Re:Why Do Buses Bunch?
by inferiorhuman on Tuesday April 02, 2019 @08:32PM
(#19559841)
Either way that's a great use of technology. AVLs and annunciators aren't exactly new technology (both exist with SF's Muni, for instance), but the MTA has definitely not used this data to avoid bunching — even in the subway.
Yeah. Sometimes when you get a bus to X it'll stop saying 'this bus terminates here' after about one stop, well short of X. When I asked the driver WTF he said it's the computer system and if they have too many empty busses going down one route they'll reallocate. There's nearly always another bus a couple of minutes behind to take you to X.
I was thinking someone could build quite a lot of the functionality into a free phone app if the drivers were willing to use it.
It's not actually clear if the de-bunching is algorithms or humans:
>Headway information, the time gap between consecutive buses, will be available to a bus driver at all times on a screen so that they can make decisions such as slowing down or speeding up to help maintain a regulated service and stop undesirable ‘bunching’ of buses.