Discussion on:

Rethinking the city bus

...and consider this trend hopeful The biggest obstacles to getting people to use mass transit are reliability, comfort, & convenience. Mass transit will never effectively compete against the automobile until these issues are addressed. Until then, buses will mostly be regarded as the transit means of last resort for those who do not or can not own automobiles. That is a very difficult image to overcome.

They need to go where people need them to go...which in a lot of cases seems impossible.

Rapid, affordable bus service was started in Curitiba Brazil in 1974. It's only taken 38 years to find it.

..but it reached saturation a few years ago. Now they are attempting to convert parts of it into lightrail. Buses have their limits as well as their appeal to a broad demographic. It turns out Curitiba's system worked well until its denizens started turning middle class.
If a (western) city thinks it can get away with a few cheap bus upgrades without simultaneously building serious PT (rail based) then it will discover the hard way it ain't true.

I have a GPS device that works anywhere I'm ever likely to drive. There is no similar device or app for bus routes and schedules (or public transportation in general) that I am aware of.

I am on a business trip in Ontario right now -- I live in Florida. I rented a car, drove from the airport and am now driving around town. I see busses driving by, but I have no idea where the stops are or what the schedule is or even how to pay. How do I get from the airport to the town I'm working in? If I traveled to only one city, I could probably track down an app for that, but I travel to many different places. I realize that not many people will be in my same situation, but that is just the point -- no matter what the situation, I can get in a car and I know I can get there.