(WHTM) -- We see school buses pretty much every day when school is in session. Day in and day out. But, have you wondered why school buses are yellow, and not a color like bright green?
It's not for looks or because the Department of Education loves the color yellow, but it is more about science and safety.
According to the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, this dates back to 1939, when Frank W. Cyr, also known as the "father of the school bus", held a conference for transportation officials, educators, and even paint experts.
The prior year, in 1938, Cyr had done his own research and found out there were no standards for the color of school transportation. The conference was held for seven days, and a 42- page construction guide for buses was made.
That guide contained the standardized yellow paint color, called National School Bus Chrome. The school bus chrome was a pure bright yellow, closer to the color of a lemon. However, over time, the yellow was softened and became a bit warmer.
In the present day, most of the guidelines have changed, but not the yellow color.
Scientific research from the Color Matters website says that the color yellow gets your attention more than any other color. Even when you are looking ahead, you can see yellow in your peripheral vision. Scientists say that lateral peripheral vision for detecting the color yellow is 1.24 greater than that of the color red.
So, yellow school buses are not for aesthetics, but mostly for safety and to make sure we can see them.
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