Why Are School Buses Yellow?
They could have made school buses any color, but why was yellow chosen?
They could have made school buses any color: red, green, purple, white with stripes, or rainbow. Why, then, are school buses yellow? Was it because yellow is a happy color, and kids love going to school? Afraid not. The yellow color on a school bus originated for some practical reasons, most of which were safety-related.
The official descriptive color of a school bus is National School Bus Glossy Yellow. The original color, called National School Bus Chrome, was changed because the paint contained lead in its pigment. It originated in 1939 after Dr. Frank W. Cyr, a university professor at Columbia University in New York, held a conference that officially established the parameters and standards for school bus construction. This included the paint color of the buses.
Each state (which numbered 48 at the time) was in attendance at the conference, and the National Bureau of Standards (which is now the National Institute of Standards and Technology) set the color as the standard for all school buses. It was then officially known as Federal Standard №595a, Color 13432. A 42-page pamphlet ultimately emerged from the conference, establishing the standards for how school buses would be painted and manufactured going forward.
The color was adopted because black lettering was easy to see in the early morning hours and during the late afternoon. It was also chosen because the color yellow is easily visible in someone’s peripheral vision, is luminous, and has excellent contrast on a variety of backgrounds.
Paint experts from Pittsburgh Paints and DuPont collaborated on the shade, along with school bus manufacturers who established standards for the construction of buses. They were funded by a $5,000 grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.
Before 1939, school buses were painted in a range of colors since there was no standard color scheme. Kids were even being moved to school on horse-drawn wagons. Interestingly, the first “school bus” was built in 1827 in London, United Kingdom. It was designed to carry 25 children.
School buses weren’t the first mode of public transportation to use the yellow color, however. As early as 1914, the Yellow Cab Company, founded by John D. Hertz, a notable figure in the rental car industry, used the color yellow on all its cars as a means to brand its business. It is not known whether this had any influence on school buses eventually becoming yellow.
So when you see a yellow school bus, first remember to stop and be satisfied knowing why they’re painted that distinctive yellow color. Then ponder the idea that you could have been staring at a pink and purple polka-dotted bus if the meeting in 1939 had never taken place.
Additional Fact: School buses aren’t yellow worldwide. Germany uses white and blue school buses, while Poland uses orange buses, and Australia uses a variety of colors for its buses.
Sources: School Bus history, Ocala-Star Banner