A web app to catch the bus using simple calculations. I am going to share my idea and development progress with you.

This project is fully cancelled. It was a small idea of mine, but due to a reconsideration it won’t be implemented.

The Idea

In the morning I always have to check when the bus goes, and by that I calculate when I have to start walking to the stop. The bus could be late, or it can come early, or it is even 4 stops away, and I am sure that it won’t be here in 3 minutes (as my phone wrongly says). I know when the bus comes according to the schedule, but it varies when I have to leave home.

Do I want to run now? Do I even have to run? Should I go now or wait a few minutes? Will I even reach the bus? Should I go with the next one? When does the next one come? Will I arrive in time if I don’t catch this bus?

I want an app that just shows me when to start my walk to the bus stop. It calculates the time automatically, so I don’t have to think about this while I am in a hurry to pack my things.

This isn’t true just for the mornings. If I am headed somewhere, and I need to take a bus, I don’t check when the next one comes. I don’t remember, I am lazy, or it would be just a waste of time. Most of the time, if I had hurried a little, I could’ve caught the bus. I am here to solve these crazy moments with my app.

Features

The main point of the app is to be quick and easy. The user has to create presets, and later those can be activated with one button.

It would calculate based on parameters. 2 main parameters: from where the user will walk, to which bus stop and which buses. The initial starting point can be automatic by using the built in GPS, or picked by hand. The bus related things are constants.

Other parameters:

• How much time is it to get there? It can be calculated automatically or by hand if user wants to override it.
• How fast do you walk, what mood are you in, or can you run? Can be slow, normal, fast.
• Typical bus that you go by? Which days at which time?
• Reach the next bus or want to go with a later one?
• Are you already walking there? It can be detected automatically (GPS) or can be set by user in percentage.

It will be able to tell how much time the user has till the start of the walk. Furthermore, it will tell where (how far) the bus is at in stop count and real route distance.

These are the features for the MVP. For now, I am planning to create this as a fully static site, I won’t have my own server behind it.

Data Source (API)

I am going to build this for Budapest’s transport. The transport service/company is Budapesti Közlekedési Központ (BKK) (transl. Center for Budapest Transport). Their API is available to the public. It is fully open, anyone can use it, you don’t even need a key to use most of the endpoints. They have an OpenData Portal about it where everything is well documented.

A few examples: arrivals-and-departures-for-stop, plan-trip, route-details, schedule-for-stop.

What’s Next?

It will be a web application. I want to develop it, so anyone can extend it with their own city’s API. Later maybe some global API could be used for other cities.

I will open-source the project from the start. The repository will be hosted on GitHub in a separate organization named busminded (the name of the app). I will develop it with Angular. I have lots of practice with it.

Each week I will post about it, I will be building it in public. For this purpose too, I created a Twitter account and IndieHackers account, both named tomoviktor. I may post more about the project on these platforms, and if you are interested in those too, please go ahead and follow them.

This will be my first built in public project, I am really excited about it.