1 00:00:01,840 --> 00:00:07,960 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff. 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:11,119 Speaker 1: Lauren vogelbam here and I am recording this episode live 3 00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:14,640 Speaker 1: from the iHeart Podcasts Studio powered by Bows at the 4 00:00:14,640 --> 00:00:19,320 Speaker 1: House of Music at the iHeartRadio Music Festival, which is wild. 5 00:00:19,440 --> 00:00:22,680 Speaker 1: I'm in a little glass box at a music festival 6 00:00:22,680 --> 00:00:28,520 Speaker 1: recording podcasts. But yes, okay, So you know how every 7 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:31,120 Speaker 1: single school bus in the United States is painted the 8 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:35,479 Speaker 1: exact same color. This hue is officially known as National 9 00:00:35,600 --> 00:00:39,400 Speaker 1: school Bus Glossy Yellow. But it wasn't always that way. 10 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:42,519 Speaker 1: A century ago, kids were transported to school by all 11 00:00:42,600 --> 00:00:46,240 Speaker 1: kinds of random vehicles. Because there were no federal standards. 12 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:49,040 Speaker 1: It was up to states or individual school districts to 13 00:00:49,320 --> 00:00:53,320 Speaker 1: hire buses or trucks or horse drawn wagons to fairy 14 00:00:53,400 --> 00:00:56,120 Speaker 1: kids to and from school. I couldn't figure out if 15 00:00:56,120 --> 00:00:59,480 Speaker 1: anyone actually used fairies. I did look, But in the 16 00:00:59,560 --> 00:01:02,400 Speaker 1: nineteenth thirties, a man by the name of Frank Sear 17 00:01:02,880 --> 00:01:05,440 Speaker 1: didn't like the system. He was a professor at Columbia 18 00:01:05,520 --> 00:01:10,080 Speaker 1: University's Teachers College and an advocate for rural education. Sear 19 00:01:10,120 --> 00:01:13,360 Speaker 1: traveled the country conducting a study of school transportation, and 20 00:01:13,480 --> 00:01:16,720 Speaker 1: upon finding that safety standards were often hit or miss, 21 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:19,520 Speaker 1: he decided that something needed to be done to keep 22 00:01:19,560 --> 00:01:23,960 Speaker 1: America's school kids safe. So in nineteen thirty nine, Seer 23 00:01:24,120 --> 00:01:27,720 Speaker 1: organized a conference in New York City dedicated to improving 24 00:01:27,800 --> 00:01:31,880 Speaker 1: and standardizing the American school bus. He invited educators, state 25 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:36,760 Speaker 1: transportation officials, and bus manufacturers to help design a newer, 26 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:41,840 Speaker 1: safer school bus. At that historic meeting, conference attendees proposed 27 00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:44,959 Speaker 1: forty four national standards for the modern school bus, from 28 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:48,000 Speaker 1: its dimensions to its doors to the width of its aisle. 29 00:01:48,720 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: But the standard that made Seer famous was school bus yellow. 30 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:57,160 Speaker 1: According to William Seer, Frank's son, his father set out 31 00:01:57,200 --> 00:01:59,320 Speaker 1: to find a school bus color that would not only 32 00:01:59,360 --> 00:02:03,120 Speaker 1: be easily the from a distance, but also distinctive. William 33 00:02:03,160 --> 00:02:06,040 Speaker 1: told The New York Times back in twenty thirteen quote, 34 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:08,480 Speaker 1: they wanted a color that would stand out, that other 35 00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:10,840 Speaker 1: drivers could see from a distance, and that would be 36 00:02:10,880 --> 00:02:13,960 Speaker 1: identified with a school bus, so whenever we saw it 37 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:17,120 Speaker 1: would think there's a group of kids going someplace. Before 38 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:21,800 Speaker 1: that they sent kids to school and anything. Before the conference, 39 00:02:21,840 --> 00:02:24,520 Speaker 1: Frank Seer laid out color samples on his office desk 40 00:02:24,720 --> 00:02:29,240 Speaker 1: and instinctively gravitated toward orange. Adjacent shades a spectrum of 41 00:02:29,240 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 1: colors ranging from deep orange red to bright lemony yellow. 42 00:02:33,880 --> 00:02:36,920 Speaker 1: At that nineteen thirty nine meeting, Sear hung up fifty 43 00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:39,400 Speaker 1: paint swatches on the walls of the conference room and 44 00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:43,160 Speaker 1: selected a special committee to pick a winner. They chose 45 00:02:43,240 --> 00:02:46,760 Speaker 1: the iconic orange yellow hue that was originally known as 46 00:02:46,960 --> 00:02:50,480 Speaker 1: National school Bus Chrome, so called because it was this 47 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:54,160 Speaker 1: lead based paint made with chromium. However, because lead based 48 00:02:54,200 --> 00:02:57,120 Speaker 1: paint is toxic and chromium can damage DNA in the 49 00:02:57,200 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 1: lungs if it's inhaled, the formulation for school bus yellow 50 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 1: it was changed in the intervening decades, and yeate for that. 51 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:06,040 Speaker 1: At the close of the conference, Sear published a forty 52 00:03:06,080 --> 00:03:09,639 Speaker 1: two page booklet proposing the nation's first school bus standards, 53 00:03:10,040 --> 00:03:12,680 Speaker 1: and the cover of the booklet was, of course, school 54 00:03:12,680 --> 00:03:17,720 Speaker 1: bus yellow. Seer wasn't a scientist or a safety expert, 55 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:21,960 Speaker 1: but he instinctively made the connection between bright colors, visibility 56 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:26,040 Speaker 1: and vehicle safety. For the articles episodes based on How 57 00:03:26,080 --> 00:03:29,560 Speaker 1: Stuff Works, spoke with doctor Stephen Solomon, a retired optometrist 58 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:33,240 Speaker 1: and founder of Visibility in Motion, which does consulting for 59 00:03:33,280 --> 00:03:37,480 Speaker 1: emergency services providers. He said, based upon the standards of 60 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:41,240 Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine, yellow was a very intelligent choice. The 61 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:43,880 Speaker 1: colors that are most easily seen by the human eye 62 00:03:43,960 --> 00:03:47,520 Speaker 1: are the yellows, the yellow green to yellow to greenish yellow. 63 00:03:48,200 --> 00:03:50,800 Speaker 1: That's at the peak of the visibility spectrum. There's no 64 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:54,200 Speaker 1: color that attracts more attention or is more conspicuous than 65 00:03:54,240 --> 00:03:59,160 Speaker 1: the yellows. The human eye is literally less sensitive to 66 00:03:59,200 --> 00:04:02,320 Speaker 1: colors on the ends of the visible light spectrum, that is, 67 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:05,240 Speaker 1: blues and violets on one end, and oranges and reds 68 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:09,360 Speaker 1: on the other. Our color vision is determined by photoreceptor 69 00:04:09,400 --> 00:04:12,320 Speaker 1: cells in the retina called cones. There are three types 70 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:16,640 Speaker 1: of cones, each tuned to detect different wavelengths of light, red, green, 71 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:19,520 Speaker 1: or blue. Yellow light stimulates both the red and green 72 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:22,520 Speaker 1: cone simultaneously, which is why the eye is most sensitive 73 00:04:22,560 --> 00:04:25,880 Speaker 1: to colors in the yellow range. Adding to this, about 74 00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:28,320 Speaker 1: eight percent of men and zero point five percent of 75 00:04:28,320 --> 00:04:31,960 Speaker 1: women are red green color deficient, meaning they have difficulty 76 00:04:31,960 --> 00:04:36,080 Speaker 1: differentiating between reds and greens, often observing both as sort 77 00:04:36,080 --> 00:04:39,760 Speaker 1: of bland looking. The seer probably didn't even consider this, 78 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:42,320 Speaker 1: in which case it's a stroke of luck that research 79 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:45,600 Speaker 1: has shown that under all testing conditions, golden yellow is 80 00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:48,720 Speaker 1: the most easily visible color for both people with color 81 00:04:48,760 --> 00:04:53,120 Speaker 1: deficiency and for people without it. Frank Seer died in 82 00:04:53,200 --> 00:04:55,880 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety five, but he lived to see his yellow 83 00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:59,160 Speaker 1: school buses become the national standard and an American icon. 84 00:05:00,000 --> 00:05:03,560 Speaker 1: According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, 85 00:05:04,080 --> 00:05:07,000 Speaker 1: any new school bus sold or leased in America must 86 00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:12,280 Speaker 1: meet all federal safety standards, including that bumblebee paint job. A. 87 00:05:12,279 --> 00:05:15,880 Speaker 1: While yellow paint certainly makes school buses more visible and recognizable, 88 00:05:16,360 --> 00:05:18,720 Speaker 1: there's a lot more that goes into making them safe. 89 00:05:19,080 --> 00:05:23,120 Speaker 1: The NHTSA rightly calls school buses the most regulated vehicles 90 00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:25,839 Speaker 1: on the road because modern school buses are equipped with 91 00:05:25,839 --> 00:05:30,200 Speaker 1: safety features like high crush standards, rollover protections, flashing red lights, 92 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:34,839 Speaker 1: and those stop sign arms. That's because school buses carry 93 00:05:34,839 --> 00:05:38,320 Speaker 1: precious cargo. More than twenty six million American kids ride 94 00:05:38,320 --> 00:05:40,840 Speaker 1: to school each day in some four hundred and eighty 95 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:44,719 Speaker 1: thousand school buses, and thankfully, less than one percent of 96 00:05:44,760 --> 00:05:49,400 Speaker 1: all traffic fatalities involve children on a school bus. If 97 00:05:49,440 --> 00:05:52,120 Speaker 1: they're so safe, though, why don't all school buses have 98 00:05:52,200 --> 00:05:54,599 Speaker 1: seat belts. We have a whole other episode on that, 99 00:05:54,680 --> 00:05:58,320 Speaker 1: but basically, school buses are big and heavy, so they 100 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:01,680 Speaker 1: don't stop as suddenly in an actident, and thanks for 101 00:06:01,760 --> 00:06:06,120 Speaker 1: design concept cold compartmentalization, children are protected from injury during 102 00:06:06,120 --> 00:06:10,400 Speaker 1: a crash by closely spaced seats with energy absorbing seatbacks. 103 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:13,640 Speaker 1: Buses that weigh less than ten thousand pounds or about 104 00:06:13,680 --> 00:06:16,679 Speaker 1: forty five hundred kilos are required to have seat belts, 105 00:06:16,720 --> 00:06:21,560 Speaker 1: by the way, But okay, another side question. If yellow 106 00:06:21,680 --> 00:06:25,719 Speaker 1: is the most visible color, why are fire trucks still red. 107 00:06:26,920 --> 00:06:29,480 Speaker 1: Fire trucks have been painted red for more than a century, 108 00:06:29,640 --> 00:06:32,560 Speaker 1: though no one is sure how the custom began. From 109 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:36,799 Speaker 1: a safety and visibility perspective, red is not a great choice. 110 00:06:37,240 --> 00:06:39,919 Speaker 1: Red shades are far less visible than yellows during the 111 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:44,160 Speaker 1: day and virtually disappear at night. Starting in the nineteen seventies, 112 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:48,359 Speaker 1: some fire departments switched to bright lime yellow for increased visibility, 113 00:06:48,720 --> 00:06:52,039 Speaker 1: and their safety record is impressive. In the nineteen nineties, 114 00:06:52,120 --> 00:06:55,360 Speaker 1: Solomon and a colleague conducted research comparing the accident rates 115 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:58,600 Speaker 1: of traditional red fire trucks versus the new yellow engines. 116 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:02,159 Speaker 1: When one fired apartment in Dallas, Texas, used both red 117 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:04,839 Speaker 1: and lime yellow fleets. The red trucks were involved in 118 00:07:04,880 --> 00:07:09,279 Speaker 1: accidents at three times the rate of yellow vehicles. Still, 119 00:07:09,400 --> 00:07:12,280 Speaker 1: lots of fire departments are hesitant to make the change. 120 00:07:12,480 --> 00:07:15,000 Speaker 1: In two thousand and nine, the US Fire Administration, a 121 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:18,400 Speaker 1: division of FEMA, released a report confirming that bright yellow 122 00:07:18,440 --> 00:07:21,480 Speaker 1: and fluorescent colors were more visible than red, but the 123 00:07:21,520 --> 00:07:25,960 Speaker 1: agency didn't recommend a wholesale switch to yellow trucks. Their 124 00:07:26,000 --> 00:07:29,680 Speaker 1: report basically said that people identify fire apparatus with the 125 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:32,840 Speaker 1: color red, and it's important to have people able to 126 00:07:32,920 --> 00:07:37,440 Speaker 1: quickly identify emergency vehicles in emergency situations. Of course, fire 127 00:07:37,440 --> 00:07:40,680 Speaker 1: trucks also have allowed sirens to warn drivers and pedestrians 128 00:07:40,680 --> 00:07:45,120 Speaker 1: about their approach, unlike school buses, although in some circumstances 129 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:48,440 Speaker 1: and levels of rowdiness the last day's school maybe a 130 00:07:48,560 --> 00:07:51,760 Speaker 1: warning siren could be appropriate on school buses as well. 131 00:07:56,400 --> 00:07:59,760 Speaker 1: Today's episode was recorded live at the iHeart Podcasts Studio 132 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:02,600 Speaker 1: powered by Bose at the House of Music at iHeartRadio 133 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:05,640 Speaker 1: Music Festival. It's based on the article why are school 134 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:08,480 Speaker 1: Buses yellow? On how Stuffworks dot Com, written by Dave Ruse. 135 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:11,800 Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with HowStuffWorks 136 00:08:11,840 --> 00:08:14,400 Speaker 1: dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more 137 00:08:14,400 --> 00:08:18,000 Speaker 1: podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 138 00:08:18,080 --> 00:08:19,840 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.