As some others have mentioned, I think smartphones are helping to solve this as they get more common and the transit planning gets fast/good. But another way is

As some others have mentioned, I think smartphones are helping to solve this as they get more common and the transit planning gets fast/good. But another way is just to have stable and frequent service, instead of trying to microoptimize different on-peak/off-peak/night or weekday/weekend schedules. That way people just learn that this is the service, and it always runs, problem solved. Copenhagen has mostly converged on that: the metro, trains, and trunk bus routes now mostly run 24/7, with the same route all the time, and high enough frequency that you don't have to worry about when they'll come and how to time connections (typically 2-7 minute headways during the day, 15-20 minutes at night, 30 at night for some buses). Works well, though of course it isn't cheap to operate such a level of service. I definitely find it easier to take night buses now in particular, as they've been moving more of them to this schedule. It's something I do only occasionally so I'd never remember what the "N" night-bus routes were, but now it's easy, because the answer is that it's just the same "A" bus routes as always, not special night buses.