2nd bus waiting at bus stop, needs to be completly out of traffic lane

[28rommel]

Most of my bus stops are created alongside a road, in where the special indented bus lane that is formed (alongside the road and into the sidewalk area) is quite lengthy.
When a bus comes to a stop, the bus completely veers into this indented lane, and all other traffic can pass alongside it, while it is unloading and loading passengers (this is obviously good).

The problem is with a bus that is waiting immediately behind (we will call it bus #2) the first bus that is still sitting at the bus stop (bus #1).
About 95% of bus#2 is in the special indented lane, but the 5% (extreme corner of the bus) that is still in the traffic lane, holds-up all traffic that is trying to move (this is obviously bad). There is plenty of room in the special indented lane, for bus #2 to merge completely over, and get-out of the traffic lane allowing other vehicles to pass, but for some reason it won't go all the way over.

I would like to see the developers change this, and allow bus #2 to completely merge into the special indented lane. Note that I an not asking that bus #2 also be allowed to unload and load passengers when completely behind bus #1, but only that it is over and no longer obstructing the normal flow of traffic. Bus #2 will thus wait for bus #1 to leave, then take its place, and only then can it unload and load passengers.

Even before this new update, and the increased problem of new longer queues of buses, due to (supposed) delay of buses leaving to alleviate "bunching," this issue was always on my mind.
More than ever now, it would be fair for the developers to fix this, so as to help balance out with the new "problem" we see today.

 

[Kristian295]

I also noticed that the bus stop bays are quite long for one bus. Maybe it would be a nice feature to allow two busses at the same stop to load/unload at the same time.

//Kristian

 

[TokibooGER]

Especially the bus stop bay gets longer when you add a second line to the same stop (if there is enough space)
So it would be fantastic if more than one bus could be loaded/unloaded at the same stop at the same time.

 

[Kristian295]

So it would be fantastic if more than one bus could be loaded/unloaded at the same stop at the same time.

You could even add to that by making a bus wait for a bus of another line just entering the same bus stop to allow direct connection for passengers.

 

[TokibooGER]

You could even add to that by making a bus wait for a bus of another line just entering the same bus stop to allow direct connection for passengers.

Yes, that would be perfect, too.

 

[Kryo]

did anyone try using the 4 lanes road with bus lanes for this? This could be already working. Use this kind of street for busy bus stops

 

[Kristian295]

did anyone try using the 4 lanes road with bus lanes for this? This could be already working. Use this kind of street for busy bus stops

It is working, indeed. But that's not what was asked for. Using a 4-lane road, gets quiet unrealistic in some parts of a town. For example in the old town where most building might be under monument protection, you cannot just demolish them for a bigger road...
Secondly, this doesn't solve the problem completely, as busses aren't the only vehicles using the bus lane in Cities Skylines.

 

[TokibooGER]

busses aren't the only vehicles using the bus lane in Cities Skylines.

This is another point. I cannot understand why "normal cars" are using the bus lane.
I mean if the police, ambulance and fire department would use the bus lane to get through the traffic jam more quickly..., but the turning cars just clog this lane.
As part of the last updated, where the "emergency services" can now overtake cars, this would be a fantastic feature.

 

[humorpalanta]

One more thing that is connected to this problem. I don't understand why other vehicles can't change lanes to solve this problem. There are 3 lanes, bus blocks 1 by waiting for the stop. 2 lanes are completely unused because the traffic doesn't use them. Bus holds them up and there is a huge congestion while there are 2 fking empty lanes. Sometimes I can solve the problem by bus lanes or just ban cars from that lane so they have to use the second one but it is frustrating. I don't understand why it would be so hard to implement a solution for this. Changing lanes at any part of the road and bypass waiting buses.

 

[Kryo]

Yes it would be really an overall great improvement if cars would change lanes if it benefits them. But its a major change to the base functionality of the game.

 

[28rommel]

One other thing I wanted to point-out, is that the game places the actual small bus stop shelter (where the cims stand and wait), in the very center of the special indented bus lane. So when the bus comes to a stop, it stops in the very center, and there is at least a one (possibly 1-1/2) bus-length worth of space in the front part of the indented bus lane, that is wasted and unused.

If the developers could move the bus stop to the "front" part of the indented bus lane (rather than in the very center), then it would be easier for at least one additional bus to merge completely out of the traffic lane. Actually, in areas where I have some of my bus stops, I have some quite lengthy indented bus lanes in my city. Here, I can see that a total of 3 buses could easily fit and be out of traffic (meaning one bus currently unloading and loading passengers, and two additional buses waiting behind the first bus).

Note to Developers : I'm not going to "push my luck" and ask for 3 buses to be out of traffic. If you can at least do two buses (bus #1 and bus #2), I would be happy.

 

[28rommel]

Possible Work-around Solution ...

Well, it doesn't seem like the developers are going to help with this issue (I first created this thread in Dec 2016), so I came up with a solution on my own. I wanted to share it with the rest of you, especially those of us that play with the base game only (having less additional features as a possible work-around to the problem).

So what I do, is I create a tiny dead-end street to hold/accommodate the bus stop. By doing this, you get the busses off of the main road and they will not clutter-up and create a huge backup of traffic. As you can see from the first image below, I have created two of these tiny dead-end bus-depots. The one on the right-hand side of the screen, accommodating the pink colored bus line, has a south-to-north directional bus route. The one on the left-hand side with the green bus, accommodates a north-to-south bus route.

The second image below (with the yellow bus line), shows how I used one of these tiny dead-end bus depots to not only get the busses off of the main road, but is an excellent way to reverse the bus line and go back in the opposite direction.

If you want to try this in your city, here are some pointers to keep in mind:

• Use two-lane road to create.
• These tiny dead-end bus depots, can be created with a road length as small as only 3 cells in length (you create 3 cells of road, but it takes a total of 4 cells in length with the last row of cells accommodating the very back-end tip, of the dead-end street). There is an example of a 4 (3+1) cell length dead-end bus depot, in the first image below with the pink colored bus.
• ALWAYS place the bus stop on the exit side of the dead-end street. So the bus should enter the dead-end street, make a U-turn at the end of the street and then stop at the bus stop. For example: the exact locations of the pink and green busses in the first image below, are immediately in front of their respective bus stop.
• You can place the dead-end street near a large intersection (as I did in both images below) as long as the intersection is not too heavily congested with other traffic. If the large intersection is too congested, and you fear that a close dead-end street may create more havoc, you may want to try moving the dead-end street farther away from the main intersection.
• One draw-back in creating these dead-end bus depots, is that they will create a pedestrian cross walk, across the main street. But having the dead-end street near a large intersection with pedestrian overhead bridges (as in the first image below) can be beneficial. What happens is that 99% of your citizens will use the pedestrian overhead bridges to get from one side of the street to the other, and will not use the cross walks.
• When there are many busses lined-up inside the dead-end street, you will sometimes notice that the busses are transparently on top of one another and thus occupying the same space. This is obviously not "aesthetically pleasing" to the eye or realistic, but it can get 4, 5, 6 busses (or more) off of the main road and into the dead-end street (which is our main objective).
• When you create one of these dead-end streets, it will obviously create an intersection of its own onto the main road. The default game mechanics will thus create a signal light at this intersection. You MUST remove the signal light (I have no signal light and no stop signs).
• The dead-end street will create cells along side the road for growables. NEVER create growables that FACE TOWARDS the dead-end street. By avoiding this, you will avoid the necessity of trash trucks, police cars (and other service vehicles) needing to constantly go into the dead-end street. Thus, try to keep these dead-end streets for bus traffic only.
• Unfortunately, other vehicles will occasionally go into the dead-end street to use it as a convenient way of reversing their direction. At other times, passenger cars will use the dead-end street to park (and then exit their car to then walk).

 

[havenost]

They honest really should fix this, I honestly don't get why they haven't yet.