Whether you're heading to work before an important morning meeting, or coming home with kids and shopping in tow, there are few things more maddening than your bus just seeming to sail on by.

Last year, Wellington bus service provider MetLink received more than 1000 complaints from people annoyed by buses that didn't stop.

Jess Gessner filed a complaint, after she and her two young children were left on the kerb, when she was unable to signal the driver.

"It was very obvious that we wanted to get picked up at a bus stop," she said. "We were the only people there, and [the driver] just looked at us and drove past."

The Metlink website said bus drivers would stop, if they saw someone waiting, but encouraged passengers to wave, so they could be seen by the driver.

Metlink senior operations manager Paul Tawharu said waving was helpful, but not a requirement.

"What we do ask customers is that they make themselves visible to the driver," he said. "Passengers don't need to wave.

"There's some of our passengers that are visually impaired. You might have mums with babies in arms that just can't do that, so that's not expected.

"If the passenger is at the bus stop, then the driver is expected to stop."

Most of the commuters who spoke to RNZ in the Wellington suburb of Newtown said they tended to wave down their buses, but nearly everyone also felt they had been passed up or had seen another passenger left at the stop.

"I have been [passed by] on a [number] four," said Clara. "It was a very sad day.".

"Many times," John Nga said. "You have to be visually waving, not just raising your hands - it's not enough."

"I think it depends on the bus stop," Ben Lake said. "There are definitely times when people will be waiting there and they'll just go straight past."

"I do wave to the driver, because they don't often stop," Jane said. "They'll go past you, if you don't flag them down."

Environment Canterbury public transport general manager Stewart Gibbon said, last year, it received just over 550 complaints about buses not stopping - either to pick up passengers or allow them off.

He said, in the context of more than 15 million passenger trips a year, the numbers were comparatively small.

"Our drivers do a brilliant job of balancing the different demands of the role, including gauging whether people waiting at our stops want to get on board," Gibbon said. "A clear signal from a customer is a great help to them.

"Our drivers are trained in many different scenarios, including when customers may have their hands full. In this scenario, they would instead be looking at facial expressions and general body language.

"It's worth noting that sometimes drivers can't stop, due to their bus being full."

Auckland Transport service operations manager Duncan McGrory said the transport provider had signs at every bus stop, asking passengers to indicate they wanted to board with a "clear wave of their arm".

He said Aucklanders took up to 230,000 bus trips every weekday and the growth of the network over the last 15 years made hailing the bus crucial to keeping things running smoothly.

"It's important for people to hail the bus that they actually want," McGrory said. "We want to make sure that people are stopping the buses that they need and that every single bus is not stopping at every single stop."

So the message is, wherever you are in the country, when in doubt, put your arm out.