I’ve been researching this for my state, but it doesn’t seem to cover this particular circumstance specifically.
If a school bus is stopped with its flashers on, obviously you have to stop. Does that generally change at all if the bus is NOT in the road proper, but in a “jog” in the side of the road made specifically for public and school buses? All the cites I’ve found talk and have pictures as if the bus is “in the road” (which it’s not).
I was unsure what to do under this circumstance, and I probably did the wrong thing, but I want to be sure. This was early morning, if it makes any difference whatsoever. Thanks!
The straightest dope is likely to be had by calling the non-emergency number for your local police station.
Not knowing otherwise, if I encountered the scenario you describe, I would stop. This is especially important in the afternoon, because when the bus drops off kids, the bus usually keeps that stop sign stuck out while they (the kids) cross the road. If you’re zooming by when they run out into the street, a collision is likely.
I believe if it is a small turn-off for buses, you still have to stop for school buses. I base my answer on the fact that both directions of traffic have to stop for school buses even if the kids are getting on or off on the same side of the road that the bus is stopped. The extra precautions are in place because young school bus riders aren’t always predictable and you want traffic all around them stopped in case one of them runs in a random direction into traffic.
Of course, if the bus turnoff were huge and set well off the normal road, I don’t think the rule would apply.
In my state it’s by number of lanes. In a road with four lanes (if divided or having a turn lane in the middle), only same direction traffic must stop. Fewer than four lanes, or exactly four with no divider or middle turn lane, and both directions must stop. I would say the turn off counts as an additional lane - more than one lane if it’s more than one lane deep, but your description sounds like a single extra lane.
Your diagram indicates that in a road with four lanes and a turn lane in the middle ALL traffic must stop, not just the same direction traffic. If it is divided by a median the opposite direction traffic can continue. I checked because I also live in North Carolina and I know how strict they are on that.
If the turn-off doesn’t have a curb between where the bus is and the road proper, I’d consider it part of the road, and if the bus had its “stop” sign visible I’d stop as normal.
If it does have a curb, I wouldn’t consider that part of the same road, so I’d just slow down and be a little more alert. But in this situation, I imagine the bus driver wouldn’t use the “stop” sign.
The lights were flashing, but there was no stop sign. Do most/all buses these days have that? This is a fairly large district, I think, so if they can afford it, I think they’d have it.
Here in CT there’[s a difference between yellow flashers (those are like the flashers you might put on in your own car) and red flashers. You must stop only for the latter which is accompanied by a mechanical stop sign the emerges from the side of the bus.
It’s not a matter of what lane the bus is in, it’s a matter of whether there are going to be little kids running back and forth across the road. Since the answer is always, “Yes,” you must stop regardless of what lane/shoulder/gutter/lawn the bus is parked in.
I think that school bus lighting convention is pretty universal, and stems from the basic idea that flashing yellow lights mean “proceed with caution” and flashing red lights mean “you are legally required to come to a complete stop.”
I agree with OP that this is confusing! Even worse, my wife yelled at me for not stopping for a school bus sitting in a library parking lot as I turned away from the bus into a parallel row of cars. I felt it was in my right as I was not immediately behind the bus. I can’t recall if kids were unloading, but it had to be a high school bus parked (or standing) at a curb.
The situation was ambiguous, and I feel his lights should not have even been on. Plus, I felt this did not stop me from turning just shy of being directly behind the bus. Regardless, does the law apply in a parking lot vs. a public street?
I was taught that in Oregon, you must always stop for a bus with flashing red lights no matter the circumstances, unless you are on a highway with a PHYSICAL dividing median (not just painted lines), and are in the oncoming lane.
I would say you probably broke the law if you blew through it, even though the bus was not in your lane.
Since I don’t know where you are, I’ll just say that in New York state, it doesn’t seem to matter if it is public or private property, although it’s unclear if a totally private parking lot would count. A library, probably.
Towards the OP, this law doesn’t really spell out an answer to your question. It simply describes “meeting or overtaking” and doesn’t make any exceptions for divided highways, curbs, etc. I would imagine you’d have a hard time quibbling over the meaning of “overtaking” because it’s off to the side slightly.
Same in Canada in most provinces AFAIK the rules re pretty much the same across North America -
Yellow flashing is just “Caution”.
Red flashing, sign sticking out says “Stop” - you stop. Unless the “bus bay” in question is effectively a separate road, (curb and decent median, off in another direction, whatever) it is part of the road you are on. You stop or get a big ticket. If they stopped before an intersection pulled into the right turn lane, would you think the rule does not apply either? Not much different than a bus bay.
Also, almost every jurisdiction, with red flashing lights and the flap-out stop sign, traffic following the bus must stop; unless there is a median with curbs between the directions, oncomng traffic must also stop.
The earlier posters have it right. The logic is, kids get excited, don’t think, run out from the front or back of bus without looking. Therefore, simpler if all traffic stops. It used to be the busses also had a flop-out gate on the front to stop kids from running in ront of the bus engine in the driver’s blind spot. Don’t recall if they still do.
Rural bus drivers have mentioned its amazing how many drivers (deliberately) ignore the obvious stop warnings even on rural roads with 60mph limits where the situation is a helluva lot more dangerous…