School buses are used to transport students to and from school all across the U.S., but when talking about them one question always seems to come up: why are they such a bright and noticeable yellow?
The origin of school buses started in Indiana, when a man named Wayne Works made horse-drawn carriages that would carry children to school in 1886.
In the 1930’s, Frank Cyr, a professor at Columbia University, decided that he did not approve of the transportation that children had for school, and thought that it was dangerous. In 1939, Cyr held a conference in New York City that focused on adding the school bus as an option for American students.
When choosing the color of the bus, they immediately looked at bright colors. The colors yellow and green were scientifically proven to be the easiest for the eye to spot because the eye is most sensitive to those colors. Yellow is also the easiest color to see at night because of how the eye is structured to process different colors.
In the world, actually eight percent of men and half a percent of women are color deficient to the colors red and green, but the overall population can easily differentiate between the two.
The yellow color of school buses has proven to be the most noticeable and has protected a lot of people, but everyone still needs to stay cautious and aware around school buses to keep children safe.
