What Are The Rules When Driving Near School Buses?

Heather Brown talks with a transportation expert to answer a Good Question on this first day back to school for many Minnesota students (2:17).
WCCO 4 News At 10 - September 4, 2018

[@rongendron8705]

My town (Smithtown, NY) has a school bus stop that generated 2700 violations, or $1,000,000. in fines, last year! Why, because it is on a 50 mph, four lane highway! So, drivers, going at highway speed & in the other direction, over 75 ft. from the school bus, are expected to 'slam on the brakes' & risk a 'rear-end' collision, to stop! I'm against violators, but this law has got to be amended, to take road conditions into consideration!

[@kevinpeterson4098]

Tell the bus drivers to stop turning in front of oncoming traffic at a 4 way when I'm doing the speed limit and the last second they decide to turn in my path or when they ignore stop signs themselves!

[@charleshines7282]

If anything they should be held to higher standards since they are hauling children around. Despite that a lot of people ignore stop signs. I see it all the time and some of them make a left or right turn 90 degrees in either direction without slowing down. The worst thing is it is everywhere.

[@thomasjefferson2934]

What about turning left in front of the bus like in the video?

[@TylerWaid51923]

The video says that the law for this state is that drivers must stop at least 20 feet from the bus. This means that as long as the turn isn't within 20 feet of the bus, it is perfectly legal.

[@charleshines7282]

What about school minivans that don't have the same lights a bus has or the sign that extends out when we should stop? The only clue that is any sort of school vehicle is a small sign that says school students. Other than that they are just the same Chrysler mini van you might own. It is not like the school students sign on them is big or anything. All school vehicles should have reflective markings on them to be seen better from a distance, it would only be safer for the children getting on or off of them or riding on them. If it is intended to be a bus make it look more like one. I am in Pennsylvania just in case the law is different here.

[@smileyattitude6807]

I’m learning to be a bus driver in Oregon and all our buses have reflective tape and should be stopped for when the stop sign is up.

[@JohnWilkenson]

@JohnWilkenson 0 seconds ago If there are bus stops on this road, and if there is any pedestrian traffic at all, then they need to put in traffic calming (chicanes, narrow the roads, raised intersections, bulbs, textured roads, etc.) in order to slow the traffic down. It's easy to chalk this problem up to terrible drivers because that diverts attention away from the real problem - the way American roads are build - but the truth is that most of these drivers aren't any worse than anyone else. They are human and humans have tunnel vision. And the faster people drive, the more tunnel vision they have. Driving 45 or 50 mph on a road many points of conflict means most people subconsciously focus their attention to what is right in front of them, restricting their field of vision and making them less conscious of what is happening a few lanes over. So most of the people who blow past school busses when they are dropping off kids are not lying when they say that they didn't see the bus or the sign. We can't stop being human; everyone makes this kind of mistake. Also, if the road were designed so that cars could only go 20 or 25 mph comfortably, that would not only increase our field of vision resulting in fewer people running the stop sign, but accidents would be far less fatal even when they do occur. A pedestrian hit by a vehicle driving 20 mph has a 90% chance of surviving, while a pedestrian hit by a vehicle traveling 40 mph has only a 10% chance of surviving. Driving behavior is not only a function of personal decisions but of road design, because physics works better than signs (Jason Slaughter, Not Just Bikes).

[@user-ez9ex8hx6v]

Okay 🆗

[@ilianaramirez4335]

👍🚌🛑.

[@variousartist7879]

First

[@lancesmith3716]

School buses and their stupid stop lights are sooo annoying. I NEVER stop.