Optimizing Bus Transit: How Reducing Bus Stops Can Improve Efficiency and Speed

Bus stop balancing is fast, cheap, and effective. It can turn a service people tolerate into one they're happy to use.

The problem with buses is that they are slow. For example, buses in New York City and San Francisco crawl along at a paltry eight miles per hour, only about double walking speeds in the fastest countries.

When people talk about improving transit, they mention ambitious rail tunnels and shiny new trains. But they less often discuss the humble bus – which moves more people than rail in the US, the EU, and the UK – and whose ridership has bounced back more quickly after Covid than rail.

There are lots of ways to speed up buses, including bus lanes and busways, congestion pricing, transit-prior