Not sure if this was ever done, but has anyone ever seen a remake of the school bus to a 'short bus'? Not many sims actually get on the bus at any one time and a shorter version would work great for those of us who use the tiny lots. Usually a car pool would enter a normal size lot and the bus would show up behind it, hence kids could board the bus while older sims go into a car pool or even taxi, then both vehicles could leave the lot right away. With the tiny lot car pool or taxi would load up passengers and leave, then the bus could enter the lot for kids and teens, who would usually roam off to do something or even play tag and waste more time. Other times this would be reversed if the bus showed up first. If it takes up too much time the next vehicle could leave before a sim even got to it. (:

One of the many reason I use larger lots.

I never got on the bandwagon for tiny lots, most of mine are 3x3 or larger.

I'm not sure that a shorter bus would help. I think its programming reserves a certain amount of space in front of the lot regardless of the size of the vehicle. I think this because I've had a school bus default that was a smaller vehicle -- a horse and a small wagon, specifically -- and it had the same problem with a small lot. I'm not sure if this can be changed.

But this is why, if I'm playing a tiny residential and have kids that go to school, I stop the bus from coming (There's a sign that will do it) and have the kids walk to school instead. They'll still come home on a bus, but that doesn't cause the same problems as parents and kids who need to leave for work/school at the same time. It's not just the "traffic jam," after all. There's also the issue of the carpool coming first and the parents not leaving because they can't leave kids alone on the lot. That'll happen with single parents, especially. So...yeah.

Of course you need BV or newer to have the "Walk to School" function.

I have walk to and do use it if there's 3 or more kids, some I send to walk while others climb onto the bus. I thought a shorter one might only work for looks, just wasn't sure. Guess my sims walkers can't tease the others for riding the short bus then. (:

I would love a shorter bus too, but as Icad mentioned, I am pretty sure the space it needs to occupy in front of a lot might not be editable...so we'd be stuck with the same problem.

For non-ownable vehicles the game calculates the stop location on the fly using the lead tile's Multi-Tile sub index so the length doesn't matter. Most custom vehicles use a single tile though so the calculation fails and they stop at the far edge of the lot as a last resort. In A&N for custom schools any career vehicle can be assigned so for example a military school can use the Hummer.
Somewhere I have the original testing code for that and should be able to put it together as a mod using perhaps a re-colour of the default mini-van.

That sounds great, would love to see something smaller pulling up to a house. (:

I think it be great fun to have a short school bus!