Busses wait too long at stops

[antis62]

After updating game to 1.7 (from 1.5) my bus lines started to wait at bus stops more than 5 sec which caused traffic backing up. I tried to deleting and recreating lines but it didnt help. Anyone know how can i fix this problem?

 

[metacritical]

it's probably due to the unbunching process. this behaviour happened with the unbunching mods i used to use.

 

[Son of Thor]

After updating game to 1.7 (from 1.5) my bus lines started to wait at bus stops more than 5 sec which caused traffic backing up. I tried to deleting and recreating lines but it didnt help. Anyone know how can i fix this problem?

I'm with you. antis62. Not always, but often, I'm now seeing busses and metros waiting longer than it used to. Metro lines (unobstructed) used to leave the station as the passengers left the station. Now, the passengers have left and disbursed before they leave. Buses exhibit similar behavior. I wonder if the game is trying to create some separation in vehicles, more like an actual service. Sometimes they behave just like they did before. Worth keeping an eye on.

 

[tadzio90]

Why dont we have an option, to turn off unbunching? This option created epic traffic jams, cause buses stop on road for a very long time...

 

[ristosal]

This option created epic traffic jams, cause buses stop on road for a very long time...

My take on this is that unbunching congestion is usually a consequence of other traffic problems, not the other way around. Sometimes I'm observing extended unbunching effect when a bus ahead has stopped into a traffic light, but it doesn't create massive problems for me because traffic flows nicely otherwise.

Another thing is the Old Town policy, which increases the amount of buses tremendously if a line runs through it for a long distance.

 

[tadzio90]

If you have bus stops on road with tram tracks, buses stop on road blocking it completely. That way you have endless traffic jams.

 

[ristosal]

If you have bus stops on road with tram tracks, buses stop on road blocking it completely.

Good point, four lane road with tram tracks definitely has this problem. Two lane roads should be fine though.

 

[28rommel]

This is absolutely a problem, and the change occurred due to the May 18th update.

I have one particular bus stop with a backup of buses that I never had before (the buses now, are in a queue of 8 to 10 busses long).
Before the update, when a bus would stop, it would take almost exactly 4 seconds to debark and load customers, before leaving the bus stop (if there was traffic in the departure lane, it would wait for an opening, and only then would it take a little longer to depart, like an additional 1 or 2 seconds).

Now with the new update, I watched and timed the buses as they came and went for about 10 minutes, and I can tell you that some buses take the normal/standard 4 seconds, but many other times a bus will take about 8 seconds, and at other times a full 18 seconds ! There was zero traffic in the lane for the bus to depart, so this is not the cause for the departure delay.
This does not just happen at my "busy" bus stop, but I have observed it happening at any and all bus stops.
It's totally random when it happens, and I was wondering myself (as someone mentioned above in a prior post), if the programmers added some kind of timing to the departure, in order to "separate" the buses and keep them from "bunching."

Can we get some kind of confirmation from the developers on this problem/issue, please.
PS: I have never had, nor do I currently have, any mods when playing. I have the base game only (not even any DLC's). So if you want to blame and excuse this issue on a "mod," forget it .... it's not happening.

 

[ristosal]

Now with the new update, I watched and timed the buses as they came and went for about 10 minutes, and I can tell you that some buses take the normal/standard 4 seconds, but many other times a bus will take about 8 seconds, and at other times a full 18 seconds ! There was zero traffic in the lane for the bus to depart, so this is not the cause for the departure delay.
This does not just happen at my "busy" bus stop, but I have observed it happening at any and all bus stops.
It's totally random when it happens, and I was wondering myself (as someone mentioned above in a prior post), if the programmers added some kind of timing to the departure, in order to "separate" the buses and keep them from "bunching."

It should have to do with relative distance to the vehicles ahead, cars blocking bus departure somewhere may only have an indirect cascade effect. The behavior isn't random, that's for sure. This mechanic means you have to be very careful with multiple lines using the same stop, like pictured above, and not create too long lines where bus behavior gets out of control.

 

[28rommel]

It should have to do with relative distance to the vehicles ahead, cars blocking bus departure somewhere may only have an indirect cascade effect. The behavior isn't random, that's for sure. This mechanic means you have to be very careful with multiple lines using the same stop, like pictured above, and not create too long lines where bus behavior gets out of control.

No, No ...... sorry.
Understand that this problem did not exist, before the update.
Nothing changed in my city ..... nothing.
All I did was load it after the new update automatically downloaded, and "sha-bang !".... the problem was there almost immediately.

I have monitored my buses in the past (before the update), and never, ever, never did a bus stay a total of 18 seconds at a bus stop to unload and load passengers.
Actually, the visual loading and unloading of passengers still happens in a matter of 2 to 4 seconds or so (before and after the update).
The problem (now) is the bus just does not accelerate forward and leave the bus stop. It waits for some unknown reason. And many times it sits there for a long, long time.

After the update, I have monitored other bus stops. These other bus stops only serve one line, so there are (much) less buses visiting the bus stop.
There is very little to no traffic anywhere near or in-front of the bus, while it is at the bus stop. But yet the bus will just sit there, and then leaves at some strange random time (delayed timing). It could have easily left earlier, and it had nothing to do with traffic obstruction.

The designers have absolutely changed something.

 

[metacritical]

and like i said above it's to do with unbunching. i've already told you what the designers changed.

 

[barrygreybeard]

Could you share your saved game on the Workshop, I would like to observe this behaviour.

 

[Son of Thor]

Still working through this new behavior, but it seems to me that a bus (or metro) will wait until the unit in front of it is almost to the next stop before pulling out. In areas where multiple bus lines stop at the same stop, I've had to move stops up or down a notch to spread out stops. This helps to cut down the compounding effects of wait time.

 

[ristosal]

No, No ...... sorry.
Understand that this problem did not exist, before the update.
Nothing changed in my city ..... nothing.
All I did was load it after the new update automatically downloaded, and "sha-bang !".... the problem was there almost immediately

I know it's frustrating, there's just many interconnected things that can affect this behavior such as other traffic, distance between bus stops, possible road design issues, etc. My biggest city doesn't have bus congestion due to unbunching even though they sometimes have to wait at a stop for over 10 seconds. I could see newly created lines having some problems though.

 

[tadzio90]

Did developers acknowledged this problem? Its so frustrating not being able to turn off this unbunching system, i stopped playing.
Im not going to rebuild whole city's roads to get rid of traffic jams caused by buses.

In half-milion city in 3-5 min (thats how long buses/monorails stay on station) there can be 400 cims waiting for transport. How am I supposed to pack them in one bus? This created traffic jams composed of taxis, which led me to deleting all taxi stations in city.

 

[barrygreybeard]

I found that if you leave your layout as it is and let the un-bunching system take its course traffic does return to the way it was before. Its while the buses are spacing themselves out that it can cause extra delays but after that the traffic in my city returned to it previous pattern. The benefit of the un-bunching is that buses and trams were a lot better utilised. It took a couple of in game hours before that happened though.

 

[Son of Thor]

I was fighting bus and metro issues before the update, and the update changed my problems. It took a bit to get use to, but I'm in much better shape now.

The ability to select the number of vehicles on a line is huge. I actually made things worse before it got better, but it is much better now. Deal with traffic issues first. Wait time is reduced if the bus/metro lines flow properly. Clearing up a backlog of passengers requires a different strategy than maintaining a working line. Fine tuning is now possible. And if busses can't keep up, you need another well placed metro.

I kinda got use to the bunching issue. Though not realistic, having a bunch of busses pull up to a metro station cleared the crowd quickly. If I could find fault, it would be the time I've spent managing traffic, particularly bus/metro connections. More micro management is necessary here than any other part of the game.

 

[Mitzenberg]

I just don't understand why it is so hard to make busses leave the depot with an adequate timing.

 

[barrygreybeard]

make a new line and see if they do. That's what the unbunching process is, a bus doesn't leave a stop until there is sufficient room between itself and the one before...

 

[tadzio90]

At least bus could leave open door on stop. Before one leaves, 100 new cims arrive. Sometimes first one is leaving empty, while in second won't be enough room for all.