For years, one of the biggest threats to student safety on bus routes has been motorists who ignore the stop arm and illegally pass the bus. This is long-known, and numerous initiatives have tried to reduce the harm done.
Have they been successful? Only somewhat. According to a recent study covering the 2024-25 year, reported illegal passing incidents were reduced by 13% - roughly 6 million fewer reports than the previous year. This is good progress, but that still leaves tens of millions of illegal passing incidents every year.
Do Stop Arm Cameras Help?
Stop arm cameras are traditionally pitched as the best current solution, but there's mixed evidence whether they're effectively preventing illegal passing. After all, a driver in the moment has no idea whether they've been photographed, and only learn about the infraction later when a ticket arrives in the mail.
Robust public messaging can help spread word about the cameras but, again, there's little data on how much difference that makes.
Worse, according to the above study, there's a growing new threat: illegal right-side passing incidents, which have spiked significantly in the last year. Most buses lack right-side stop arms, and so even those which have invested in stop arm cameras probably lack coverage on the right side.
There's also currently no information on why right-side passing has spiked. It's even possible that impatient drivers are doing this specifically to avoid stop arm cameras.
What About Adding Lights?
Another option that is also significantly less intrusive and complicated than stop-arm cameras: simply adding more lights to the bus and stop arm. Studies have shown that this does have a qualitative effect. The working theory is that many motorists are distracted, and fail to notice the bus slowing/stopping until it's too late for them to safely stop themselves.
More lights, activating whenever the bus hits the brakes, increases the chances that a motorist will notice the slowdown.
Unfortunately, there's been very little research into this particular option in the last few years, with nearly all discussion focusing on stop arm cameras. That said, a bus can be retrofitted with a lot of lights for only a few hundred dollars at most. So this is a budget-friendly option that will undoubtedly do at least some good.
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PRESIDENT
Sonia has been involved with BusBoss since the late 1990’s, and has personally overseen many projects for various customers ranging from large urban and suburban districts to smaller rural school districts from all over the country.