[krab]

Taxis/Ubers/... can and do stop in the middle of a street. Why would that be different for a bus picking up a single person?

[oblio]

What if it's 5 people? 10? What if instead of many huge buses like today it's 5x as many smaller buses?

You can't just have buses stopping randomly everywhere, it doesn't scale.

[krab]

The assumption is that a "waymo bus" would be hailed by an app and the service would plan routes on demand. In such case, bus stops would be needed only in busy areas or in places where it would be dangerous to stop.

This is based on the observation that people, including police, tolerate taxi drivers stopping at places where it's technically illegal.

[cozzyd]

yes, and it keeps blocking my bus. Fortunately it is now legal in Chicago for drivers to get fined for stopping in bus stops/bus lanes automatically via cameras on the buses. Not sure if it is actually happening though..