The Antiplanner wrote:

If transit agencies really wanted to reduce their environmental footprints, they should buy smaller buses. They don’t come close to filling the buses they have: the standard 64-passenger (with standees) transit bus carried an average of just 9 passengers in 2019, a number that will probably fall below 5 in 2020. That means if you drive alone in your seven-passenger Lincoln Navigator or Cadillac Escalade, you will have the same or higher occupancy rate as the average transit bus.

Of course, buses might carry more people during rush hours, but the solution is to run smaller buses more frequently during rush hours and then taper frequencies back during other hours of the day. The result is better service to transit riders and less energy wasted moving empty seats around