>>1180750If nothing was to be done, that pic of bus jam is still a better alternative than if you didn't have those buses. Imagine if instead of the bus it was all cars - say conservatively 30 people per bus, I count well over 20 buses in that pic, assuming 1 person/car, that'd be >600 cars. So take that congestion and add 600 cars and it'd be even worse. I would also argue it's actually the cars that are causing the congestion by getting in the way of the buses.
Now for improving buses, the most ideal strategies would be totally separated and protected bus lanes. This means asshole ubers and taxis cannot double park, stop, or even get into the bus lanes. In my city we have many bus lanes but they are blocked a substantial amount of the time. What also happens is right turns. They have it designed so anyone making a right turn can enter the bus lane and turn from it. This is a ped heavy city, so basically every right turn is delayed due to the presence of peds. So now you have a guy trying to turn right, sometimes waiting upwards of a minute for a gap in peds, with buses stacking up behind trying to go straight. It's a total failure. Therefore you really need completely protected bus only lanes, no one else allowed, not even stupid cops who also LOVE to stop other cars in the bus lanes, and even better still make sure your traffic signals are timed in such a way that buses can more easily navigate turns or busy intersections.
For bus on bus traffic, you also need your stops setup with bus bays. This means a bus using that stop pulls off the bus lane and into the stop, allowing other buses to pass by it. Again in my city, many of the major streets have sometimes over a dozen bus lines which do not all share the same stops. Without room to pull out of the bus lane, you get every line blocked by the other lines. I also think reducing the number of stops can be beneficial. Many lines here are setup with insanely close stops, literally every block.
