In message , at 17:42:38 on
Tue, 19 Sep 2017, Guy Gorton remarked:

I think I use the 655 more often than the school children.

So non-school people can use school buses in London?

From the picture, it's not actually a school bus as such, just an
ordinary double-decker bus deployed to a route aimed mainly at school
kids.

hich is what a school bus is in London (and I think UK) We don't have
the silly waste of separate school buses that the US have. Although that
does mean that some of ours are not very good buses.

Nobody seems to have mentioned the main reason for the yellow US
school bus - it has protected status on the road. It is illegal to
pass it when it stops,

I think that's "pass it when it has its 'Stop' sign out". Some local
jurisdictions might have "pass one ever, at all".

not just on your side of the road but on the
other side too. As far as I know, the rule does not apply to the
other carriage way of a divided highway (to use the US terminology).
I have driven many thousands of miles in the USA and have never seen
anyone defy that rule.. Its unfortunate spin off is that children
adopt an arrogant saunter across the road and do not learn respect for
traffic..

Some of them are driven like Fire Trucks too - "I believe I have
absolute priority, so get the f*ck out of my way". Especially when
exiting blind from school premises.
--
Roland Perry