This aticle and post both make feel annoyed by their existance. If anything, bus stops should more, and not, less frequent. I feel like these were both written by people that never take public transit, and are annoyed that they have to wait behind buses making frequent stops to to pick people up.
In order for a transit system to effectively replace the majority of vehicular traffic, it needs to be convenient. It can often be very cold, raining, or incredibly hot outside, and if transit is to replace vehicular traffic, people will often be carrying multiple bags of groceries. In an ideal world, you shouldn't have to walk more than 1 minute to the closest bus stop. There should be an app that tracks the bus, streetcar, LRT and subway fleet, displaying estimates of how long it will take for the next 5 buses to arrive, so that you can plan your walk over to the bus stop not more than 1-2 minutes before it arrives. People love to hate on the TTC here in Toronto, but the system generally works. The apps that estimate next bus time arrival can't always account for traffic delays, or mechanical issues, but, they are quite accurate the vast majority of time.
For years, my commute to work meant waiting inside until the app said the bus was about 3:30 away. It was a 1 minute walk to my local bus stop, and I could generally see the bus coming up the street when arrived. From there, it was a 7 minute bus ride up the subway system, and then another 10 minutes on the subway to get close my workplace downtown, and a 4 minute walk to the building, . If I drove a car, it would take me 25 minutes slowly waiting through traffic, another 5 minutes to find a parking spot, and $20 to park for the day. If I biked, it would take about the same time as a car (25 minutes), because I could filter past all the traffic waiting at red lights. The downside of biking was being a bit of a sweaty mess to start the work day, and biking in the winter was cold, and, occassionally too slippery to be safe. Average ETA - 25 minutes by transit, 30 minutues by car, 25 minutes by bike. Taking a car was almost universally the worst option. We need to get to the point where transit is almost always the best option in any reasonably high population density area.
If you are in a bigger city, the buses aren't the primary mode of transportation of the overall transit system. They are the last legs of the system that connect you from residential areas and side streets to the primary transit hubs, which provide rapid transit required to make longer trips. Even in smaller cities, a similar system can work. There can be a few bus major routes that travel longer distances between stops to get you quickly across the city, even with busses along the same route that stop more frequently to pick up people traveling short distances, or to get them to the major hub stops.
Forcing people to walk 10+ minutes to get to a bus stop on either end, all so that the time on the bus is shaved by 20% is asinine. Any time saved will be lost by having to walk further distances on either end of the commute. This is discrimantory towards the eldery or people with disabilities. As a society, we want to encourage people to use mass transit over cars whenever possible. This means making the process comfortable and convenient. Ways to improve this experience include creating dedicated bus lanes, prioritizing traffic lights for mass transit over cars, and increasing funding for more frequent service - not forcing people to walk long distances in potentially inclement weather.
