My wife got a ticket from one of these things, along with 4 other people that you can clearly see in the evidence video they send you. A couple other cars knew to stop.
We live on the border with a state whose bus law makes no exception to the road being a divided highway. Apparently not even people who live in that state are aware, either. We learned the hard way.
The bus stopped on the other side of a 55mph road with a physical barrier down the middle. 4 lanes total.
Now we know the stupid law across the border. That bus alone probably generates $1200+ a day on that single stop on the highway.
The only “highway” in the US where you’re absolutely not allowed to stop (under normal circumstances) is a “controlled-access highway”. The majority of which is the US Interstate system. Some state highways are controlled-access as well.
But I feel it’s important to clarify: School buses do not stop to pick up children on those sort of roads. That would be insane.
“Highway” means a lot of things depending on the context. Sometimes it’s an interstate system with on and off ramps, but it also refers to a non-residential road (though in western New York, I’ve seen houses with driveways that connect with I-84, so who the fuck knows what the deal there is).
For the purposes of stopping for buses/emergency vehicles, a divided highway is any nonresidential road with a raised median such that a car is unable to turn around at any given place. At least in my state.
After we got the ticket in the mail I did some brief research on what a divided highway is, but non-residential didn’t pop up in any of the reading I did. Granted, I just got an answer and moved on, but maybe there are different definitions in each state. It seems like something that should be the same in every state, though.
To be fair, people should definitely get fines for passing school buses. I’m more mad at the state for being different than the rest of the country and including divided highways in their school bus law.
That’s the point of laws. You start with a concept everyone basically agrees with, then use it as a pretense to exploit whoever you want, and call it protection. Gradually fine-tune the targeting and expand the scope of the oppression, and often forget the original point.
including divided highways in their school bus law
Rural state? Whether or not divided highways make sense depends on whether or not kids are crossing these highways to get to their stops. Seems like that wouldn’t happen anywhere but you never know. In my district (Philly suburb) we design our runs so that kids rarely have to cross any street at all, and never have to cross even just multi-lane roads (let alone divided highways).
NY. If the law was designed around rural areas, I would assume those areas would either have interstate highways with no houses on them, or two lane, non-divided highways with houses so you’d have to stop for a school bus in that case.
Divided highway can also be a little vague. In this case, the division is just a raised median. Not one of those angled concrete walls designed to lift cars and turn them back into their lane. Still, by definition it’s divided.
The place where my wife got tagged doesn’t require kids to cross the highway. The bus stops in front of their house, and there are no houses on the other side of the highway. Even if kids did have to cross a 4 lane road, they’d do it before the bus arrives, right? I’m not sure.
I don’t know the logic they used when making it different than most other states. I think PA is similar, but I remember there being a small difference which made it a little more logical.
NY has generally slightly weird school bus laws. They require a driver’s side emergency exit door, two swing-out stop signs, seatbelts, and they don’t paint the rub rails black. I have no idea why they have yellow rub rails, makes no sense at all.
I’m a school bus driver and we have these BusPatrol cameras on our buses. One of my stops in the morning is at a place where a divided highway becomes not-divided. In my state you don’t have to stop for school buses on divided highways, but my stop is about ten feet into the not-divided area. Most people stop anyway but a lot of people don’t. I’ve had people ask me whether they’re supposed to stop or not and I have to tell them that I have no idea. The drivers are not involved with the cameras at all – we don’t make the determination of whether somebody gets a ticket or not and we’re not told anything about how many tickets our cameras are generating.
Not sure where you live, but here’s the law for Utah (where I live):
(3) The operator of a vehicle need not stop upon meeting or passing a school bus displaying alternating flashing red light signals if the school bus is traveling in the opposite direction when:
a) traveling on a divided highway;
b) the bus is stopped at an intersection or other place controlled by a traffic-control signal or by a peace officer; or
c) on a highway of five or more lanes, which may include a left-turn lane or two-way left turn lane.
Note how it only specifies driving in the opposite direction of the bus.
the bus is stopped at an intersection or other place controlled by a traffic-control signal
This one seems kinda crazy. Like, are stop signs traffic-control signals? I have many stops at stop sign intersections and it’s not at all unusual for late kids to be sprinting through the intersection to get to the bus. That’s exactly the kind of situation you want cars to be stopping for just in case.
My wife got a ticket from one of these things, along with 4 other people that you can clearly see in the evidence video they send you. A couple other cars knew to stop.
We live on the border with a state whose bus law makes no exception to the road being a divided highway. Apparently not even people who live in that state are aware, either. We learned the hard way.
The bus stopped on the other side of a 55mph road with a physical barrier down the middle. 4 lanes total.
Now we know the stupid law across the border. That bus alone probably generates $1200+ a day on that single stop on the highway.
Are cars allowed to stop on the highway in the US? Sounds dangerous
The only “highway” in the US where you’re absolutely not allowed to stop (under normal circumstances) is a “controlled-access highway”. The majority of which is the US Interstate system. Some state highways are controlled-access as well.
But I feel it’s important to clarify: School buses do not stop to pick up children on those sort of roads. That would be insane.
“Highway” means a lot of things depending on the context. Sometimes it’s an interstate system with on and off ramps, but it also refers to a non-residential road (though in western New York, I’ve seen houses with driveways that connect with I-84, so who the fuck knows what the deal there is).
For the purposes of stopping for buses/emergency vehicles, a divided highway is any nonresidential road with a raised median such that a car is unable to turn around at any given place. At least in my state.
After we got the ticket in the mail I did some brief research on what a divided highway is, but non-residential didn’t pop up in any of the reading I did. Granted, I just got an answer and moved on, but maybe there are different definitions in each state. It seems like something that should be the same in every state, though.
To be honest, I was using “residential street” to give a general idea, I think the phrasing in my driver’s ed class was related to turning left
So even if they weren’t a walking surveillance apocalypse, they’re an effective poor tax.
To be fair, people should definitely get fines for passing school buses. I’m more mad at the state for being different than the rest of the country and including divided highways in their school bus law.
That’s the point of laws. You start with a concept everyone basically agrees with, then use it as a pretense to exploit whoever you want, and call it protection. Gradually fine-tune the targeting and expand the scope of the oppression, and often forget the original point.
Rural state? Whether or not divided highways make sense depends on whether or not kids are crossing these highways to get to their stops. Seems like that wouldn’t happen anywhere but you never know. In my district (Philly suburb) we design our runs so that kids rarely have to cross any street at all, and never have to cross even just multi-lane roads (let alone divided highways).
NY. If the law was designed around rural areas, I would assume those areas would either have interstate highways with no houses on them, or two lane, non-divided highways with houses so you’d have to stop for a school bus in that case.
Divided highway can also be a little vague. In this case, the division is just a raised median. Not one of those angled concrete walls designed to lift cars and turn them back into their lane. Still, by definition it’s divided.
The place where my wife got tagged doesn’t require kids to cross the highway. The bus stops in front of their house, and there are no houses on the other side of the highway. Even if kids did have to cross a 4 lane road, they’d do it before the bus arrives, right? I’m not sure.
I don’t know the logic they used when making it different than most other states. I think PA is similar, but I remember there being a small difference which made it a little more logical.
NY has generally slightly weird school bus laws. They require a driver’s side emergency exit door, two swing-out stop signs, seatbelts, and they don’t paint the rub rails black. I have no idea why they have yellow rub rails, makes no sense at all.
I’m a school bus driver and we have these BusPatrol cameras on our buses. One of my stops in the morning is at a place where a divided highway becomes not-divided. In my state you don’t have to stop for school buses on divided highways, but my stop is about ten feet into the not-divided area. Most people stop anyway but a lot of people don’t. I’ve had people ask me whether they’re supposed to stop or not and I have to tell them that I have no idea. The drivers are not involved with the cameras at all – we don’t make the determination of whether somebody gets a ticket or not and we’re not told anything about how many tickets our cameras are generating.
Not sure where you live, but here’s the law for Utah (where I live):
Note how it only specifies driving in the opposite direction of the bus.
Source: https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title41/Chapter6a/41-6a-S1302.html
This one seems kinda crazy. Like, are stop signs traffic-control signals? I have many stops at stop sign intersections and it’s not at all unusual for late kids to be sprinting through the intersection to get to the bus. That’s exactly the kind of situation you want cars to be stopping for just in case.
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