This morning, I got on the second of three buses that pulled up at my stop. Generally, the rule of thumb for me is that the second bus will arrive at the subway (not too far, about a 5-10 minute ride) first. And the second bus will more likely have seats.
The first and second buses made it though the green light, leaving the third bus behind (one reason why my rule of thumb generally works). Both buses arrive at the first stop, which is one of only a few not to have a bus bay. Both buses leave at the same time after letting people off. The next stop, the first bus pulls in. Generally, the second bus would pull ahead to pick people up at the next stop, with some leapfrogging. But it works with bunched buses fairly well. But this driver would have none of that, stopping his bus in the driving lane behind the bus stopped ahead, and kept doing this all the way to the subway.
So we're delayed because the driver refused to play the normal game of leapfrog. The bus in front of us is getting more and more crowded while there's seats galore in our bus.
I heard drivers will often do this, so they do less work, so if this is done, bunching gets worse. And passengers lose.
