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DEL.ICIO.USNewer school buses just plain ‘cool’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
She’s a real head turner.
Sleek. Tinted windows. Minimum 190 horsepower, in-line six cylinder configuration. Heavy duty 4-wheel air brakes.
She’s a school bus.
OK, it’s tough to get excited about school buses. But a couple of Clarke County buses parked near a track meet Thursday afternoon at South Gwinnett High School drew some oohs, ahs and the “cool” label from other drivers.
Metro Atlantans are accustomed to the thousands of traditional “long nosed” models that make their way through miles of highway.
Now, manufacturers such as Thomas Built Buses, Bluebird and International are rolling out models that feature — get this — air conditioning.
The newer cheeseboxes have tinted windows and wider front windows that give drivers better visibility. Onboard video cameras ensure kids behave. Drivers like their handling. And they have 2 inches more of headroom than most models.
Clarke drivers Sandra Calhoun and William Wingfield sang the praises of the Thomas Saf-T-Liner C2. The buses are a quieter ride and the children appreciate the comfort, the pair said.
Two Gwinnett drivers came up and marveled at the sleek machines. “They make a lot of people look,” said Sabrina Hembree. The AC is a big feature. In Gwinnett, only a few buses have them.
Bob Millians, director of transportation for Clarke County Schools, said the system has 10 of the Safe-T-Liners and is adding more. They will be particularly helpful on field trips when the weather turns warmer.
The newer models cost about $70,000, Millians said. Most of the big buses on Georgia’s roadways go for about $50,000 to $55,000 he said.
One more thing. Saf-T-Liner C2 has cruise control. You know, for when you just want to open things up.
Just kidding.
What do you think of the newer buses? Do you think kids will be more likely to want to ride in them? What are your memories of riding a school bus?
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Comments
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By Tim
March 10, 2006 09:05 AM | Link to this
The new buses are a great idea, especially the air conditioning. Studies have shown that with the windows down, the amount of diesel exhaust in the interior air of a school bus is approaching levels considered unsafe. Besides, I remember riding school buses in hot weather with the windows down and it could get miserable for long trips.
By rice
March 10, 2006 09:23 AM | Link to this
WOW…the loser cruiser sure has come a long way.Now if they really want kids to ride the “big cheese” they would put chrome spinners,drop down video systems with playstation! yea, that would at least get the kids on the bus.Can’t promise that they would go into the school building and actually learn anything!
By Sam Drucker
March 10, 2006 09:39 AM | Link to this
Air-conditioning? More headroom?
Where’s the sport in that??
Half the challenge of surviving adolescence was making it to school while barreling at break-neck speed down a two land country road, bouncing off the seats, hitting your head on the metal roof, and (this text will be bolded)(still) being able to retain enough of your wits to spell CAT and DOG when you got there!
I’m sure if measured, my generation would have 50% more lung capacity than today’s kids simply by having to gasp for fresh air whilst running the 20/40 (20 windows down/40 miles per hour) air-conditioning in big ole yella Bessie!
It was our way of exercising.
These kids are being coddled!
Sam
By Peters
March 10, 2006 09:53 AM | Link to this
I didn’t notice any mention of seat belts. I would think this would be a priority over tinted windows.
By Gina
March 10, 2006 10:26 AM | Link to this
I think the AC is a great idea, esp. if you are riding a bus in Georgia. I grew up in South Georgia and rode the bus in the 1970’s. I remember slipping on the vinyl bus seats in hot weather after spending a day in a classroom with no AC. (The county prison has AC before the local schools did!)The AC is long overdue. Those trips to camp during the summer will be more comfortable. One item that was not mentioned was the safety of the kids..has that improved?
By Adam
March 10, 2006 10:34 AM | Link to this
It would be totally impossible to keep a bus full of 70+ kids (of any age) wearing their seat belts. It’s a nice idea, but would require constant monitoring, which the bus driver simply cannot do. Fortunately school buses are one of the safest vehicles on the road already, so the need for seat belts isn’t quite as dire as it is in regular cars.
By ydavis
March 10, 2006 10:44 AM | Link to this
please make seat belts a top priority, safety should always comes first.
By AJ
March 10, 2006 11:07 AM | Link to this
Seat belt ready seats are available as an option by all bus manufacturers—it’s up to the school system to chose whether or not to include them on new buses.
By R Bush
March 10, 2006 11:33 AM | Link to this
School buses are constantly driving ridiculously slow and holding up traffic when they could pick the kids up on a side street or parking lot..I walked every day of my school life. If kids were still walking to school the wouldnt be so fat.
By Bigdawg88
March 10, 2006 12:06 PM | Link to this
Walking to school? Are you crazy? Too many perverts out there these days. Besides, you ever check out the sidewalks on the streets going to most schools these days? There aren’t any!! And in Paulding County there’s hardly any room to walk between the road and the big ditches on 92. Half the students would be taken out by traffic the first day. Actually, that is one UGLY bus. $20K extra? Seems like a lot for a cut down bus. Do they get better mileage to make up for the cost?
By AW
March 10, 2006 12:13 PM | Link to this
School buses are designed to be safe WITHOUT seat belts. The design is similar to an egg carton. Plus they drive so slow and are so conspicuous, they aren’t involved in as many crashes.
By Fred
March 10, 2006 12:15 PM | Link to this
Compartmentalization on school buses makes seatbelts unnecessary. Study after study has shown that buses today are much safer by design because of compartmentalization.
Have you ever driven a bus? There isn’t much out there on the road that will hurt and what will hurt you will do so even if there are seatbelts being worn.
By Momof2
March 10, 2006 01:24 PM | Link to this
Bigdawg - I’m with you!
I would LOVE for my kids to walk to school. My son is in 2nd grade & my daughter in Kindergarten. When I was in 2nd grade, I was an old walking pro! But alas, with no sidewalks, perverts, uncaring drivers who still SPEED through a school zone, etc., I’d be worried sick if they ever made if there!
So, I’m one of the parents you see driving kids to school even though they have less than a mile to walk. (I do let them out about 1/4 mile at the top of the street where there are continuous sidewalks all the way to school and make them walk the rest of the way! And some parents actually say it’s not right to put them out and make them walk!!) I know several moms on that street with kids and they look out for them.
By Capt
March 10, 2006 03:35 PM | Link to this
Do you guys realize that school buses are not required to have seat belts. Don’t you think that maybe, just maybe, we should have seat belts with shoulder harnesses before tinted windows and AC. Whadddda ya think
By Capt
March 10, 2006 03:40 PM | Link to this
Made to be safe without seat belts? OK lets have your kids standing in the aisle when the bus doesn’t wreck but comes to a sudden stop. Safe without seat belts….what a moronic statement
By Jason
March 10, 2006 03:44 PM | Link to this
A seatbelt sure would make a good weapon in the hands of the wrong child. Either smack someone in the head with the latch or strangle them with the belt itself. Considering the very small number of bus accidents per year, they are better off without them. This comes from someone who was actually in a bus accident (we slid off the road half way into a ditch) and remembers that not one kid was hurt. If the same thing had happened in my car, it would have been squished like a can.
By Lisa
March 10, 2006 04:09 PM | Link to this
I walked to my neighborhood school in 1st-4th grade but the difference was there were sidewalks all the way to school and there was a crossing guard at every intersection. Although I live about 1 1/2 miles from the middle school, I cannot let my children walk there because of several reasons: -there is not a continuous sidewalk all the way -the roadside narrows at one point and the walkers are too close to the traffic -people speed up and down the road, EVEN in clearly marked school zones. -and of course, the safety factor of not knowing who might be lurking around the corner.
The biggest problem is people speeding through the school zone, even during the afternoon when school is letting out. I always observe the posted 25 m.p.h. and I’ve had other drivers flash their lights, honk their horns, make gestures at me and even pass me. If children aren’t walking, we can blame the adults for the problem.
By jes8
March 10, 2006 04:16 PM | Link to this
I live near South Gwinnett and saw these busses from the road. Definitely an attention getter. Unless I lived across the street and could monitor my son walking/biking to school, he’ll be riding a bus for the forseeable future. So I’m all for making it as comfortable as possible. And I distinctly remember being told when I was a kid that the very reason school busses DON’T have seat belts is in case of a fire. If the bus catches fire, and our children actually have to use those fire drills they make them do, there will be enough pandemonium without them trying to undo a seat belt.
By MH
March 10, 2006 05:05 PM | Link to this
Those are some pretty naive statements about seat belts. Regardless of whether or not they should be required, guess what? No one is going to wear one. Is the driver supposed to be constantly enforcing seatbelt usage in addition to 100 other things?
By Steve
March 10, 2006 09:43 PM | Link to this
Wow! What a great idea! Instead of spending money to hire more teachers or improving the materials available in the classroom, the academic quality will rise much more thanks to an extra $15,000 to $20,000 per bus. Georgia students may prove year after year that they are well below average compared to the rest of the nation but at least they will be arriving in style in their buses featuring tinted windows.
By Rachel
March 10, 2006 10:59 PM | Link to this
I heard on the radio that in a few years, it will be illegal for GA school buses to have their windows open; thus, the need for AC.
By Barry
March 10, 2006 11:31 PM | Link to this
Oh the good ole’ days of riding the school bus. Actually my last time riding was in ‘99 during my senior year in high school. A vehicle of that mass and size having only a six cylinder engine? Tinted windows help somewhat but with every single window down like they usually are in the summer, it still can get somewhat warm inside the bus. However, I never recalled breaking a sweat. Having A/C would seem more like a luxury than a necessity. I wonder if there are other factors besides the lesser engine size, addition of A/C, upgraded brakes, and smaller dimensions that justify the $15-$20,000 price increase? Why pay for a Lexus when you can do just fine with a Toyota?
By raceman94
March 11, 2006 12:35 AM | Link to this
Slipping on vinyl? HA! How about the vinyl sticking to you? You can’t go wrong in a bus equipped with air conditioning.
By Don
March 11, 2006 01:15 AM | Link to this
Well…being the son of a former Blue-Bird/Wanderlodge employee…I would hope that the County Transportation Directors throughout the State of Georgia would heavily consider buying a Fort Valley and or LaFayette, Georgia made bus First. Blue-Bird has always been known as one of the safest and best built buses on the road (If not the Best) and I would hope that a Blue Bird Bus would be their first consideration given it’s long-standing ties to the State of Georgia.
Seats belts have long been offered on school buses but from what I have always understood, most schools systems do not order them because “Most” Top notch buses are built like a Tanks and there is (as Jes8 pointed out above) somewhat of a fire concern if that bizare situation somehow arose.
Air- Conditioned Buses…Boy if we could only have had one of those in Middle Georgia during the early to mid 80’s it would have been nice.
By Vicki
March 11, 2006 07:19 AM | Link to this
I’m all for seat belts but before we’ll be able to get kids to wear them parent’s are going to have to start setting an example and need to insist their kids use them in their family cars. As a teacher I’ve been on field trips and trying to keep kids in their seats, even with 2 or 3 adults to monitor them, is a constant battle. Maybe if parents addressed their children’s behavior issues and enforced the need for them to follow adult instructions kids would be safer with and without seat belts on buses. Kids have been wearing seat belts on buses in Europe for years. Maybe we need to raise our expectations of kids here instead of giving up on them because we immediately assume they’ll misbehave.
By Jitney
March 11, 2006 09:52 AM | Link to this
“All these Upgrades” and still no seatbelts. For shame!
By jeremy
March 11, 2006 10:43 AM | Link to this
the reason school buses don’t have seat belts is due to the way they are designed the children are safer without them. studies have shown that the seatbelt makes the childrens bodies move more unnaturally during a crash and increasing injuries.
By Candice
March 11, 2006 12:25 PM | Link to this
For those not for the air conditioning, try driving to and from work everyday in the heat with no AC. Children get miserable and uncomfortable just like adults.
Sometimes seatbelts do more harm than good. If there was an accident with fire, I would rather my child suffer a few broken bones than burn to a crisp because they are trapped by a seatbelt.
By Todd
March 11, 2006 04:43 PM | Link to this
If A/C will encourage more kids to ride the bus rather than having their mom drop them off and pick them up every day, I’m all for it.
By Jay'Son
March 11, 2006 04:54 PM | Link to this
I live in Clarke County (Athens), so I see those buses all the time and I must say they are HIDEOUS!!! To the poster talked about buying buses from BlueBird…well Clarke County has been buying from BlueBird for decades…but in 2002 the county starting buying Thomas Built Buses.
By Drake
March 12, 2006 09:39 AM | Link to this
wow buses have really come along way since the mid to late eighties. The only ac we had was a battery operated fan that blew only on the driver. He smoked cigarettes as well. Seatbelts?? He had a long wood switch which kept everyone in their seats until it was time to get off.Kids today are pampered too much