Minibuses usually 'double' regular buses and sometimes even copy their numbers. However, they can stop wherever the client asks them (such minibuses exist in Lithuania as well). They sometimes pass the neighborhoods not blessed with the reach of buses, and fill the void (and demand) of certain routes.

One of such is the minibus 4א, which I need to get to the university from my Hebrew school. It was introduced this spring, yet probably proved not so profitable. So now nobody knows how often minibuses go and when. It depends solely on luck whether you catch the minibus immediately or wait for it for half an hour. Once I remember waiting for it for 20 minutes. There was a middle-aged lady waiting there as well. She was very nervous and watched me with anxiety, fearing that there might be no place for us both when the minibus finally arrives. At some point she stopped the minibus 4 to ask when it's 'cousin' arrives, but of course the driver couldn't tell her anything concrete. In about 10 min. the minibus arrived. The lady hurried towards it, I remained where I was, and the minibus happened to stop right in front of me, so I raised my foot to get on it. My waiting companion, as a real Israeli, was very unhappy about it, violently pushed me and rushed into the bus, shouting that she was waiting for it earlier than me. The driver said that there are enough places. Laughing at the experience, I got on as well. People were asking what happened to the frequency of the minibus, and the driver was explaining that there were some changes in the schedule, and he doesn't know how it will be in the future. Maybe 4א as such was a failed, unprofitable experiment.

Now, minibus drivers have a telephone connection all the time and report where they are to each other. If there are not enough places to sit, they inform others where passengers are waiting. So lack of spaces can be solved relatively quickly, whereas when no bus goes by, there's no one to see the lonely desperate passengers waiting for the bus.

Today I lost a respondent for my research just because the minibus just wouldn't come. It was very frustrating, but as supplements of public transport, minibuses act as if they are a favour to the society. There's nothing you can request from them, and nobody to complain to.