. short stuff was because of topics like. this like why are school buses yellow uh. it's because of a man named Frank here.

uh. cyr he was born in a rural area he was. raised on a farm in Nebraska and as he. grew up he got a bee in his Bonnet to. advocate for the education of people in. rural areas uh he was a professor at. Teachers College Columbia University and. he started studying school. transportation he was like I'm sure he. was like you know what I got taken to. school in a in a a truck maybe or maybe. it was even a wagon back then yeah and. we got a real hit Miss system going on.

here so we need to protect kids keep. them safe on the way to school and a. good way to start that is N9 years later. in 1939 he organized a conference in New. York City yeah about improving and. standardizing the American School Bus. yeah and it was a success he didn't just. get crickets back he got a lot of people. Educators people who were in charge of. transportation for their counties um. people who made buses showed up in New.

York City in that 1939 conference and he. said okay let's create these standards. um and by the end of this conference we. going to have come up with standards for. school buses throughout the entire. United States and now it's just like you. know big whoop but if you go back and. think about it especially that this just. didn't exist and he created it out of. thin air it's a pretty cool. accomplishment actually because he was. successful. immediately yeah absolutely uh that's. why you know when you get on a school. bus you're you're going to have the same.

width of the aisle uh the seats are. going to be basically the same the the. doors and the dimensions of this stuff. are going to be the same but what Frank. SE is really really known for is school. bus yellow or the official name is. National School Bus glossy yellow pretty. great name I love it it's a mouthful but. the reason that um that that was part of. the standardization too was uh as Frank. Sear's son William put it that whenever.

um you saw a bus that color you'd think. okay there's a bunch of kids going. somewhere yeah you just associate it. with it so that meant they needed an. eye-catching color that wasn't already. widely used that they could associate. with school buses and that's exactly. what they came up with yeah so as The. Story Goes uh Seer was looking at colors. in his office was really drawn to all. these colors on the orange Spectrum um. different kinds of yellows yellow greens.

stuff like that uh because he wanted. something that stood out and at that. 1939 meeting he brought 50 geez he. narrowed it down to 50 choices I. probably would have brought like three. maybe but he brought 50 choices hung. them on the wall and said all right we. need a special committee we're all going. to decide on this and they chose that. sort of yellowish orange color uh. originally called National School Bus. Chrome and that was it he published a 42.

Page booklet saying here's the standards. that we're proposing and that pamphlet. was school bus yellow yeah uh I say we. take a break and when we come back we'll. explain why that was such a great color. for sear to pick Let's Do. [Music]. It.

okay Chuck so um Frank seir and uh his. conference members at that 1939. conference they came up with 44. dimensions for the school bus or 44. standards for the school bus and one of. them was school bus glossy yellow and uh. Frank Seer was not a safety expert he. was not a visual scientist he was not an. opthalmologist he he didn't know.

anything but he had a good gut for. picking out what color would be the best. one to pick um and that yellow was a. really great color because as um this. guy who's interviewed Dr Stephen Solomon. he's an optometrist and founder of a. company called visibility and motion. which is a Consulting Group he said that. yellows are most easily seen by the. human eye not just for any like gen like. people with normal Vision but even if.

you have red green color deficiency you. still see yellow and he he basically. said like Frank Seer stumble the pond. essentially the perfect safe. color yeah that's awesome I love it um. the reason why yellow is so visible is. because um it stimulates both the red. and the green cones we've got red green. and blue cones and it just sets two of. them a flame right so even if you have. red green color blindness you can't. differentiate red or green yellow says.

hey what about neither and you can still. see. yellow I love it so it works for almost. everybody I imagine there's somebody. that probably can't see yellow right. yeah I guess but they're probably just. being contrary yeah maybe so uh Frank. seir passed away in 1995 but obviously. was able to see his vision I imagine. every time Frank sear was out on the. road and saw one of those yellow school. buses he probably felt a little little. warmth in his tum tums I know I would so.

these days any school bus in the United. States of America that is sold or lease. uh they have to meet all those Federal. safety standards and be painted that. color uh I I do think it's funny and. we're going to cover this kind of. quickly that uh and this is something. I've always wondered that they got. together they said all right let's get. 44 standards width of stuff height of. stuff uh but we're all in agreement no. seat belts right I know it's crazy I've.

always wondered about that but it kind. of makes sense when it's explained here. and by the way big thanks to Dave ruse. this is one of his uh short articles. from houso forks.com MH uh but school. buses don't drive super fast uh they. don't hit like when they when they are. in an accident it's usually not the kind. of thing where like uh there's a very. fast stop uh they're heavy they're slow. they don't stop suddenly if there's an.

accident I mean they plow through. whatever they're hitting is in reality. what happens so the seat belt like for a. kid 15 rows back uh plowing through a a. Prius at 23 mil an hour that kid's not. going to go go flying you know 18 ft. through the front windshield that kid. will just be like hey watch the speed. bumps Mr Wagman yeah uh but school buses. are very heavily regulated and very safe. they are C uh compartment minized so you.

know those seats are very closely spaced. for that reason they have energy. absorbing backs for that reason uh. there's all sorts of rollover protection. and Crush standards and stuff like that. so school buses are safe they just don't. have seat belts statistically speaking. they're safe too apparently in the. United States uh every any given weekday. 26 million American kids ride to school. on a school bus and I looked up a lot of. trouble finding this but I'm pretty sure.

what I found was that that's more than. 20% of the people on the road in the. United States in any given weekday wow. and yet it represents less than 1% of. all traffic fatalities now was that Rush. Hour stats I don't know man I tried. really hard I couldn't find anything. nuan like that I basically had to Cobble. it together myself so what I found was. that on the on the road um something. like 36% of Americans Drive any given.

day so I took that and um figured out. how many Americans there are what's 36%. of that what percentage is 26 million of. that number and that's where I came up. with more than 20% no no no I like it I. think it tracks and I think that we will. definitely hear from someone who uh. thinks they have found a better way to. calculate that but just the eyeball test. when I'm driving uh Ruby to school in. the morning we see a lot of school buses. oh yeah they're everywhere you do not. want to get behind one no and you do.

want to stop though if that arm goes out. because that is a I don't know if it's. true but I heard that that. is like the second worst moving. violation you can get behind like a DUI. I don't know if that's true but I know. it is a a hefty fine they don't take. lightly it seems like it should be and I. mean even if the cops don't get you. there's people who will chase you in. their car if they see you do that it's a. really gross violation of like social. standards it is you don't do that no.

you're like I don't care about. children's lives is what you're saying I. need to get to. Starbucks I need to get to to Cracker. Barrel I need to get somewhere that's. more important than a child's life is. what you're shouting at everyone you. know who else didn't care about. children's lives was that guy who uh. kidnapped that school bus yellow school. bus in Chowchilla yeah buried that thing. that's right uh you got anything else no. that's a past episode Chowchilla school. kidnapping look it up it's great yeah.

heads off to Frank sear and heads off to. short stuff which is. app stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts iHeart Radio visit the iHeart. Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you. listen to your favorite. [Music]. shows.