The Atopian: One of the loudest vehicles in America, visually, is the humble school bus. These mighty metal machines are tasked with carting children around safely. Thus, so much of the design of the school bus, from its eye-searing yellow color to the padded seats, serves an important safety role. One of the coolest style elements of the school bus, those long black bars along the body of the bus, also serve an important purpose. Here’s how those weird stripes help keep your kiddo safe. The school bus is one of the simplest kinds of buses. On the surface, lots of school buses are basically just metal boxes sitting on top of a truck chassis and propelled by a reliable running gear. Look underneath, and you’ll often find leaf springs and hydraulic brakes. Lots of today’s school buses don’t even have luxuries like air-conditioning, and they can be worked on by everyday people. To put it another way, a transit bus is basically a space shuttle in comparison to a school bus.

Yet, don’t let that simplicity fool you. The school bus has been refined for longer than a century to haul lots of kids better than almost any other vehicle can. School buses are displaying their safety advancements proudly for all to see. Yet, unless you know what you’re looking for, you might not even notice. Think of the last school bus that you saw on the road. It was almost certainly yellow with black trim…”