I'd love to see some parent either:

1. buy an old school bus (without seat belts or car seats) and transport their kids around in it or
2. transplant some school bus seats into their car/truck/van/suv/whatever using that logic.

Bet it's just another government double-standard. If you or I DARED to drive around in anything without car seats, restraints, helmets and god-knows-whatever-else they're requiring these days - much less no seatbelts, we'd be arrested, prosecuted, probably paraded before the media (and a public aghast with shock) for being such horrible parents and ultimately convicted, sentenced and publicly executed. Yet the gubmint does it en masse and it's just fine because the poor underfunded school systems (that support gajillions of union do-nothings) don't have enough of your tax money.

I love the U.S.A.

Coupla thoughts here;

1-In many cases school buses are owned/operated by private contractors. not as easy to force change.

2-private schooling has nothing to do with this topic unless you are pointing out that the typical private school kid is 'too good' to ride the bus and rolls up in mommy/daddy's Suburban instead. Not exactly leading the charge for conservation of natural resources.

3-i recently heard that at least one school district facing this issue switched to 4 day school weeks thus eliminated 1/5 of the fuel cost for buses and, pontentially, a reasonable amount of utilities cost. IIRC they did this via 4 longer days. don't recall the state/town though.

China has a 6 day school week. Would be interesting to go to 4 here - what will the parents do for childcare coverage? Seems you'd need to tie it to increased 4-day work weeks or more flex time.

If you back up and look at the link I posted there are valid arguments on both sides of this seat belts in school buses issue... It is all there on the 'net

Also, I doubt it is the cost - most fleets are very new and go for brake and other inspections on a very regluar schedule. The cost is miniscule compared to the price of a whole bus, it is what works best in that environment..

For one, I know for a fact I work better working longer hours for fewer days. I'd much prefer four 12-hour days (8am-9pm or whatever) than five 9-hour days. The extra day off is THAT valuable. I actually get more done when I can pull it off too (more focused, etc.) Not everyone works that way but I do.

Of course this place would just take advantage of that and make me work five 12-hour days and pay me the same if I ever dared suggest it. . .

Some serious rethinking about business hours and "being part of the solution" is required on the part of businesses. When I eventually open my own shop, I'm sure there will be some days I work non-stop for 16-18 straight hours, some days I don't do anything, some days I start at 6pm and go until 2am, etc. I figure as long as I can respond to clients when they want, why the hell does it matter when I'm physically sitting at my desk doing the work itself?

This is a concept utterly lost on a lot of employers today. Far too ingrained conventional thinking that the "9-to-5" world is absolutely a must and inflexible. I completely disagree with this premise as long as the employees are reasonably trustworthy and capable of working independently. And that there's enough resources during "expected" business hours to respond to client needs/questions.

It's getting too expensive to operate the traditional way anyway. Alternative and creative solutions will be a benefit. If I can pay less rent for a smaller office and use it to support more people (by rotating them in and out on alternate days, letting them work at home every other day for example) or using successive "shifts", I'm getting far more mileage out of it. It's simply getting way too expensive to be conventional.

The cost would be trying to retro fit existing buses. Labor cost would be thru the roof.

Look at the age of most public school buses. Most are fairly new. Most used ones are sold off the the third world..

If this was implemented, it would be done for new buses. Present seat height and configuration pre-supposes no use of seatbelts. Retofitting is a non-starter, for insurance liablity reasons alone.

Common experience tells us seat belts are a good thing. But busses are very different from cars.

LOTS of old ones here. As in 1960-1970 vintage.

Shaun, I don't know about the fuel deal but I sure as hell know the systems are WASTING gallons & gallons of the stuff. What may I ask ever happened to the SCHOOL BUS STOP????????????????????? (can you tell this is a pet peeve of mine?) The damn things stop at every ******* house. A road with a sidewalk on it and each little bastad, (can you tell I don't have kids?), just stands, er, sits in their parents car, while IT runs, until the bus moves the 100 feet to their driveway. Man I don't get it. And don't children go to pre-school, kindergarten, etc. etc. because they have to start socializing at an early age? Everyone remember hanging at the school bus stop as a kid SOCIALIZING?????? :mad: :mad:

i went to public school with out taking the school bus and didn't turn out that bad..

I live in California, we can't much afford school buses anymore, we have to drop our kids off at school for the most part