11-06-2019, 12:32 AM
I have long thought that expecting the flashing lights of a single vehicle to stop a 4 lane or wider road is bad design.
Now, to be clear, drivers should be alert enough to see the flashing lights of a schoolbus, and knowledgeable enough to know what it means, and caring enough to do it; and I have no objection to stopping for less than a minute once in a while to let kids cross. But it’s still unusual for some drivers (ones who don’t regularly drive at school bus dropoff time), on a wide road there is a lot to look at, and usually what is happening in the right lane of the opposing direction is irrelevant. So I don’t think it’s very good design; every so often a driver will mess up. This is very similar to some of our discussions about UI.
Additionally, the assumption is effectively that the road can only be safely crossed if the school bus is stopping traffic. Shouldn’t any pedestrian be able to cross at any time (possibly subject to a short delay for signal timing)? And shouldn’t kids be used to crossing the street safely without the bus stopping traffic specially?
On a narrow street it is a different story. But wouldn’t it be better for the bus to stop right in the middle of the road so that it is blocking the entire road? And if the road isn’t narrow enough for that, see the previous discussion.
Now, to be clear, drivers should be alert enough to see the flashing lights of a schoolbus, and knowledgeable enough to know what it means, and caring enough to do it; and I have no objection to stopping for less than a minute once in a while to let kids cross. But it’s still unusual for some drivers (ones who don’t regularly drive at school bus dropoff time), on a wide road there is a lot to look at, and usually what is happening in the right lane of the opposing direction is irrelevant. So I don’t think it’s very good design; every so often a driver will mess up. This is very similar to some of our discussions about UI.
Additionally, the assumption is effectively that the road can only be safely crossed if the school bus is stopping traffic. Shouldn’t any pedestrian be able to cross at any time (possibly subject to a short delay for signal timing)? And shouldn’t kids be used to crossing the street safely without the bus stopping traffic specially?
On a narrow street it is a different story. But wouldn’t it be better for the bus to stop right in the middle of the road so that it is blocking the entire road? And if the road isn’t narrow enough for that, see the previous discussion.