Public buses do work well in a few cities. London and Manchester. Vancouver seems good. Maybe San Francisco. Ok very few cities.
The problem is you need a critical mass of people using them before anyone puts any real effort into making them not awful.
There are too many cities that have a few rubbish busses, but they aren't on Google Maps, they don't have live departure boards at bus stops, everybody pays in cash, they follow terrible routes that cater to people with no alternative (children and OAPs), they're infrequent and unreliable, no bus lanes, etc. etc.
That said I don't think the future of transport is busses. They're just too slow and shit in general.
The problem is you need a critical mass of people using them before anyone puts any real effort into making them not awful.
There are too many cities that have a few rubbish busses, but they aren't on Google Maps, they don't have live departure boards at bus stops, everybody pays in cash, they follow terrible routes that cater to people with no alternative (children and OAPs), they're infrequent and unreliable, no bus lanes, etc. etc.
That said I don't think the future of transport is busses. They're just too slow and shit in general.