Dear motorists:

When the school bus's lights are flashing red, and the little stop sign unfolds from the side of the bus, you are supposed to STOP!

Dear school bus operators:

Perhaps you'd have better compliance by motorists if you stopped in middle of the traffic lane, got rid of the stupid yellow flashing lights, and instead started your red flashing lights a long way before the stop - like school buses did when I was growing up.

Instead you pull so far off the road that two cars could parallel park between the road and your bus, you run the flashing yellow warning lights so long everyone looses interest in watching them, and you switch to the red lights so briefly that each bulb probably blinks on only three times. I bet that the folding stop arm never even stops moving - that it starts retracting the instant it reaches full extension!


(I happened to be out on my bike at just the right time for a rare for me (about once a year) sighting of school buses in action.)