In my experience, the problem was long wait times between buses and unreliable pickup times. That meant you realistically had to add buffer at each end of your trip: in case the bus was early and in case the bus was late. Not only was that more than 20% of my trip time, it was also mental overhead of worrying whether you already missed the bus.

The bus might come 2x per hour. Maybe 2:18 and 2:48. But it might come at 2:15 or 2:25. So you need to arrive at 2:13 and possibly wait 12 minutes. Or if you arrive late you might be waiting 30+ minutes.

Make the buses fast and safe.

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adgjlsfhk1 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Removing unnecessary bus stops is a prerequisite to making busses fast. You can't run a fast bus service if the bus is stopping every single block.

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janalsncm 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

There already are “express” buses that don’t stop at every stop. They don’t solve the issues I described above. Cutting the time between bus arrivals would be a much more effective solution.

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oblio 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

There are 2 big prerequisites for fast bus service :

1. Dedicated bus lanes (speed, predictability).

2. Traffic light priority ( speed, predictability).

How many US cities implement even one of those?

	▲	angmarsbane 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Dedicated bus lanes that are physically separated from car traffic specifically, like the BRT system in Mexico City.
	▲	adgjlsfhk1 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Not nearly enough

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thomastjeffery 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

That optimizes speed, not latency.

I don't care how long it takes to get off the bus nearly as much as I care how long it takes to get on.

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enragedcacti 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

For fixed route transit, speed is latency. The faster the bus can make the average trip, the tighter the timetable can be given the same number of buses. Fewer stops also improves consistency which means you can plan to arrive at the stop closer to the scheduled time, and timetables can be tightened even more by reducing the layover times that keep the bus synchronized with the time table.

Separately, the variability problem can be somewhat solved with the real-time location updates that many agencies provide. You'll still have to wait the same amount of time, but some of it can be done comfortably in your house when the bus is running late.

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paddy_m 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It helps with latency too or schedule padding. Bus schedules are unreliable because of all the stops which slow them down and encourage bunching of busses on a route with a lot of service.

	▲	tartoran 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Bus bunching is often blamed on traffic or scheduling, but in my experience in NYC, a lack of enforcement and/or accountability plays a role too. I live near one end of a bus line and commute to the other end 5 days day a week. On a daily basis, there are large gaps where buses miss their scheduled times. Then, as they approach the end of the line, they arrive and depart in groups of three or four, which only worsens the problem.

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adgjlsfhk1 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

For a fixed number of busses, the faster the busses are traveling the less time there is between busses.

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hinkley 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I reliably pickup times are amplified by the number of stops that are made. The stop and go time is fixed. The amount of time it takes 2 people to exit a bus versus four is lot linear. It depends on how full the bus is. But it definitely does slow down when people are getting off and on at every single stop.