That's fantastic that you have that data available to you.

They get scared if they don’t have a buddy

Have you tried the Circuit car that drives around Somerville? I’m curious about it but have not had a reason to explore it.

I haven’t tried it yet either but it does sound cool

I would sometimes play a game where I would walk to the next bus stop so I had something to do while waiting for the bus when there was a long wait or significant delay. Then I'd get to the next stop, check the new delay, realize I could probably walk to the next stop and still catch the bus. Repeat this a couple times and half the time I'd beat the bus to my destination.

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Would suck to see the bus pass you as you're walking to the next stop

The few times I've had to rely on this bus, I've always waited for 2-3 buses past the one I expected to catch

I started calling the 86 "The Phantom Bus" in my head because Google Maps will say "in 3 minutes" and the next time I check, it'll say "in 11 minutes" as if i missed the first bus with my eyes open

Why does this happen? My local bus does the same too sometimes and it isn't always because one is overcrowded either. It's like the bus guys just wait until the last possible minute then all the make the drive.

This used to just be my regular commute.

It’s called “bus bunching” if you’d like to look up some articles and videos about it

The 86 is the fucking worst

one time, at bus summer camp, one of them went off alone in the woods and never came back.

a few years later, a bus drowned too.

hence, bus buddy system or "bussy" for short. so, if you ever hear anyone mention bussy, now you can proudly declare "oh, i know exactly what that is and why we need it!"

everyone needs a little bussy in their life

Statistics :) and primarily subpar infrastructure design

the 66 and the 47 would like to have a word with you.

this happens to me all the time with the 66.

It will be 2 66 buses 5 minutes away, and another 1 or 2 buses in 30 minutes.

god forbid they find a way to spread them more evenly...

Years ago I'd do this with the 57 in the morning but when the weather was bad I'd walk upstream to get a better chance at a seat. A few times I made it from St Elizabeth's nearly the whole way to Oak Square before finally getting a bus.

Basically, bus bunching happens because when a bus gets behind it creates a self-reinforcing feedback loop.

Say a handful of strollers happen to get on a bus near rush hour and make loading and unloading slower than in the average situation. Now the bus is behind, and the further behind it gets, the more people are waiting at each stop, the more overcrowded it gets, the further behind it gets, and the cycle compounds until the next bus catches up and possibly jumps ahead to start picking up the excess passengers who are waiting at the stops.

Just remember, you get 1 bus per 1 unit time. Not 1 bus every unit time. 3 buses every 45 min is the same as 1 bus per 15 min as far as the MBTA is concerned.

The 77 does this all the time, it’s super frustrating when you wait an extra 15-20 minutes at a stop just for 3 of the same bus to pass by you as soon as you get off.

this happened to me the other day. the worst part, there was some Irish cop funeral happening, and there were a bunch of uniformed cops talking on the sidewalk. so i had to walk through them once, where i could feel them all looking at me, and then i saw by bus zoom past me.

then to add insult to injury i had to angrily walk back through the group of sad Irish cops 🥲