# School buses



## tvdxer (Feb 28, 2006)

Does your country have special (as opposed to public) buses to transport students to school? 

In the U.S., most school districts run a fleet of school buses to pick up kids who do not live within a short (in my district, about 0.5 km) walking distance of the school. The buses are generally yellow, have the name of the school district who operates them painted on the side, and hold about 70-80 students. At least in my sparsely-populated district, the bus stops at each house (no joke, even if they're 50m apart). In my district, and it seems most others, bus pickup carries no charge, paid for by taxes. I rode "the bus" from kindergarten to the end of eleventh grade (age 5 - 17). For two years I went to a private school; the public school district that the private school was located in picked up private school kids at no charge to them.

Not many students walk or bike to school these days; many schools are located on busy roads, or at least the trek to them would require crossing a busy road (or even highway), and a lot of parents are nervous about child molesters and kidnappers. So for those kids whose parents won't drive them, the bus is the usual means of getting to school.


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## martien (Aug 3, 2005)

In Mexico public school buses are VERY rare. Parents usually drive their kids or they take city buses or metro and those living close, they walk. 

In the other hand, private schools do have school buses/school vans sometimes, specially when the school is out of the urban area.


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## ChrisZwolle (May 7, 2006)

We have virtually NONE in the Netherlands. Here, students cycle to school nearly always, or go with public transportation if they'll get a free PT pass when they're 18.


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

In towns most kids either get driven, walk/cycle or use regular transit buses. In rural areas, kids living over a couple of miles from school get school buses provided free but they're not specially designed ones like you see in the US, just regular buses that are hired from private companies by the local government, the type that might take old people for an excursion to the coast.


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## RawLee (Jul 9, 2007)

School bus?:dunno: I've never seen any. I,from first grade,used to walk to school(it is about 300m away),and when I got into secondary school,I learned using public transport...I was seldom taken there by my father in his car.

BTW,500m?!


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## Jonesy55 (Jul 30, 2004)

> a lot of parents are nervous about child molesters and kidnappers.


This is silly, I know parents want to keep their kids safe but are the Duluth suburbs really full of child molesters and kidnappers?? I doubt it.


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## FREKI (Sep 27, 2005)

tvdxer said:


> Does your country have special (as opposed to public) buses to transport students to school?


Only in the most rural of regions..

Usually people live within walking or biking distance of the schools and if not there's always public transportation available..

Streets are safe here, no need to worry..


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## Rebasepoiss (Jan 6, 2007)

We have school buses, mostly in the countryside where school can sometimes be 10-20km away. But we also have 4 school bus lines to serve recently built suburbs near Tallinn. The population in those areas grew dramatically in the recent years as more and more people moved to suburbia, but the infrastructure, including schools, hasn't been able to catch up so lots of pupils go to school in Tallinn instead. To prevent parents driving to the city just to take their kids to school, Tallinn's city council decided to create school bus lines a couple of years ago. They're ordinary city buses so nothing interesting. The only extra is that they have wireless internet. Don't ask, why:


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## sapmi1 (Jun 10, 2007)

Yep, we have it in Sweden for picking up children in sparsely populated areas. They mostly look like ordinary buses but with this sign. 






































We also have transport for handicapped and physically dysfunctional children. They usually look like this. Sometimes taxi is used.


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## davsot (Dec 27, 2008)

very cool thread!


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## nerdly_dood (Mar 23, 2007)

I'm not particularly fond of US school buses... Yes, they are specially built - but they are built to be economically feasible for the school district - aka "cheap" which results in a rougher ride than city buses or long-haul buses, with a lot of seats crammed in a small space, and buses that use a comercially-produced front end with a Ford, International or Freightliner logo, but the rest of it has absolutely no aesthetics - pure utilitarian and boring.


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## mateq (Jan 15, 2005)

In Poland it's called "Gimbus". There are many kinds of "gimbus'es":

like that:










that:










and that:










but the most are this:










and this:


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## invincible (Sep 13, 2002)

Over here, they're just regular public buses with (or without) the yellow schoolchildren sign stuck on the back. Some schools charter coaches.

Of course, the only schools in urban areas that operate school buses are the private schools (and the public schools that act like private schools). There are public schools everywhere and the majority of students would be able to walk to school in 15 minutes, or cycle there in five. Of course, so many kids these days are so spoiled that they get dropped off anyway.

My university operates a bus service for students between its campuses and I always thought it was quite silly to put the school bus sign with the children icon on the back when all its passengers would be adults.


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## He Named Thor (Feb 15, 2008)

Common U.S. School Bus


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## zaphod (Dec 8, 2005)

I live in the US but my town actually only did school buses for elementary school students living more than 2 miles(3.2 km) away. So most people walked.


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## girlicious_likeme (Jun 12, 2008)

He Named Thor said:


> Common U.S. School Bus


And Canadian, too.


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## bigbossman (Jun 25, 2007)

In London kids under 16 get free travel on the buses, under 18s still in education do as well.. although on the busier corridors dedicated school routes are required, and lots of routes run extra bus during school term time to help with loadings, although all buses are open to everyone not just school kids...


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## Lost Cosmonaut (Feb 10, 2005)

Government has an obligation to provide free transport for all students from public schools here in Brazil.


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## ImBoredNow (Jul 2, 2008)

In some countries, there are no school buses at all, while in India, there are buses for kids in college, since many don't live in dorms, and even factory workers even if they live relatively close.
























Copyright: Farookh Flickr
The Famous








Copyright: John Steedman Flickr








Copyright: Shane o'Rielly Flickr








Copyright: Prem: picasaweb


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## Republica (Jun 30, 2005)

Of course most people in the UK walk to school, younger ones are often driven, 17+ sometimes drive themselves, but there are still school buses. Most town schools have school buses but only 6% of children get to school by *school bus*.

54% of primary school pupils and 32% of secondary school pupils travel to school by either school bus or public transport.

Most school only buses are contracted from local companies. There are quite a few yellow school buses too though:

New buses:









Ex-public transport buses are also converted:


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## Linea2 (Dec 19, 2007)

School buses in Argentina are orange with white top, the legend ESCOLAR is painted in black. Old city buses and even coaches are used, in the city of Tucumán, only smaller vehicles are allowed by the municipality, such as the Renault Master, Mercedes Sprinter and the like. Even this minibuses must have a crew of two (driver and another person to take care of the children). They are contracted privately by the school children´s parents; the monthly fare is around ARP 75. The vehicles age limit is 10 years; there are some 150 licensed school buses.

A former city bus (Mercedes-Benz LO 1114 bodied by El Diseño around 1986) turned into a school bus.



Pic by Zena, found at Picasa.


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## KiwiGuy (Jul 9, 2009)

New Zealand: Depends on where you live. I some country areas, there are companies which run school buses on weekdays and charters on weekends. In the cities, many are driven but there are some school buses which are normal PT buses with school signs of the front and back.


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## I-275westcoastfl (Feb 15, 2005)

He Named Thor said:


> Common U.S. School Bus


Many look like this nowadays...


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## Manila-X (Jul 28, 2005)

HK has school bus usually a Toyota Hi-Ace


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## MRS50 (Jun 18, 2009)

Canberra, Australia


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## russianpride (Dec 22, 2008)

Moscow School buses


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## mattec (Aug 2, 2009)

here some other new American/ Canadian school buses


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## He Named Thor (Feb 15, 2008)

I'm not sure what to think of those new safety buses that Thomas is making. They certainly are odd looking. 










Perhaps they are a little better built than what I was riding to school back in the day though.

Really though, if safety is such a big priority then why not get rid of the nose altogether and go with the rear-engined variety like those Bluebirds above? Surely that would be better than even the sloping nose?


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## mattec (Aug 2, 2009)

He Named Thor said:


> I'm not sure what to think of those new safety buses that Thomas is making. They certainly are odd looking.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I think the ones with the nose are cheaper... and i would think it would be easier and faster with the engine totally seperated from the seating area


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## alex_zebe (Dec 12, 2008)

There are School Buses in Romania too, which are used to carry the students that live in the countryside to their city schools.

Some examples:


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## nerdly_dood (Mar 23, 2007)

My city's public schools recently sold their school buses to a private company to save money - my city's government, like many nationwide, is losing money fast. The company had removed the "Roanoke City Public Schools" text from some of the buses and was about to replace it with "Mountain Valley Transportation" text when they were reminded that state law requires the buses to be marked with the name of the district they serve, so some have the shadow of older text, with new text in a different font on top.

It's a pretty universal fact that school buses are uncomfortable. Being built on a truck frame, they have very stiff suspension, aka a very rough ride. Also the seats are hard, and jammed very close together - I routinely wedge myself in between my seat and the one in front with my knees about four inches below eye level. (I'm 6'1")

My city's newest are like these, but with fewer black stripes and no Blue Bird thingy on the roof (which is still white) and they do not have a black hood. They've also got two stop signs on the left side, which they didn't have until this new batch arrived. (they typically have only one) - and all of this kind except the buses for handicapped students have brilliant LED lights up on top; the rest have traditional incandescent lights.









They've also got a handful of these. The only main difference is that ours have a white roof and yellow reflective striping around the emergency window exits - which looks BAD since its yellow stripes on a black background. Also, the red lights on top could use a touch more red pigment - they look pinky-orangey-whitish when they are turned on...









We do not have any like this. Good thing too, since this looks pretty ugly. We also don't have any of the little tiny buses based on a Chevy Express/Ford E-series van with the back chopped off and replaced with a bus.








We do have several older ones with a flat front, though - and they're all (except for one or two) front-engined.

Here's one of my city's buses - a lot look like this, but it's really just a hodgepodge of different kinds. All but the oldest have a white roof with a tiny white strobe on it - the older ones have a yellow roof and no strobe. They've got a lot of yellow reflective striping on the back which matches the paint job, and the "SCHOOL BUS" sign on top is not set back with a glass window in front of it, it's a reflective sign painted onto flat metal. (The ones with the "SCHOOL BUS" text behind a window are very ugly IMO)


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## DanielFigFoz (Mar 10, 2007)

In London there are some routes (i.e 635) that are school buses that use buses of the normal fleet. Although anyone can get on the bus as they are normal routes but there to provide support (stop children filling up buses) for busy routes.
for example the
635 bus route is to provide support for the 235


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## Aireos (Aug 21, 2007)

- In Colombia public schools generally do not offer bus service. Depending on the city ther is discounts and special fares for students in BRT, Metro or public buses.

- Yet there are transportation companies that offer school bus services and have dedicated buses for this purpose for those who want to subscribe to their services.

- In private schools usually these companies provides the school bus service, although there are private schools that have their own fleet of buses.

- The service is offered usually in minibuses like this:




























- It's also offered in buses like this:



















- Or on buses that were previously used for transportation between cities and towns:




























- Examples of private schools buses:


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## FML (Feb 1, 2006)

In Japan, two compulsory schools, namely elementary schools (for 7-12 years old) and junior high schools (13-15), rarely have school buses. Elementary school students almost always walk to school, often by groups. Junior high students either walk or use bicycles. Buses are more common among private elementary/junior high schools, except these schools themselves are uncommon.
It is much more common for kindergartens (4-6), high schools (16-18) and universities (19-) to have buses. Unlike some other countries, each school use different liveries.













































































































Private kindergartens sometimes have very fancily decorated buses, to attract kids (customers).


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## FREKI (Sep 27, 2005)

^where else but japan would you have buses themed like animals and cartoon franchises :lol:


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