Why Do Buses Bunch?
setosa.io
Why Do Buses Bunch?
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Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?
#2It's effectively a greedy algorithm where the first occurrence takes the most time, and there are no passengers left for the second bus, so it's load time is lower, and it will catch up.
It's a pretty visualization though :)
Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?
#3Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?
#4[deleted]
Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?
#5It is also worth noting that in real life passengers are not uniformly distributed through time. When school lets out, or a train arrives at the station full of transfer passengers, etc. you can get a huge burst of traffic at one stop that screws up everything.
This can have knockback effects, because if buses show up late to their terminal they have now also started their return trip late.
EDIT: edited a word
Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?
#6Thanks for letting me relive nightmare memories of Grand Ave in Chicago! I always wondered, why couldn't the bus drivers be in communication and have the front bus just skip a couple of stops (where people are waiting) when they bunched, which was often even 3 buses!
Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?
#7This is very common in Manhattan. Whenever I saw a full bus, I'd skip it and wait for the next one, because it was almost certainly going to come along within 5 minutes and be pleasantly uncrowded. On a busy route, it's the sensible choice.
On longer-distance commuter routes, where the scheduled times are 30-60 minutes apart, I wouldn't usually take a chance on waiting for the next one, but I even did that on occasion when a bus was particularly-overcrowded.
Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?
#8Thanks for letting me relive nightmare memories of Grand Ave in Chicago! I always wondered, why couldn't the bus drivers be in communication and have the front bus just skip a couple of stops (where people are waiting) when they bunched, which was often even 3 buses!
If nobody signals to get off, buses sometimes will skip if they're bunched. I've seen it in at least three cities before. I have no idea if it's policy or if the drivers on those routes juts took matters into their own hands.
I see bunched buses on the stop right outside my work basically every day. Sometimes four from one route and another three from another parallel route all within a ~5 minute span.
Mercer in Seattle is... not great for traffic.
Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?
#9Thanks for letting me relive nightmare memories of Grand Ave in Chicago! I always wondered, why couldn't the bus drivers be in communication and have the front bus just skip a couple of stops (where people are waiting) when they bunched, which was often even 3 buses!
Buses have to let people off, as well as on, no?
Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?
#10This is very common in Manhattan. Whenever I saw a full bus, I'd skip it and wait for the next one, because it was almost certainly going to come along within 5 minutes and be pleasantly uncrowded. On a busy route, it's the sensible choice. On longer-distance commuter routes, where the scheduled times are 30-60 minutes apart, I wouldn't usually take a chance on waiting for the next one, but I even did that on occasio…
It's mostly been fixed in London. They used to be famous for no busses for 20 mins then 3 at once but they are now controlled by a central computer system which knows all the positions via gps and cell data.