Best bus routes

[GrandMattster]

Any tips for how to plan a good bus/public transport route?

I have several bus routes running at the moment, highest usage I've had is 26%, others have 0%. Can't really figure out why, all the routes go from residential areas to factories/schools/train stations etc.

I had a route that went from a (mainly) medium density residential area to an area with a load of factories and utilities, but had 0% usage on it. It didn't stop at any schools or parks or anything, just home to work.

Is there a way to see where people work/shop/visit with an overlay? I can click on individual families and see where they work, but this is tedious and it seems people work just about all over the place.

[The Quiet Cab]

I'm also still trying to find out what the hell they want. I figured they like to have a school bus (in my city it's free) and public transport to shops and leisure. They also like hubs like a train station from where they can go anywhere. Busses serve as feeder to tram which serve as feeder for subways which serve as feeder for trains and planes. I'll find out someday. ^^

[Sonics Agent]

I use the bus station as a hub and have that reach out to the different districts in my city. It would probably be terrible in real life to have a "layover" bus connection but its worked for me in CS1 & CS2.

[Green]

This is the way. Having a hub allows shorter specific routes and easy transfers to anywhere in the city.

[GrandMattster]

Ahh okay so people will happily change buses to get to where they want to go? Good to know.

Bus station isn't something I've tried yet, will give it a shot.

I am getting wild fluctuations in usage as well. That line I originally mentioned was at 26% usage has gone up to 36% then down to 19%. Now back to 25%. This is in the space of about 1 hour of real time, game running on the lowest speed setting.

I would've thought this usage % figure was a monthly average, so day/night cycle shouldn't cause this number to swing wildly.