The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released best practices on safer routing and stop selection, including the recommendation that districts minimize the need for students to cross any road to or from their school bus.

Proper bus stop characteristics, NHTSA writes in "Selecting School Bus Stop Locations: A Guide for School Transportation Locations," include those with adequate lighting and those where students can congregate and wait for the bus that are at least 12 feet from the roadway, based on the Revised 2005 National School Transportation Specifications and Procedures. School transporters should also consider the surrounding environment, protection from local weather and whether stops should be located at mid-block or on street corners.

NHTSA also advised that the Transportation Cooperative Research Program's "Guidelines for the Location and Design of Bus Stops," which described the advantages and disadvantages of mid-block, near-side and far-side stops, was focused on public transit. Pedestrians on these buses cross behind the bus, but students are universally taught to cross in front of school buses.

NAPT, NASPDTS and NSTA contributed information to the report, which NHTSA compiled along with the help of the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center and the National Center for Safe Routes to School.

The NHTSA guide states that it was created to address the fact that most states only address basic requirements or even guidelines when it comes to school bus stop safety, such as the minimum distance between stops, leaving most decisions up to individual school districts.

For example, the guidelines address concerns regarding parental responsibilities when it comes to supervising children who wait at bus stops or when the students arrive home in the afternoon and evening. While NHTSA said most school transportation professionals recognize parents should be supervising their children before the bus shows up and after it leaves the stop, it is "vital" that school districts clearly communicate these expectations to parents.

NHTSA made several recommendations regarding street-side characteristics for proper bus stop selection. They included: picking routes on streets with lower traffic volumes and lower posted speed limits; minimizing multi-lane roads or avoiding them altogether; selecting roads with sidewalks with sufficient space to walk along the roadway to the stop; and avoiding or limiting stops that require the school bus to make left-hand turns anywhere along the route. NHTSA also called for avoiding stops that require the school bus to back up, routes that cross railroads, if possible, and selecting stops that provide the best visibility for both drivers and student pedestrians.

Examples of poor stops would be those facing the sun during sunrise and sunset times, those obstructed by curves, hills, trees or other vegetation, streets with a large number of parked cars and approaching vehicles, and roads with snowdrifts from snow plows.

NHTSA also recommended that schools work with local departments of transportation on erecting school bus stop signage that indicates to other motorists at an "adequate distance" the presence of an upcoming school bus stop, per the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

Editor's note: The NHTSA guide book contains an error in the Introduction on page one. It states that, of the 20 school-aged fatalities each year in school bus-related crashes, "five of the children are injured on the bus." NHTSA instead meant to write five fatalities, on average, occur on the bus during crashes. A federal representative confirmed the error and said a fix was in the works.