When I was growing up in Calgary when buses bunched the lead bus would linger at a stop specifically so the other buses could pass and even out the ridership.

When I was growing up in Calgary when buses bunched the lead bus would linger at a stop specifically so the other buses could pass and even out the ridership. The transit system even employed this on purpose at busy times since Calgary is such a suburban city. It's fairly rare in the morning for people to need to get off until a major intersection or light rail station. Buses were sent in pairs (sometimes three) to run the same route, leapfrogging each other at every stop. If someone did ask for a stop the driver would radio ahead and the lead bus would skip the stop. Taking the bus route at a leapfrog time really did cut the journey time down significantly. The technique doesn't work quite as well coming home since you can't predict when people will need to get off.