A bus stop is a designated place where buses stop for passengers to board or leave a bus. These are normally positioned on the highway and are distinct from off-highway facilities such as bus stations. The construction of bus stops tends to reflect the level of usage. Stops at busy locations may have shelters, seating and possibly electronic passenger information systems; less busy stops may use a simple pole and flag to mark the location and 'customary stops' have no specific infrastructure being known by their description. Bus stops may be clustered together into transport hubs allowing interchange between routes from nearby stops and with other public transport modes.

For operational purposes there are three main kinds of stops: Scheduled stops, at which the bus should stop irrespective of demand; request stops (or flag stop) where the vehicle will only stop on request and hail and ride stops where a vehicle will stop anywhere along the designated section of road on request. Certain stops may be restricted to 'set-down only' or 'pick-up only'. Some stops may be designated as 'timing points' and if the vehicle is ahead of schedule it will wait to ensure correct running to the timetable. In dense urban areas where bus volumes are high, skip-stops are sometimes used to increase efficiency and reduce delays at bus stops. Fare stages may also be defined by the location of certain stops in distance or zone based fare collection systems.

A trolleybus (also known as trolley bus, trolley coach, trackless trolley, trackless tram [in early years] or trolley) is an electric bus that draws its electricity from overhead wires (generally suspended from roadside posts) using spring-loaded trolley poles. Two wires and poles are required to complete the electrical circuit. This differs from a tram or streetcar, which normally uses the track as the return part of the electrical path and therefore needs only one wire and one pole (or pantograph). They also are distinct from other kinds of electric buses, which usually rely on batteries.

Currently, around 315 trolleybus systems are in operation, in cities and towns in 45 countries. Altogether, more than 800 trolleybus systems have existed, but not more than about 405 concurrently.