I don't think you'd need to have more buses, just use the ones we have differently, namely by designating a few of them as express. Perhaps for every five normal 176s, there could be an X176 which is express only to and from certain points. I'm not wedded to anything that makes it worse for the commuter, be it cyclist, pedestrian, driver or bus passenger, but I do think people with clipboards and logarithms might be able to help.