Why do school buses always stop and open their doors at every railroad crossing? I annoys me when I’m behind them and they do this at times when there’s obviously no train coming…
They are required to do that by law. The law is there because occasionally school buses have been creamed by a train that they didn’t think was coming.
Is this an actual question or a pseudo-pit rant? The answer is self-apparent in terms of common sense but it is also the law.
The only way to tell that there is no train coming is to check for one which brings us back to the aforementioned procedure. I am sorry you are annoyed but that isn’t the point. Train signals fail and buses are noisy because they are full of many kids. It all takes one incident where a school bus driver is distracted so that a train kills a load of kids. Regular people get hit by trains all the time. One of my best friends did when he was 18. He lived but suffered serious, permanent brain damage. 100% of the people that get by trains, assuming that they live, found it obvious that there was no train coming.
I find it hard to believe that any rational person would complain about common sense school bus measures. Do you barrel around them when they have the stop signs out while picking up kids?
I haven’t observed this myself, but on reading the OP, I’m curious. Why open the doors? Stopping I understand. Door opening, I don’t.
lol, relax
To listen.
Buses are noisy. Have you ever been to a kid’s birthday party? A bus holds a lot more kids than go to a typical birthday party.
It is quite possible for the bus engine to die right on the tracks with a train coming. In that case, every second counts because the train most likely won’t be able to stop in time. Immediate evacuation is the only hope.
School buses do lots of things that slow down traffic. I get behind them every day on the way to work and their lights and signs stop traffic in both directions several times a mile. The railroad crossing procedures are minor compared to that.
Speaking of “because it’s the law”, my school bus had to stop at the tracks by my house every time for 4 years. Funny thing is, the tracks lead to a collapsed bridge that used to cross the creak. There’s a friggin’ TREE growing in the middle of the tracks right next to the road. Any train that crossed the road there would have to barrel through this tree and subsequently tumble down 30 feet into the river. I’m not even sure the OTHER side was connected to the rail line. Still had to stop…oi.
Really?. I just thought it was because the flip open stop signs were hooked up to the door mechanism and that was that. In my time (and please get off my lawn) there was no AC on school buses, so no need to open the doors to listen.
AC as in air conditioning?
Who said anything about air conditioning? 
I presumed that if they need to open the door to listen for an incoming train, it was because the windows were closed. And if the windows are closed, it is because of the AC (or heating)
Now, see- *that’*s silly. I have seen a sign in CA that said saomething along the lines of “Busses not required to stop”.
That can’t be the reason; not only have I never participated in a mass bus evacuation drill, but they close the door before starting again.
The door thing never made sense to me either. Even as a kid, the bus engine seemed woefully inadequate to accelerate even a mostly empty bus. I’d rather have had the bus driver pay attention for trains and keep the momentum to get over the tracks, than to stop and have it stall bumping over the rails.
I always figured my bus drivers were missing the point, as the few times we crossed railway tracks, they always stopped with the front end on the tracks. :rolleyes:
Mine too. I always figured it was good sportsmanship - gotta give the slow trains a fair chance to hit the bus.
Do school buses in other countries do this?
(Do French RR crossing signs still warn that the sound of one train my conceal another?)
I don’t think most other countries have special rules for school buses, or even special vehicles for taking kids to school. I’ve never seen a school bus in Japan. I used to ride them in England but they were regular commuter-type buses chartered by the school.
But in Japan, all vehicles are required to stop at level crossings, as if there was a stop sign at each one. Personally I thought that was a good idea, if only to force drivers to pay attention to the railway tracks. I think the biggest benefit is that if you stop before the crossing, you also look beyond the crossing and check there isn’t a traffic jam on the other side. Otherwise you run the risk of getting on top of the tracks and then noticing you can’t move off of the tracks.
We had to do evacuation drills when I was young. You didn’t go out the side door, but the one in the back. I’m not even sure the side door was even open during said drills. I think you’re not off base thinking it has nothing to do with drills.
School buses and haulers of certain hazardous materials are required to stop at RR crossings simply to make the operator pay attention at the crossing.
36 school bus vs train accidents have occurred in the US between 1902 and 2000, resulting in 207 fatalities and 547 injuries, according to School Bus Transportation News. I’m willing to be inconvenienced a bit rather than see those numbers climb.
They do in Canada. There’s a sign on the back of the bus telling cars that “This bus stops at all railway crossings.” AFAIK, regular transit buses do too (years ago, my work commute was on a city bus that stopped at a couple of level crossings), as do intercity coaches–although it’s been a while since I rode one of those on a route that took it over a level crossing, so things may have changed.
They open the door to listen. It even states that they’re supposed to open the driver’s side window for the same reason, although I have no idea if that is actually done in all cases.