A management & maintenance magazine for school transportation fleets
Issue link: https://sbf.epubxp.com/i/402970
54 S C H O O L B U S F L E E T • N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 4 This is a best practice that China uses and that operations in the U.S. should consider. While certain school districts, like Buffalo Public Schools in New York state, have a similar situation with a monitor/attendant on every regular-education bus, this is not com- mon in most places within our coun- try. Driving a school bus is a demand- ing job, and having another adult on the bus (teacher or monitor/attendant) appears to be much safer, as the driver can focus on the most dangerous mile, the one ahead, instead of balancing at- tention between highway challenges and passenger distractions. U.S. model doesn't ft all While China is learning the benefts of using a yellow school bus from the U.S., our eight-way fashing lights that control traffc will not work in their country due to extreme traffc conges- tion. However, the concept of using yellow as a unifed color does make sense, along with increasing bus safety and school bus driver and student safe- ty training, highlighting how it can re- duce injuries and fatalities. Dr. James Wang, his professors and his students were gracious hosts and engaged in discussions about the dif- ferences between our transportation systems and Chinese school buses. As an example, in China every school bus is required to have a teacher ride the bus to ensure that discipline is main- tained. It is hard to imagine this hap- pening in the U.S. for every one of our approximately 480,000 school buses. This summer, Peter Lawrence (center) and Dick Fischer (right) traveled to China to present school bus safety information. At left, Dr. Lu Baichuan interprets.