living in a midsize US east coast city, this does not match my experience at all. city bus drivers have the same mentality as truck drivers on the interstate: I'm bigger than you so you better get out of my way. it's a common occurrence to see a city bus pull all the way over to the right for a stop, then cut across four lanes of traffic to turn left at the next light.

They _should_ be predictable, but that does not seem to be the case in my anecdotedal experience.

And regardless, why put the onus of responsibility on the bus driver when a segregated lane would solve the issue entirely?

depends on your locality. the experience i have is that because of the stops, the bus travel speed matches that of a bike. so when you are close to a bus you are passing the bus every time it stops only to be passed by the bus on the way to the next stop.

you then always have to watch out to not get in the way of passengers, or in the busses blind spots.

a totally seperate path gives me the peace of mind that i only have to worry about pedestrians and not try to avoid getting into the way of bigger vehicles.