OH MY GOD! Your ride sounds like mine the other day. I decided to stop the longer commute and now take the light rail because of the bus situation. We have some of the worse buses in New Jersey as they have the exhaust on street level so when they take off, a cloud of smog is left behind for you to inhale. During the winter, you can see the cloud of smoke a block away and that's what your breathing. It's horrible.

A couple words of caution. If your not faster than the bus, let it pass and wait three minutes. I would not play leap frog with a slow heavy moving bus as one error could be a quick trip to the hospital. First of all, the minute you try to pass a bus, cars might hit you on the outside since they are trying to pass that lunbering giant. Second, you never really know when the bus will pull out of the curb or if he/she sees you trying to pass. The buses where I live pass you up a faster speeds thinking your a danger which makes it unsafe for the cyclists to ride along with them. Don't play this game.