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Comment by ii0v0ii | Hacker News Reader

Buses have to let people off, as well as on, no?

Buses don't stop at unoccupied bus-stops, unless someone dings the bell.

The faster bus skipping stops where people are waiting, so they can be picked up by the next bus does work; I've seen it in action.

Which, as a patron who doesn't want to sit for an hour in the sun, is really not acceptable. The bus is not supposed to be in a race, they are supposed to make predictable stops along a predetermined route.

Most bus stops I have used in the US dont have covered shelters or enough space for passengers to wait outside of the elements. Usually this means sitting under the overhang of a nearby business. If the bus doesn't want to stop for whatever reason and blows by, it sucks.

Maybe a better future would be a public bus app or button at the stop that I can press to say I am waiting, but until that day, they should stop.

We're talking about bus bunching here. The bus is skipping your stop because there's an empty one right behind it.

This is great in theory, but not in practice. A bus in back sees the bus in front stop so it passes. However the bus in front might be full and only drops off one pasenger while more than one pasenger is waiting to board and are thus denied. Again, simple dismissal of the problem is ignorant of reality.

This is why I mentioned communication: surely there is a system that drivers could implement themselves with a code or something.

A better future is getting a car or hopping on a bike.

Bunching happens most often with crowded buses and results in the front bus in a cluster becoming crowded. Crowded buses are most likely to have people getting off at every stop. The ones I take often have people ringing for every stop even when nearly empty.

Depends where. Suppose it's the evening rush hour, and the bus route is along a business district, headed toward a train station. The bus is basically picking people up at multiple locations and then everyone gets off at the station.

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