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Why Do Buses Bunch?

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Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?

#31

Post by cimmanom »

adrianmonk wrote: post #26

Would it help to have the trailing bus pass the leading bus when they bunch up? My reasoning: (1) As the article said, full buses move slower because more passengers means more boarding/unboarding time at stops. (2) The lead bus is the fuller, slower one. Slower bus in front means buses get closer together. (3) If one bus passes the other, then you have the faster bus in front and the slower one behind. They should t…

They do that in NY. It typically equalizes and returns to bunching within a few stops, especially on busy routes.

Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?

#32

Post by komali2 »

adrianmonk wrote: post #26

Would it help to have the trailing bus pass the leading bus when they bunch up? My reasoning: (1) As the article said, full buses move slower because more passengers means more boarding/unboarding time at stops. (2) The lead bus is the fuller, slower one. Slower bus in front means buses get closer together. (3) If one bus passes the other, then you have the faster bus in front and the slower one behind. They should t…

My first thought is that this would break a shitload of software around bus time indicators - i.e. on bus stops and presumably whatever API the website talks to. I believe the buses function like trains in that sense - they're numbered not just by route, but by actual bus.

Would be nice though.

Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?

#33

Post by r0ffles »

jboles wrote: post #27
gordo4 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That app was built by a UW student and uses estimated data based on the schedule, as far as I know. It's not accurate... unless things have changed in the last year or so since I moved.

It's always been real-time location data. At one point it was pretty low-tech (odometer hooked up to a radio transmitter) but it's now been GPS-based for ~5 years.

Are we talking about OneBusAway?

Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?

#34

Post by cimmanom »

kazinator wrote: post #16
ii0v0ii wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?

#35

Post by the_fonz »

caymanjim wrote: post #7

This 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…

There's something to be said for explicitly commuting the least distance (constrained by affordability) and not when everyone else is:

1. less time wasted -> a. more time to be productive in primary pursuits, b. more leisure time and c. if during business hours, more productivity accomplishing errands

2. less stress

Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?

#36

Post by cimmanom »

munk-a wrote: post #23
kazinator wrote: post #15

How buses bunch is fairly ovious: the trailing bus has few people to pick up so it moves faster, uselessly catching up to the full bus. Why they bunch up is actually a different reason: the operators don't give a darn about sticking to schedules and/or tracking the other buses and maintaining space.

Out here (vancouver) operators are allowed to skip stops when full, so they are able to recover from this state gracefully. Depending on the frequency of the bus route I'd prefer adherence to a schedule vs. efforts to minimize bunching. With frequent buses I think the schedule ends up being irrelevant - but if the hourly bus I occasionally take pulls in fifteen minutes early or late then I will be pissed, especially…

Are they allowed to also skip stops where people want to get off?

Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?

#37

Post by sethammons »

I've always wondered why we don't just account for full bus/train loading deloading plus a buffer. Each stop has the mass transit stop for multiple minutes. Bingo, automatic buffer. If the bus is running late, it stops briefly.

Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?

#39

Post by massivecali »

kazinator wrote: post #16
ii0v0ii wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Re: Why Do Buses Bunch?

#40

Post by kilbuz »

bobthepanda wrote: post #5

It 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

Not to be a pedant (too late), but you probably meant 'uniformly distributed' in this case.
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