Why London buses are told to wait

A closer look

Think three buses showing up at once is just bad luck? It's a mathematical phenomenon called bus bunching. To kill it, Transport for London uses the iBus headway control algorithm. If the system detects a Route 73 bus is moving too fast and catching up to the one ahead, dispatch automatically commands the driver to sit idle at a green light or hold at a stop, artificially delaying passengers to preserve the network's spacing.