The crossing arm can be seen in use. Note the presence of the rotated yellow bar on the front bumper.
A school bus crossing arm is a safety device intended to protect children from being struck while crossing in front of a school bus. Typically, school bus crossing arms are wire or plastic devices which extend from the front bumper on the right side of the bus when the door is open for loading/unloading and form a barrier. The devices force children, who need to cross the road, to stand several feet in front of the bus itself before they can begin to cross the road. This ensures that the bus driver can see them as they cross, avoiding a common blind spot immediately in front of the bus, closest to the bumper. The crossing arm retracts flush against the bumper while not activated, such as when the bus is in motion.
Regulatory history
Unlike traffic warning lights and many other safety-related features typically found on school buses in the United States, crossing arms are not required by the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) for School Buses. Regulations for equipment and use vary widely on a state-by-state basis. In some places, they are optional at the discretion of a local school district or school bus contractor.[citation needed]
The 1990 death of six-year-old Elizabeth "Betsy" Anderson, in Washington State, led to the installation of school bus crossing arms, also referred to as "Betsy Bars" or "Betsy Gates" on all Washington state school buses by 1992.[citation needed] The crossing arms, when extended, require students to cross at least 5 feet (1.5m) in front of the bus.
In Manitoba, Canada, provincial school buses have been required to have an extendable safety arm mounted on the bus since a seven-year-old boy died in 1996 in St. Norbert after getting off his school bus.[citation needed]
A seat belt, also known as a safety belt or spelled seatbelt, is a vehicle safety device designed to secure the driver or a passenger of a vehicle against harmful movement that may result during a collision or a sudden stop. A seat belt reduces the likelihood of death or serious injury in a traffic collision by reducing the force of secondary impacts with interior strike hazards, by keeping occupants positioned correctly for maximum effectiveness of the airbag, and by preventing occupants being ejected from the vehicle in a crash or if the vehicle rolls over.
An intersection or an at-grade junction is a junction where two or more roads converge, diverge, meet or cross at the same height, as opposed to an interchange, which uses bridges or tunnels to separate different roads. Major intersections are often delineated by gores and may be classified by road segments, traffic controls and lane design.
Traffic lights, traffic signals, or stoplights – also known as robots in South Africa – are signalling devices positioned at road intersections, pedestrian crossings, and other locations in order to control the flow of traffic.
A bicycle brake reduces the speed of a bicycle or prevents it from moving. The three main types are: rim brakes, disc brakes, and drum brakes.
Jaywalking is the act of pedestrians walking in or crossing a roadway if that act contravenes traffic regulations. The term originated in the United States as a derivation of the phrase jay-drivers, people who drove horse-drawn carriages and automobiles on the wrong side of the road, before taking its current meaning. Jaywalking was coined as the automobile arrived in the street in the context of the conflict between pedestrian and automobiles, more specifically the nascent automobile industry.
A school bus is any type of bus owned, leased, contracted to, or operated by a school or school district. It is regularly used to transport students to and from school or school-related activities, but not including a charter bus or transit bus. Various configurations of school buses are used worldwide; the most iconic examples are the yellow school buses of the United States which are also found in other parts of the world.
A parking space, parking place or parking spot is a location that is designated for parking, either paved or unpaved. It can be in a parking garage, in a parking lot or on a city street. The space may be delineated by road surface markings. The automobile fits inside the space, either by parallel parking, perpendicular parking or angled parking.
A rear-view mirror is a, usually flat, mirror in automobiles and other vehicles, designed to allow the driver to see rearward through the vehicle's rear window.
The 1995 Fox River Grove bus–train collision was a grade crossing collision that killed seven students riding aboard a school bus in Fox River Grove, Illinois, on the morning of October 25, 1995. The school bus, driven by a substitute driver, was stopped at a traffic light with the rearmost portion extending onto a portion of the railroad tracks when it was struck by a Metra Union Pacific Northwest Line train en route to Chicago.
A motor vehicle has lighting and signaling devices mounted to or integrated into its front, rear, sides, and, in some cases, top. The devices illuminate the road ahead for the driver and increase the vehicle's visibility, allowing other drivers and pedestrians to see its presence, position, size, direction of travel, and its driver's intentions.
A crossing guard, lollipop man/lady, crosswalk attendant, or school road patrol is a traffic management personnel who is normally stationed on busy roadways to aid pedestrians. Often associated with elementary school children, crossing guards stop the flow of traffic so pedestrians may cross an intersection.
A bullbar or push bumper is a device installed on the front of a vehicle to protect its front from collisions, whether an accidental collision with a large animal in rural roads, or an intentional collision by police with another vehicle. They vary considerably in size and form, and are normally composed of welded steel or aluminium tubing, or, more recently, moulded polycarbonate and polyethylene materials. The "bull" in the name refers to cattle, which in rural areas sometimes roam onto rural roads and highways.
School bus stop laws are laws dictating what a motorist must do in the vicinity of a bus stop being used by a school bus or other bus, coach or minibus providing school transport.
A survival suit, more accurately and currently referred to as an immersion suit, is a type of waterproof dry suit intended to protect the wearer from hypothermia if immersed in cold water or otherwise exposed after abandoning a vessel, especially in the open ocean. Immersion suits usually have integral footwear, and a hood, and either built-in gloves or watertight wrist seals. Suits manufactured by several manufacturers also include an inflatable pillow which is permanently attached high on the back, or an inflatable tube that is attached with zippers at two points on the chest, each side of the main zipper, and circles the back. When inflated, both of these devices provide enhanced stability to the wearer, which, if conscious, allows them to keep the head above water, and to keep wind and seas from striking the face. The inflation tube is routed from the inflatable pillow over the left shoulder of the user, and secured in a loop on the chest.
In the United States, road signs are, for the most part, standardized by federal regulations, most notably in the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) and its companion volume the Standard Highway Signs (SHS).
The geometric design of roads is the branch of highway engineering concerned with the positioning of the physical elements of the roadway according to standards and constraints. The basic objectives in geometric design are to optimize efficiency and safety while minimizing cost and environmental damage. Geometric design also affects an emerging fifth objective called "livability," which is defined as designing roads to foster broader community goals, including providing access to employment, schools, businesses and residences, accommodate a range of travel modes such as walking, bicycling, transit, and automobiles, and minimizing fuel use, emissions and environmental damage.
Terminology related to road transport—the transport of passengers or goods on paved routes between places—is diverse, with variation between dialects of English. There may also be regional differences within a single country, and some terms differ based on the side of the road traffic drives on. This glossary is an alphabetical listing of road transport terms.
Designs of level crossings, where railway lines cross roads or other paths, vary country-to-country.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
