School bus stop-arm violations occur every day in the United States. In Minnesota, however, violation and citation data suggest these offenses are grossly underreported and underenforced. For example, in 2023, 96 to 99 percent of estimated violations were unreported and only 0.4 to 1.6 percent of estimated violators received citations across the state.
Following a thorough analysis of the entire lifecycle of the violation-to-citation process, University of Minnesota research found there were multiple barriers to reporting and enforcement, including confusing and redundant processes, poor or fragmented lines of communication, and limited resources.
The study—led by Brian Davis, associate director of the University of Minnesota’s Human Factors Safety Laboratory (HFSL) and a CTS scholar—highlighted how process inefficiencies contributed to many underreported school bus stop-arm violations. HFSL director and CTS scholar Nichole Morris served as co-principal investigator on the study, which was sponsored by the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Minnesota Local Road Research Board.
“The idea underpinning this project is that supporting the safety of students traveling to and from school is important work,” Davis says. “This project presented an interesting intersection between our skill set of examining human-system interactions and student safety.”
The project aimed to streamline the process for reporting school bus stop-arm violations across the state to encourage increased reporting and enforcement.
The researchers began by conducting site visits and interviews with bus and law enforcement agencies— including the St. Paul Police Department, Minnesota State Patrol, St. Paul Schools Transportation Department, and NorthStar bus lines—to examine the reporting process for violations. They also analyzed data from the School Bus Illegal Passing Driver Survey, the Minnesota State Patrol stop-arm violation online report, and Minnesota court citation data for school bus stop-arm violations.
The researchers found that the current reporting process, which takes approximately 63 minutes per incident to complete, was inefficient. That process starts with a bus driver needing to recall from memory the demographic information about a violator and the make, model, color, and license plate of the vehicle involved, which is recorded on a paper form.
Next, a bus administrator thoroughly reviews the information and collects any video evidence. Violation information is then sent to the appropriate law enforcement agency and transcribed into the Minnesota State Patrol online survey. At that point, law enforcement must decide whether to issue a citation.
The researchers found that trends were inconsistent statewide, with no clear connection between the number of incidents reported or people cited and a community’s population density, local police force size, or number of injury crashes.
Based on its findings, the team recommends the implementation of a statewide, web-based, centralized reporting portal for bus companies to report violation events, upload relevant video and image files, and automatically route reports to the appropriate law enforcement agencies.
The portal would include a database to track law enforcement activity for reported violations while also providing data to analyze where enforcement processes may need refinement. Violation details would be provided in a format that increases the efficiency of officer review and the administrative work in issuing citations.
“The goal of this project is to improve safety, reduce risk, and change driver behavior,” says Scot Edgeworth, program coordinator for the Minnesota Toward Zero Deaths metro region and technical liaison for the project. “Communication and collaboration can support this effort and create a safer experience for everyone—especially children.”
The research team also created a streamlined, standardized reporting form, available digitally and on paper, for agencies to adopt.
—Olivia Hanson, CTS communications intern
