THE YELLOW COLOR ON SCHOOL BUSES

The school transport system will face a major overhaul. A raft of changes were announced by former Education Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i in a bid to guarantee safety of minors as they commute between learning institutions and their homes.

 School bus yellow is a colour that was specifically formulated for use on school buses in North America in 1939. The color is now officially known in Canada and the U.S. as National School Bus Glossy Yellow and was originally called National School Bus Chrome. The pigment used for this color was, for a long time, the lead-containing chrome yellow.

 The color was chosen because it attracts attention and is noticed quickly in peripheral vision, faster than any other color. Scientists describe this as follows: “Lateral peripheral vision for detecting yellows is 1.24 times greater than for red.

 In April 1939, Dr. Frank W. Cyr, a professor at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York organized a conference that established national school-bus construction standards for the U.S., including the standard color of yellow for the school bus. It became known officially as “National School Bus Chrome”. The color was selected because black lettering on that hue was easiest to see in the semi-darkness of early morning.

 The conference met for seven days. The color was adopted by the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards and Technology] as Federal Standard No. 595a, Color 13432.

 The conference approach to school bus safety, as well as the yellow color, have endured into the 21st century. Dr. Cyr became known as the “Father of the Yellow School Bus.” Nowadays the color is used by almost all countries in the world.

The color the school chose to use is Panton 012C School Bus Yellow, Lead and Chrome free.

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