800,000 people in Kyoto, more than half of the population, use public transportation every day. 320,000 of them
travel by bus [6]. Time spent taking a bus is divided between waiting and traveling. Of the two, studies show that
passengers consider travel time to be of far higher value since it is used productively (whereas wait time is generally
wasted) [7]. One cause of increased wait time is bunching (or clumping), when an overloaded bus falls behind its
schedule. Falling behind schedule also causes unbalanced congestion on the first bus, leading to lower-quality travel
time for its passengers. When bunching occurs it tends to be self-perpetuating because buses running to schedules do
not overtake each other—and the situation would not improve even if they did [10].
Load balancing for busses is therefore our long-term goal. Passengers are willing to wait a short time to obtain
a higher-quality travel experience aboard a lightly-loaded vehicle. Making passengers aware of a lightly-loaded bus
following closely behind a heavily-loaded one gives them an opportunity to maximise the quality of their travel time.
At the same time, while this will not eliminate bunching, it should help to lessen its severity.