Rural School Bus Safety Program

The Rural School Bus Safety Program is delivering safer, more comfortable and more convenient bus interchanges for primary and secondary school students in regional Victoria.

The program consists of works to improve the safety of transport facilities at primary and secondary schools and roadside school bus stops in regional Victoria.

The program aims to:

• separate bus and non-bus traffic (parents' and teachers' cars, pedestrians and non-bus users)
• remove the need for buses to reverse at school stops
• provide safety fencing between student marshalling areas and roadways
• improve student amenity by providing bus shelters.

Improvements at school bus interchanges include:

• road works
• building bus bays
• improving shelters and other waiting areas
• safety fencing.

Works at roadside bus stops include:

• providing gravelled standing areas for buses
• widening road shoulders to allow buses to stand clear of other traffic
• improving visibility by removing shrubs and foliage
• providing shelters, where appropriate.

More than 170 school bus interchanges and 1,000 roadside school bus stops have been upgraded since the program was introduced in 1999.