What is bus bunching?
Buses on a route should be evenly spaced. When one runs late, more riders are
waiting for it, so it slows down further, and the bus behind catches up. Riders then wait
twice as long, and two buses arrive at once. Holding the bus behind for a short time
spreads them out again. This page finds those groups live and suggests which bus to hold.
How trips are timed
Plan a trip checks the watched routes plus every MBTA bus route with a bus due near your
From or To. It looks for a bus from a stop at your From to a stop at your To, and for trips with one
transfer where two routes meet. Each option is timed with the MBTA's live arrival predictions: the
walk to the stop, the wait for the bus, the ride, and for a transfer the walk and wait for the second
bus. Predictions already reflect traffic, so a stuck bus shows up as a later arrival. The option that
gets you there first is tagged Fastest. Delayed means that bus is at least 3 minutes behind its schedule.
If no stop is right at your From or To, it tries again with a longer walk: up to about
10 minutes to or from a stop and 5 minutes between buses. Those options are tagged Longer walk. When
From and To are within about 1 km, walking is offered too. If no bus works, it points you to the
nearest subway stations, without train times, because this app tracks buses only.
Walking times are estimates from the straight-line distance, so allow a little extra.
Your privacy
Show my nearest route uses your location only inside this page. It is never sent to our
server. When you plan a trip, the two points you chose (a stop, a place, an address, a point on the
map, or your location if you choose "Use my current location") are sent to our server to find buses.
The app does not save them, though our cloud host keeps standard request logs. Address searches are
sent to OpenStreetMap's search service. There are no accounts and no tracking.
What the map shows
- 28A bus, in its route's color. The number is the route (or the bus number when you follow one route).
- 28A bunched bus: too close to the bus ahead.
- Where a bunched group is.
- 7A bus on one of the other MBTA routes, with its route's path as a thin grey line. It turns red when bunched, like the featured routes.
The 9 featured routes are checked for bunching every 10 seconds. Every other MBTA bus route
is checked every minute, with the same live arrival predictions and the same rule. Open any route
on its own to check it every 10 seconds.