This has been bugging me for a while. On bus trips to cross country meets, the bus always stops before the railroad crossing, hisses a bit, and then we continue on our merry way.
So what’s the reason?
School buses, I’m assuming.
A few times in the past, as I understand it, school buses went across a railroad crossing because the gate wasn’t down. Well, the gate was broken. Buses don’t move so fast. They’re long, too. The bus got hit by a train. Little kids died by the score (cite). People were outraged. They demanded a rule that buses had to fully stop so the driver could do the left-right-left visual check to make sure the apparently-clear crossing was an actually-clear crossing. Not sure that tort liability had anything to do with it as this was long ago, IIRC, but I’d imagine any smart school district lawyer today would hardly recommend rescinding this rule.
To minimize the chance of getting hit by a train. I assume they do that whole stop, open the door, look and listen bit? Same thing, a bus isn’t as responsive as a car, so you don’t want to get into a situation where you have to hope stomping on the gas will get you out of there, because a Volvo and a Greyhound would react quite differently in terms of getting out of potential danger.
As for why they do it instead of trusting the crossing lights they are just being more cautious then you average motorist.
Another danger is that you start to cross the railroad crossing and find out that the traffic is stopped on the other side. If a car then comes up behind you, you are trapped in the crossing. Stopping before the crossing encourages you to check for space first.
In Japan all vehicles are required to stop. This rule is strictly enforced and followed. The test courses at driving schools even have little fake railway crossings.
You know, there’s more to providing a cite than just the word “cite”…
Remember School House Rock “I’m Only a Bill” Well in the video the bill was that school busses must stop at RR tracks.
IMHO that law is dangerous since the bus has a greater chance of stalling as low speed (from a dead stop) and not having the momentum to clear the tracks. I would much rather have them maintain enough of their speed to clear the tracks.
But that’s just me.
No way. That’s bad news for my dissertation . . . .
Doesn’t the new Red Book recognize (cite) as accepted signal for "I know there is a roughly-applicable cite but can’t be bothered? Um, no?
http://www.stnonline.com/stn/schoolbussafety/railroadcrossings/
Okay, not scores, but a score. And the cumulative numbers were big over the years, leading to the strict regulatory efforts. Still a big issue to judge from the number of articles on bus-railway safety. A couple of accidents still seem to happen every now and then.
http://www.ncsbs.org/crashreports/crashreports10.htm
http://www.dailyegyptian.com/spring99/voice/3-23-99.html
Wouldn’t happen to be a fan of the movie “Speed”, would you? 
Pop quiz, hotshot. There’s a bomb on a bus. Once the bus goes 50 miles an hour, the bomb is armed. If it drops below 50, it blows up. What do you do? What do you do?
“Well, I’m sure not going to stop at any railroad crossings.”
it’s not just school busses. here in houston, regular “Metro” busses stop at them too, even when it is clear no train is coming from either direction. It’s done solely to cause traffic. I’m not sure how or why, but it’s clear causing traffic helps the bus industry. They try very, very hard to make each bus cause as much traffic as possible. It’s part of their business model, i’m just not sure why. The only thing i can think of is people might say “i hate driving in traffic, i’ll just take the bus so I don’t have to drive.” Dunno.
I was a school kid when that law was passed. And yes, they had school busses back then, they were pulled by oxen, but that’s another story.
Anyway, I remember that the reason was the relatively large number of bus vs. train collisions. Sorry, no cites, this was over 40 years ago you realize.
Also, in my part of the country, the deep South, in those days there were very few automated crossing devices - gates, flashing lights, etc., especially on rural routes.
It was considered a good thing for the drivers to stop and look carefully for a train before crossing the tracks.
Now that almost all RR crossings have gates and lights, I wonder if they should look at that law again.
Here is a list of recent bus-train collisions.
They are not pleasant to be in. And I think that states are erring on the side of caution here. Children are in buses far more often than they are in situations that are perceived to be more dangerous, such as shootings.
My school bus usually stops at a railroad, checks both sides, and open/closes the door. I asked here why, and she said to hear the train comming. Interesting.
Yep-the same thing-with the door opening. I can understand why.
Plus, around here, a lot of railroads don’t have gates-the one right by our house doesn’t.
As someone who spends a LOT of time on school buses (school band director), I have no problem with stopping at RR crossings. Buses take longer to clear the intersection than cars do and they can’s suddenly accelerate out of the way. The thought of the bus stalling at low speed hadn’t occured to me, but I don’t worry too much about it. Our buses are well-maintained and won’t stall. The odds of a driver missing an oncoming train is, in my estimation, much greater than of the bus suffering a mechanical problem while transiting a grade crossing.
Now, I propose a law demanding an instant $5,000,000 fine for anyone passing a loading/unloading school bus. I’ve even heard of people passing a bus on the DOOR SIDE of the bus. Last week, my bus was nearly run into oncoming traffic by a passing CoachUSA charter bus. They crossed onto the shoulder to pass us (both buses were moving). Y’all be careful around school buses. There are CHILDREN on board!
I suppose my post would have been more effective if I had pasted in the link.
http://www.stnonline.com/stn/schoolbussafety/railroadcrossings/index.htm
New York State, at least, requires that the bus stop at any crossing. I’d think the safety advantage of this would be self-evident: if you stop the bus, look both ways (and open the door, as required by law), you’re going to see if a train is coming. Stalling isn’t an issue, since you’re not on the tracks. Also, you can spot a train coming before the gates go down; since a bus is going to take longer than a car, the timing might be too close.