The waiting time paradox: why is my bus always late? (2018)

There's another thing that happens with busses that makes it worse.

The further behind the previous bus a bus is, the more people will arrive at the bus stop. The more people there are at the stop, the longer the bus has to spend picking them all up and selling them tickets etc. Therefore the delayed bus will tend to experience more delay. The bus behind them will have less people to pick up, so it will spend a shorter time at stops and tend to catch up with the first bus, so the two busses are dragged towards each other.

>the longer the bus has to spend picking them all up and selling them tickets etc.

In my country, apart from an app/ online, you can buy a ticket pretty much anywhere. I guess someone worked out that bus drivers with money are a potential theft risk, and also that selling tickets on the bus takes time and makes busses late(r than they would be).

The slickest process I've seen is to just swipe your credit card, without any setup whatsoever.

Often the most expensive though. You're paying the highest individual fare rate, possibly plus card processing fees.

If you buy a transit pass or use their app you can get significant discounts.

in big cities in the uk (edinburgh, london, etc.) paying with a contactless tap of a debit card each journey will never result in paying more than the cheapest daily, weekly etc. travel pass. single tickets are gbp 2.00 and a daaily pass is gbp 5.00 so individual journeys are recorded and counted (when paid for with the same card, obviously) and at the end of the day, if more than three journeys have been made the total charge for the day is capped at gbp 5.00 - and the weekly total is also capped at the value of a weekly pass, etc.