Why Are School Buses Yellow?

Fire trucks have been painted red for more than a century, although no one is sure how the custom began. From a safety and visibility perspective, however, red isn’t a great choice. Solomon says that red colors are not only far less visible during the day (see the chart above), but they virtually disappear at night.

Starting in the 1970s, some fire departments switched to bright yellow for increased visibility, and the safety record is impressive.

In the 1990s, Solomon and a colleague conducted research comparing the accident rates of traditional red fire trucks versus the new yellow engines, which are more lime-yellow than the yellow-orange of school buses. The data was clear. When the same fire department in Dallas, Texas, used both red and lime-yellow fleets, the red trucks were involved in accidents at three times the rate of yellow vehicles.

Still, many fire departments are hesitant to make the change. In 2009, the U.S. Fire Administration (a division of FEMA) released a report confirming that bright yellow and fluorescent colors were more visible than red, but the agency didn’t recommend a wholesale switch to yellow trucks.

“[I]t is a common belief that people are more likely to identify red with a fire apparatus than other colors, regardless of the conditions,” said the USFA report, recognizing the importance of the traditional color in quickly identifying an emergency vehicle. Additionally, fire trucks have loud sirens to warn drivers to get out of the way, unlike school buses.