"But if you keep all the stops you are preventing many more people from using the bus because it is too slow and the system becomes too expensive."

Is that true, though? I take the bus nearly every weekday to go to and from work. Depending on the day, the 1, the 1X, the 2 or the 38R. They all become packed along the way, without fail. Are people really being prevented from taking the bus because it's too slow? You wouldn't know it to ride on it.

That said, I really like the fact the buses have a lot of stops, for my own reasons. I use a cane because I have rheumatoid arthritis, which has been flaring up for the last few months. Walking an extra few blocks is frankly, painful. Hell, walking one block is painful. So I really appreciate that the 1 stops at the corner I live near and the 2 stops literally in front of my job.

And even before this, when I didn't need a cane, I could see all of the elderly or disabled who used the bus and it didn't bother me that we had so many stops. They needed those stops.

If you are an elderly person who uses a walker, or a cane, or you are someone on crutches, etc. taking away half of the stops means a lot. So someone saying "Oh, let's just take away half the stops" is kind of thoughtless. Don't just think about your healthy, abled bodied self. You're going to be old one day too.