Public transit could use a lower barrier to adoption. I think people familiar with it - myself included - forget how uncertain it is for the first time - is the bus late or not coming? was it early? - and all the unstated conventions, etc.

Interesting about the lanes. But that metal has a large capital cost, training, etc.; we can't add and decrease capacity on demand like cloud computing resources. Maybe contract bus operation - including the metal - to multiple contractors and when customer satisfaction is low, give the route to another contractor.