Not to absolve the bus drivers of blame because I think each driver or vehicle operator needs to be responsible for their individual actions (in aviation, this is the concept of Pilot-In-Command... the buck stops at the PIC), but I agree that bus drivers are sometimes stuck in a sticky spot (almost literally). The congestion found in the inner city has gotten so bad that it's sometimes hard for transit operators to make timely schedules. One way to streamline this might be to impose limits (either by vehicle type and or time-based) on when certain types of traffic can be on the city streets. Also maybe allowing for special prioritisation of mass-transit with special traffic control signals would help too. Around my area, there are some surface streets that give special unrestricted flow to the HOV lanes. That is, they're segregated from the lanes that are normally controlled by stoplights and have their own set of signals. Perhaps this could be done specifically for busses in the city. This would also help emergency vehicles too. Even though they have ultimate right-of-way, I'd hate to be a heart attack or accident victim in the middle of New York City around 5PM. In general, I think cities need to redesign their traffic situation that goes back to favouring mass-transit and low-impact vehicles such as bicycles instead of designing solely for cars.