The (ir)rational hatred of school busses

[roadman]

The US assumes that the person on the road is a total idiot needing to be told exactly how to drive and kept in a safety blanket of clear rules applied without nuance, the UK assumes that the person on the road has some sense and judgement (though less and less, and our fatality rate is stagnating, rather than declining - though it is still half of that in the US).

Most of this is simple CYA.  That's because the US legal system makes it very easy for an individual to sue somebody - including the government - for perceived omissions or negligence (like not posting signs regarding a regulation or hazard).  It's much harder to do that under the UK and EU legal systems.

We need to reintroduce the concepts of personal responsibility and contributory negligence into our system of laws and justice - this will eliminate most of the frivolous lawsuits from people who believe they will get a huge lottery payment for suing others.

[MisterSG1]

I figured I'd share with y'all the laws regarding stopping for school buses in Ontario, it's fairly interesting and a LOT of people would get tickets if it were enforced:

(11)  Every driver or street car operator, when meeting on a highway, other than a highway with a median strip, a stopped school bus that has its overhead red signal-lights flashing, shall stop before reaching the bus and shall not proceed until the bus moves or the overhead red signal-lights have stopped flashing.  R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 175 (11).

(12)  Every driver or street car operator on a highway, when approaching from the rear a stopped school bus that has its overhead red signal-lights flashing, shall stop at least twenty metres before reaching the bus and shall not proceed until the bus moves or the overhead red signal-lights have stopped flashing.  R.S.O. 1990, c. H.8, s. 175 (12).

And as for Penalty:

(17)  Every person who contravenes subsection (11) or (12) is guilty of an offence and on conviction is liable,
   (a)   for a first offence, to a fine of not less than $400 and not more than $2,000; and
   (b)   for each subsequent offence, to a fine of not less than $1,000 and not more than $4,000 or to imprisonment for a term of not more than six months, or to both.  1997, c. 12, s. 14.

Read subsection 12, "shall stop at least twenty metres before reaching the bus". Think about that for a second, 20 metres, not converting, that's approximately 60 feet, and this law basically states that stopping CLOSER than 20 meters is just as bad as simply passing the bus with the red lights flashing. There is no one that stops that far back from a school bus.

[Jardine]

It ain't the bus, it's all the little bastards, oops, darlings, on it.

[RobbieL2415]

Well this is CT's "stop for busses" statute:

Sec. 14-279. Vehicles to stop for school bus. Penalties. Written warning or summons. (a) The operator of any vehicle or motor vehicle, including an authorized emergency vehicle, as defined in section 14-1, shall immediately bring such vehicle to a stop not less than ten feet from the front when approaching and not less than ten feet from the rear when overtaking or following any registered school bus on any highway or private road or in any parking area or on any school property when such bus is displaying flashing red signal lights, except at the specific direction of a traffic officer. Vehicles so stopped for a school bus shall not proceed until such school bus no longer displays flashing red signal lights, except that a stopped authorized emergency vehicle may proceed as long as such authorized emergency vehicle is operated pursuant to section 14-283. At the intersection of two or more highways vehicular turns toward a school bus receiving or discharging passengers are prohibited. The operator of a vehicle upon a highway with separate roadways need not stop upon meeting or passing a school bus which is on a different roadway.
(b) Any person who violates any provision of subsection (a) of this section shall be fined four hundred fifty dollars for the first offense and for each subsequent offense, not less than five hundred dollars nor more than one thousand dollars or imprisoned not more than thirty days or both.
(c) Upon receipt of a written report from any school bus operator or an evidence file from a live digital video school bus violation detection monitoring system, as defined in section 14-279a, specifying the license plate number, color and type of any vehicle observed by such operator or recorded by a camera affixed to such school bus violating any provision of subsection (a) of this section and the date, approximate time and location of such violation, a police officer shall issue a written warning or a summons to the owner of any such vehicle. A photographic or digital still or video image that clearly shows the license plate number of a vehicle violating any provision of subsection (a) of this section shall be sufficient proof of the identity of such vehicle for purposes of subsection (b) of section 14-107.

No mention of simply receiving or discharging, though I'm guessing a cop could ticket someone in good faith if their lights weren't on. And FWIW I did turn left (away) from a school bus once and didn't get honked at by the bus or receive a summons in the mail.

[UCFKnights]

I hate them. Its the government's fault I do along with many others.

Around me, they frequently will not pull off of the major roads for stops. My community has the first house about a quarter mile off of the major road, but the bus still stops in the middle of the major roadway an stops all of the traffic and creates backups for miles. All the stops prior to my community are just one or 2 students, but my community pretty much fills up the bus all by itself. For each school. Then after the bus takes 10 minutes to unload all the students, there is traffic backed up for miles. This is pretty much the only time there is traffic on the road, but with the stop sign at our entry, and traffic for miles stuck behind the bus without a stop sign, and all the parents driving to park on the side of the major roadway, the entire entry is a problem for another 15-20 minutes after that. And another 10-15 minutes later, another bus shows up for the next school and it repeats. Of course I'm going to be rationally hate school buses when it makes my 3 minute trip to the grocery store into a 25 minute trip because I happened to go at the wrong time.

The entire problem could be solved if the bus could pull into the community, ideally off of the roadway to our park and pool in the center. Most parents would then likely walk instead of drive to the bus stop, and parents would trust their kids to walk home a bit more as well as they aren't near the major roadway and on the slow speed limit community roads. I know its not just my neighborhood, but its like this in nearly every single neighborhood around here. They claim it takes too long for the buses to drive 1-2 minutes off of the roadway and they would need more buses and drivers they don't have funding for in order to get the same bus to do all 3 pickups and dropoffs. And I know it would solve the problem entirely, because a year or two ago, we had a handicap kid move into the neighborhood, and they always pickup and dropoff at their house. The problem for that bus was eliminated, until he went to the next school, and they decided to send a van to pick him up separately because of the time it took to drive in again.

If we could get the buses to make sensible stops, pulling off of main roadways and trying to avoid disrupting traffic, even if it takes them an extra 10 minutes for their route, I think the hatred of them would go down drastically. And it would increase the safety for our children as well. I've seen much road rage from people stuck behind the bus for 20 minutes.

[MisterSG1]

I hate them. Its the government's fault I do along with many others.

Around me, they frequently will not pull off of the major roads for stops. My community has the first house about a quarter mile off of the major road, but the bus still stops in the middle of the major roadway an stops all of the traffic and creates backups for miles. All the stops prior to my community are just one or 2 students, but my community pretty much fills up the bus all by itself. For each school. Then after the bus takes 10 minutes to unload all the students, there is traffic backed up for miles. This is pretty much the only time there is traffic on the road, but with the stop sign at our entry, and traffic for miles stuck behind the bus without a stop sign, and all the parents driving to park on the side of the major roadway, the entire entry is a problem for another 15-20 minutes after that. And another 10-15 minutes later, another bus shows up for the next school and it repeats. Of course I'm going to be rationally hate school buses when it makes my 3 minute trip to the grocery store into a 25 minute trip because I happened to go at the wrong time.

The entire problem could be solved if the bus could pull into the community, ideally off of the roadway to our park and pool in the center. Most parents would then likely walk instead of drive to the bus stop, and parents would trust their kids to walk home a bit more as well as they aren't near the major roadway and on the slow speed limit community roads. I know its not just my neighborhood, but its like this in nearly every single neighborhood around here. They claim it takes too long for the buses to drive 1-2 minutes off of the roadway and they would need more buses and drivers they don't have funding for in order to get the same bus to do all 3 pickups and dropoffs. And I know it would solve the problem entirely, because a year or two ago, we had a handicap kid move into the neighborhood, and they always pickup and dropoff at their house. The problem for that bus was eliminated, until he went to the next school, and they decided to send a van to pick him up separately because of the time it took to drive in again.

If we could get the buses to make sensible stops, pulling off of main roadways and trying to avoid disrupting traffic, even if it takes them an extra 10 minutes for their route, I think the hatred of them would go down drastically. And it would increase the safety for our children as well. I've seen much road rage from people stuck behind the bus for 20 minutes.

That's a fault of bad planning of course. It sounds like the bus is stopping on a suburban arterial....which is something I've probably only seen once in my life here. So does your community/subdivision only have one entrance/exit from this arterial where the bus stops at? If this is the case and it's making drivers angry, why isn't there any discussions with the schools and board about this?

Common sense needs to be applied to this after all, many would really hate the school buses here if they stopped in the middle of six lane arterials dumping entire busloads off.

As for parents DRIVING to the bus stop.....uh really, are you serious? Yes I see it everyday here in suburbia when parents drive their kids 400 feet on the same street to the school because of today's helicopter parenting, but I've never heard of a situation where someone needs to drive to the bus stop.

And as for kids walking to the bus stop themselves, as I said today's helicopter parents would NEVER allow that because there's a fear of an abduction on the way to the bus stop, even though they are probably (even by 1000 fold) more likely to get hit by a car than be abducted.

[UCFKnights]

I hate them. Its the government's fault I do along with many others.

Around me, they frequently will not pull off of the major roads for stops. My community has the first house about a quarter mile off of the major road, but the bus still stops in the middle of the major roadway an stops all of the traffic and creates backups for miles. All the stops prior to my community are just one or 2 students, but my community pretty much fills up the bus all by itself. For each school. Then after the bus takes 10 minutes to unload all the students, there is traffic backed up for miles. This is pretty much the only time there is traffic on the road, but with the stop sign at our entry, and traffic for miles stuck behind the bus without a stop sign, and all the parents driving to park on the side of the major roadway, the entire entry is a problem for another 15-20 minutes after that. And another 10-15 minutes later, another bus shows up for the next school and it repeats. Of course I'm going to be rationally hate school buses when it makes my 3 minute trip to the grocery store into a 25 minute trip because I happened to go at the wrong time.

The entire problem could be solved if the bus could pull into the community, ideally off of the roadway to our park and pool in the center. Most parents would then likely walk instead of drive to the bus stop, and parents would trust their kids to walk home a bit more as well as they aren't near the major roadway and on the slow speed limit community roads. I know its not just my neighborhood, but its like this in nearly every single neighborhood around here. They claim it takes too long for the buses to drive 1-2 minutes off of the roadway and they would need more buses and drivers they don't have funding for in order to get the same bus to do all 3 pickups and dropoffs. And I know it would solve the problem entirely, because a year or two ago, we had a handicap kid move into the neighborhood, and they always pickup and dropoff at their house. The problem for that bus was eliminated, until he went to the next school, and they decided to send a van to pick him up separately because of the time it took to drive in again.

If we could get the buses to make sensible stops, pulling off of main roadways and trying to avoid disrupting traffic, even if it takes them an extra 10 minutes for their route, I think the hatred of them would go down drastically. And it would increase the safety for our children as well. I've seen much road rage from people stuck behind the bus for 20 minutes.

That's a fault of bad planning of course. It sounds like the bus is stopping on a suburban arterial....which is something I've probably only seen once in my life here. So does your community/subdivision only have one entrance/exit from this arterial where the bus stops at? If this is the case and it's making drivers angry, why isn't there any discussions with the schools and board about this?

Common sense needs to be applied to this after all, many would really hate the school buses here if they stopped in the middle of six lane arterials dumping entire busloads off.

As for parents DRIVING to the bus stop.....uh really, are you serious? Yes I see it everyday here in suburbia when parents drive their kids 400 feet on the same street to the school because of today's helicopter parenting, but I've never heard of a situation where someone needs to drive to the bus stop.

And as for kids walking to the bus stop themselves, as I said today's helicopter parents would NEVER allow that because there's a fear of an abduction on the way to the bus stop, even though they are probably (even by 1000 fold) more likely to get hit by a car than be abducted.

Thats what they do. Its been brought up many times with the school board, and there answer is always the same: have the buses turn off the arterials takes time to drive off of it, and then its difficult for the large school buses to get back on, and each individual bus is required to serve an elementary, middle, and high school every single day and if they turn into every community they stop at, they would supposedly only be able to serve 2 out of the 3 schools on time on most routes. I've had similar things happen now in the 4 counties in Florida I've lived in (all suburbs), one even had a bus driver get fired for deviating from the route to pull into the entry of our neighborhood after someone hit the bus while they were making a U turn in the entry of the community (off route).

The entry to my neighborhood cannot have grass survive because the sides of the road are a parking lot for the buses 6 times a day. I understand why they're driving, they don't trust their kids waiting for a bus or getting dropped off at a 50mph heavily trafficked arterial road. The county blames us for not giving them yet another sales tax increase which supposedly part of would go for additional buses and drivers to offer closer stops. I believe the rule around here is generally if there are sidewalks (and no disabled kids), a school bus stop shall be within 2 miles of the student's home. However, they measure it as the crow flies, not distance along a road. For me when I was young, I was at the end of a cul-de-sac with a canal between me and the bus stop I had to walk around, so i had to walk 2.5 miles to the stop (not sure if they ever changed that). Parents are gonna drive rather then walk several miles round trip to meet their kid at the stop.

[RobbieL2415]

I hate them. Its the government's fault I do along with many others.

Around me, they frequently will not pull off of the major roads for stops. My community has the first house about a quarter mile off of the major road, but the bus still stops in the middle of the major roadway an stops all of the traffic and creates backups for miles. All the stops prior to my community are just one or 2 students, but my community pretty much fills up the bus all by itself. For each school. Then after the bus takes 10 minutes to unload all the students, there is traffic backed up for miles. This is pretty much the only time there is traffic on the road, but with the stop sign at our entry, and traffic for miles stuck behind the bus without a stop sign, and all the parents driving to park on the side of the major roadway, the entire entry is a problem for another 15-20 minutes after that. And another 10-15 minutes later, another bus shows up for the next school and it repeats. Of course I'm going to be rationally hate school buses when it makes my 3 minute trip to the grocery store into a 25 minute trip because I happened to go at the wrong time.

The entire problem could be solved if the bus could pull into the community, ideally off of the roadway to our park and pool in the center. Most parents would then likely walk instead of drive to the bus stop, and parents would trust their kids to walk home a bit more as well as they aren't near the major roadway and on the slow speed limit community roads. I know its not just my neighborhood, but its like this in nearly every single neighborhood around here. They claim it takes too long for the buses to drive 1-2 minutes off of the roadway and they would need more buses and drivers they don't have funding for in order to get the same bus to do all 3 pickups and dropoffs. And I know it would solve the problem entirely, because a year or two ago, we had a handicap kid move into the neighborhood, and they always pickup and dropoff at their house. The problem for that bus was eliminated, until he went to the next school, and they decided to send a van to pick him up separately because of the time it took to drive in again.

If we could get the buses to make sensible stops, pulling off of main roadways and trying to avoid disrupting traffic, even if it takes them an extra 10 minutes for their route, I think the hatred of them would go down drastically. And it would increase the safety for our children as well. I've seen much road rage from people stuck behind the bus for 20 minutes.

That's a fault of bad planning of course. It sounds like the bus is stopping on a suburban arterial....which is something I've probably only seen once in my life here. So does your community/subdivision only have one entrance/exit from this arterial where the bus stops at? If this is the case and it's making drivers angry, why isn't there any discussions with the schools and board about this?

Common sense needs to be applied to this after all, many would really hate the school buses here if they stopped in the middle of six lane arterials dumping entire busloads off.

As for parents DRIVING to the bus stop.....uh really, are you serious? Yes I see it everyday here in suburbia when parents drive their kids 400 feet on the same street to the school because of today's helicopter parenting, but I've never heard of a situation where someone needs to drive to the bus stop.

And as for kids walking to the bus stop themselves, as I said today's helicopter parents would NEVER allow that because there's a fear of an abduction on the way to the bus stop, even though they are probably (even by 1000 fold) more likely to get hit by a car than be abducted.

Thats what they do. Its been brought up many times with the school board, and there answer is always the same: have the buses turn off the arterials takes time to drive off of it, and then its difficult for the large school buses to get back on, and each individual bus is required to serve an elementary, middle, and high school every single day and if they turn into every community they stop at, they would supposedly only be able to serve 2 out of the 3 schools on time on most routes. I've had similar things happen now in the 4 counties in Florida I've lived in (all suburbs), one even had a bus driver get fired for deviating from the route to pull into the entry of our neighborhood after someone hit the bus while they were making a U turn in the entry of the community (off route).

The entry to my neighborhood cannot have grass survive because the sides of the road are a parking lot for the buses 6 times a day. I understand why they're driving, they don't trust their kids waiting for a bus or getting dropped off at a 50mph heavily trafficked arterial road. The county blames us for not giving them yet another sales tax increase which supposedly part of would go for additional buses and drivers to offer closer stops. I believe the rule around here is generally if there are sidewalks (and no disabled kids), a school bus stop shall be within 2 miles of the student's home. However, they measure it as the crow flies, not distance along a road. For me when I was young, I was at the end of a cul-de-sac with a canal between me and the bus stop I had to walk around, so i had to walk 2.5 miles to the stop (not sure if they ever changed that). Parents are gonna drive rather then walk several miles round trip to meet their kid at the stop.

What type of bus does your district use?   Type C or D?   Type D's have a slightly longer wheelbase.

[ET21]

Yes...just because I'm coming from the other direction doesn't mean I have to stop. It's rational if you had to stop behind it, but in front of it in the opposite direction?

If a child is on the opposite side of the road and they need to cross...?

Then you yield to them. Otherwise, keep going

[thenetwork]

Other bus hatreds:

- Being stuck behind a line of buses from a nearby school approaching a railroad crossing...Better pack a lunch!!

- Parents who want to start conversations with the bus driver and who want to keep conversations going after all the kids are long off the bus.

[Brandon]

Other bus hatreds:

- Being stuck behind a line of buses from a nearby school approaching a railroad crossing...Better pack a lunch!!

Now there's an archaic law that needs to disappear pronto.

[Big John]

Other bus hatreds:

- Being stuck behind a line of buses from a nearby school approaching a railroad crossing...Better pack a lunch!!

Now there's an archaic law that needs to disappear pronto.

The law passed in I'm Just a Bill.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0

[MisterSG1]

Other bus hatreds:

- Being stuck behind a line of buses from a nearby school approaching a railroad crossing...Better pack a lunch!!

Now there's an archaic law that needs to disappear pronto.

The law passed in I'm Just a Bill.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0

The question I ask, what is the actual purpose of this law, I don't understand it myself. It makes sense in a case where you are crossing tracks with absolutely NO bells, lights, or barriers, but otherwise I never understood it.

And as for "I'm Just a Bill", is the school bus stopping at railroad crossings a federal law? Or is it a law in every state and thus it defacto is a national law since everyone has it? The regulations here in the province of Ontario about school buses stopping at railroad crossings are found in the Ontario Highway Traffic Act.

[Big John]

^^ I had to look it up, apparently it is the law in every state and a federal law.

This was spawned by a by a bad 1938 collision in Utah leading to state laws: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705338209/Bus-crash-in-1938-led-to-train-laws.html?pg=all

According to this it is also a federal law: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_18733955

[jeffandnicole]

Yes...just because I'm coming from the other direction doesn't mean I have to stop. It's rational if you had to stop behind it, but in front of it in the opposite direction?

If a child is on the opposite side of the road and they need to cross...?

Then you yield to them. Otherwise, keep going

Kids have a tendency to run out into the street on occasion, not remember to look. Thus, the reasoning for all vehicles needing to stop for the bus.

[leroys73]

The US assumes that the person on the road is a total idiot needing to be told exactly how to drive and kept in a safety blanket of clear rules applied without nuance, the UK assumes that the person on the road has some sense and judgement (though less and less, and our fatality rate is stagnating, rather than declining - though it is still half of that in the US).
[/quote]

Well, in my many years of driving I have to say a large number of drivers in the US are complete idiots.  It seems to be a growing number.  I lived in Europe for a few years and drove over most of western Europe.  This even includes the UK where they drive on the "wrong side" of the road.    I even drove a delivery truck for a while.  It has been a few years since this great experience but I would say, at least then, the European drivers, excluding Rome and Paris, are much more sensible than the US drivers. 

I firmly believe the US needs to beef up the requirements to earn a driver's license.  Some states need to do way more than others.  This is one area we need to adopt more of the German requirements.     

[RobbieL2415]

Other bus hatreds:

- Being stuck behind a line of buses from a nearby school approaching a railroad crossing...Better pack a lunch!!

- Parents who want to start conversations with the bus driver and who want to keep conversations going after all the kids are long off the bus.

My mom passed a school bus driver doing this once and was ticketed for doing it.  If it ever happened to me, I'd get out of my car, inform the driver that they are in violation of CGS ch. 248 s.14-277-278 and that I will be calling the police if they refuse to move on.

[jakeroot]

Other bus hatreds:
....
Parents who want to start conversations with the bus driver and who want to keep conversations going after all the kids are long off the bus.

Maybe I just don't drive behind school buses a lot, but I don't think I've ever witnessed this.

My mom passed a school bus driver doing this once and was ticketed for doing it.  If it ever happened to me, I'd get out of my car, inform the driver that they are in violation of CGS ch. 248 s.14-277-278 and that I will be calling the police if they refuse to move on.

You're awfully nice. I'd just get out and start yelling at them, totally incoherently, just to scare them into moving.

[Duke87]

As for parents DRIVING to the bus stop.....uh really, are you serious? Yes I see it everyday here in suburbia when parents drive their kids 400 feet on the same street to the school because of today's helicopter parenting, but I've never heard of a situation where someone needs to drive to the bus stop.

Speaking from personal experience here, when I started high school I found myself getting driven to the bus stop in the morning because while the walk wasn't that far (about 1/4 mile), at 6:30 AM getting me to walk from my bed to the front door was an achievement, 1/4 mile past the front door would have been a marathon. So my father would drive me to the bus stop and then once the bus came, I'd get on it and he'd continue driving to work.

In the afternoon I would walk home from the bus stop by myself no problem. By that point I was awake!

[kkt]

Other bus hatreds:

- Being stuck behind a line of buses from a nearby school approaching a railroad crossing...Better pack a lunch!!

- Parents who want to start conversations with the bus driver and who want to keep conversations going after all the kids are long off the bus.

My mom passed a school bus driver doing this once and was ticketed for doing it.  If it ever happened to me, I'd get out of my car, inform the driver that they are in violation of CGS ch. 248 s.14-277-278 and that I will be calling the police if they refuse to move on.

Heh.  If I tried that, the driver would just laugh.  Not just because CGS isn't Washington laws, but because Seattle Police 911 response time for events that don't involve deadly weapons is 2-3 hours.

[Rothman]

Other bus hatreds:
....
Parents who want to start conversations with the bus driver and who want to keep conversations going after all the kids are long off the bus.

Maybe I just don't drive behind school buses a lot, but I don't think I've ever witnessed this.

Shoot, I remember parents doing that when I was young enough to be riding a school bus.

[jeffandnicole]

Other bus hatreds:

• Being stuck behind a line of buses from a nearby school approaching a railroad crossing...Better pack a lunch!!

• Parents who want to start conversations with the bus driver and who want to keep conversations going after all the kids are long off the bus.

My mom passed a school bus driver doing this once and was ticketed for doing it.  If it ever happened to me, I'd get out of my car, inform the driver that they are in violation of CGS ch. 248 s.14-277-278 and that I will be calling the police if they refuse to move on.

Heh.  If I tried that, the driver would just laugh.  Not just because CGS isn't Washington laws, but because Seattle Police 911 response time for events that don't involve deadly weapons is 2-3 hours.

The proper thing to do would be to call the school district, or better yet, go to a board meeting and complain about the action (make sure you have the location, bus number, time(s) of occurrence, etc) so that way it's on the public record.  I have seen this myself so I know what you're talking about, but really, the police aren't going to do anything about it, even if they were to get there in time.  The conversation probably isn't lasting more than a half-minute, so it's more of the annoyance factor of blocking traffic than a significant delay.

[jakeroot]

Other bus hatreds:
....
Parents who want to start conversations with the bus driver and who want to keep conversations going after all the kids are long off the bus.

Maybe I just don't drive behind school buses a lot, but I don't think I've ever witnessed this.

Shoot, I remember parents doing that when I was young enough to be riding a school bus.

The basic parent-bus driver interaction has been around for years. I've just never witnessed it while I was actively waiting behind a school bus. I've seen them pull off to the side to speak to a parent, but I've never seen them sit there, holding up traffic, as they endlessly yammer on.

[RobbieL2415]

Other bus hatreds:

- Being stuck behind a line of buses from a nearby school approaching a railroad crossing...Better pack a lunch!!

- Parents who want to start conversations with the bus driver and who want to keep conversations going after all the kids are long off the bus.

My mom passed a school bus driver doing this once and was ticketed for doing it.  If it ever happened to me, I'd get out of my car, inform the driver that they are in violation of CGS ch. 248 s.14-277-278 and that I will be calling the police if they refuse to move on.

Heh.  If I tried that, the driver would just laugh.  Not just because CGS isn't Washington laws, but because Seattle Police 911 response time for events that don't involve deadly weapons is 2-3 hours.

The proper thing to do would be to call the school district, or better yet, go to a board meeting and complain about the action (make sure you have the location, bus number, time(s) of occurrence, etc) so that way it's on the public record.  I have seen this myself so I know what you're talking about, but really, the police aren't going to do anything about it, even if they were to get there in time.  The conversation probably isn't lasting more than a half-minute, so it's more of the annoyance factor of blocking traffic than a significant delay.

Better yet, I'd just go to the bus company with my dashcam footage.

[bzakharin]

As for parents DRIVING to the bus stop.....uh really, are you serious? Yes I see it everyday here in suburbia when parents drive their kids 400 feet on the same street to the school because of today's helicopter parenting, but I've never heard of a situation where someone needs to drive to the bus stop.

Speaking from personal experience here, when I started high school I found myself getting driven to the bus stop in the morning because while the walk wasn't that far (about 1/4 mile), at 6:30 AM getting me to walk from my bed to the front door was an achievement, 1/4 mile past the front door would have been a marathon. So my father would drive me to the bus stop and then once the bus came, I'd get on it and he'd continue driving to work.

In the afternoon I would walk home from the bus stop by myself no problem. By that point I was awake!

I went to a private school. In a different town from where I lived. The bus made a single stop in the entire town in the morning. It wasn't too far, so we walked some times, but other families were further away. Granted, the stop was not on a public road, so it didn't affect too many people. In the afternoon, the bus did drop off everyone pretty much where they lived, presumably because the parents weren't home yet to pick their kids up.