Help me understand public transport and the workers

[Bagpipe]

So my basic startup goes basically like this;
- set up coal industry and generate electricity with workers living nearby with stores and amenities required.
- max 1000m away some little town will begin to develop with housing, larger stores, culture, hospital, fire etc.

...and then i always hit a snag with the buses.

I build a hospital which is out of walking reach from the nearest housing but is right next to a bus stop with regular buses going from the housing to the hospital area.
Nobody ever works at the hospital but many are unemployed...
The minute i plop a house down next to the hospital it is fine but it renders public transport useless.

Can't wrap my head around it.

Oh the other example is that the first little mining town wont be able to access the culture etc. in the larger town although there is transport there too.

It seems really odd. Anybody help me?

[4X-Fan]

As the stations have a maximum capacity for waiting people...maybe the bus station in the residental area is clogged up with passengers, so that no workers can show up and enter the busses intended to tranport workers?

[Bagpipe]

Originally posted by 4X-Fan:

As the stations have a maximum capacity for waiting people...maybe the bus station in the residental area is clogged up with passengers, so that no workers can show up and enter the busses intended to tranport workers?

Should i place more stops? It seems unlikely as much of the time the buses are completely empty. I feel like there is something i have not grasped yet though. Not sure what.

[Bagpipe]

Should i be using bus platforms in places? Not sure what they do or how to use them, maybe i will hit up a guide on the subject and see whats what

[Duke Flapjack]

Originally posted by Bagpipe:

Originally posted by 4X-Fan:

As the stations have a maximum capacity for waiting people...maybe the bus station in the residental area is clogged up with passengers, so that no workers can show up and enter the busses intended to tranport workers?

Should i place more stops? It seems unlikely as much of the time the buses are completely empty. I feel like there is something i have not grasped yet though. Not sure what.

If your platforms are getting clogged with passengers and students your workers cannot get to the hospital to work. Passengers are a different type of person than workers. Passengers are sitting at your bus stops to try to get to some service they cannot get within walking distance. They go to your bus station *hoping* it'll take them somewhere they can get said service.

[Bagpipe]

Originally posted by Duke Flapjack:

Originally posted by Bagpipe:

Should i place more stops? It seems unlikely as much of the time the buses are completely empty. I feel like there is something i have not grasped yet though. Not sure what.

If your platforms are getting clogged with passengers and students your workers cannot get to the hospital to work. Passengers are a different type of person than workers. Passengers are sitting at your bus stops to try to get to some service they cannot get within walking distance. They go to your bus station *hoping* it'll take them somewhere they can get said service.

I have only just realised there are bus platforms and bus stops. Now i have to figure out how to use them and what the key differences are. Was wondering why everything was so congested but knew it must have been a me thing and not the devs lol

Off to youtube now, any tips welcome

[4X-Fan]

Originally posted by Bagpipe:

Should i place more stops? It seems unlikely as much of the time the buses are completely empty. I feel like there is something i have not grasped yet though. Not sure what.

If you have restricted the busses you use to "workers only" or if they go to somewhere where the waiting passengers don't expect to get their needs to fulfilled, busses can leave empty and the passengers still hanging around at the station.
You can try to solve that by allowing your busses to transport passengers as well (if you had forbidden it), use additional busses for passengers (depending on passengers needs to other destinations as well) or just forbidding passengers to enter you station intended to take up the workers (you migth have to disable students as well, though, as they can cause the same problem).
You could even extend the last idea to having two separate bus stations in the residental area close together - one for workers and one for all others, then run different bus lines from them. Takes some more spaces and causes more costs, but probably the most robust setup vs. overclogged stations.

[Kaiser]

bballjo has guides on how different aspects of public transport function. Those might help.

I'm also confused by the system, and it could be loads of issues. I don't think the platform matters too much (although I have no idea, I tend to build very compact systems and avoid a reliance on public transport...), so I would try to speed up the transport time (better roads/vehicles, more vehicles, switch to trains, etc). For your hospital you could create a dedicated route from your residential area directly to the hospital. I don't think you have to make it dedicated to only workers since only workers by design can ride a route directly from a stop to a workplace (I might be wrong about that). You can also assign workers to a platform (like assigning them a workplace), hence forcing them to join any vehicle that are picking up workers. There might also be an issue with time outs, basically that the destinations are too far away timewise but AFAIK they would still get onto the vehicle (but magically disappear during transport).

You could also watch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NxAMYzpr70&ab_channel=bballjo

or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYHw_i6WmzM&t=85s&ab_channel=bballjo

for tips - and then there's load more on his channel.