Aren Type C school buses the “original” school bus?
Sort of. The Type C school bus, also known as a “conventional,” is a body installed upon a flat-back cowl chassis with a gross vehicle weight rating of more than 10,000 pounds, designed for carrying more than 10 persons. All of the engine is in front of the windshield and the entrance door is behind the front wheels. Type C school buses meet all Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for school buses. Type Cs are the traditional school buses depicted in movies and on TV shows and has become as synonymous with the U.S. public education system if not more so than the little red school house and the apple on the teacher’s desk of yesteryear. Increasingly, these buses are also equipped with wheelchair lifts to accomodate students with disabilities. But, to be technical, the first school buses were called cowls, basically enclosed horsedrawn carriages that evolved into motorized vehicles in the early 20th century.
