Photo by Colton McKee

By Hayley Ferguson

School Bus Confusion

City bylaw causing confusion around lack of school bus lights

Oct 4, 2019 | 4:15 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – Children have been back in school for about a month now which means yellow buses are back on the roads.

There seems to be some confusion on social media though about which kinds of lights should or should not be flashing on those buses.

Janessa Pope, who is the safety and training supervisor for Southland Transportation, says when outside city limits drivers use their eight-way system.

That’s not allowed within city limits though.

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“Medicine Hat’s bylaw states that we are not to use our eight-way system which is the flashing red and amber lights on the top of the bus or the stop arm or crossing arm that comes out,” Pope explained.

The bylaw was put in place in the 1980s in hopes of children becoming more aware of their surroundings.

“It’s to encourage the children to actually use the crosswalk in town,” Pope continued. “They feel that using the eight-way system slows down traffic and upsets drivers and road users. Plus it gives the children a false sense of security,” said Pope.

Pope says that she gets calls regularly from people who are concerned about the lack of lights since Southland operates the buses for all three districts in the area.

Which means there can different rules during a single route.

“I think it causes major confusion because one area does it one way and the other does it the other. So it causes confusion for drivers, passengers, students, and road users in general.”

Medicine Hat isn’t alone in their thinking behind banning the eight-way system.

The cities of Lethbridge and Calgary also put similar bylaws in place around the same time.