Turns out, it isn’t a great idea to collect data on bus routes when you aren’t already on the optimal route. In the afternoon a bus that gets me 2 miles from where I live, and it gets me there 30 minutes earlier than the route I was taking before. There are no intermediate stops between Google and my drop-off (just like my morning commute). I could collect data and do statistics on my bus route, but this isn’t a compelling enough problem for me to remember to take down the data. Both bus routes have no stops between being my pickup and drop-off, so the problem would be just using departure time as a predictor of arrival time.
I’ll be on the lookout for something else I can collect data on. I’m certain that as I do this more finding things to take data on will become easier.