Ian Murnane never waits more than a minute for a bus.
In a world where public transport tends to get a bad rap, that’s no mean feat.
But it’s much more than good luck – Ian and fellow Griffith University graduate Ferguson McBryde developed the Android app ‘Where’s That Bus‘.
The app, which covers the Gold Coast to the Sunshine Coast, allows a user to see exactly where a bus is at any given time. It provides an ETA to within 30 seconds.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the desire to create Where’s The Bus came from the graduates’ own experiences.
“We were students on student budgets, so we relied on public transport, but we were never able to see when buses would arrive,” said Mr McBryde.
Mr Murnane soon realised the data they needed was already online and the app took shape.
“I started to get information like GPS coordinates out of the Google Packet,” he said.”Eventually we ended up with an app that allows you to actually see the buses driving around.”
Users can access the information by punching in their regular route or stop number.
The results will be displayed on a map along with real time information about the bus’ arrival. Thanks to feedback from fellow Griffith students, there’s also the option to bookmark favourites and see the direction of travel.
“The information at the bus stop could say the next service is five minutes away, but you can check the app and see if it’s already gone past or running late,” said Mr Murnane
With a Bachelor of Information Technology and a Bachelor of Multimedia from Griffith, Mr Murnane drew on a range of skills from his courses to create the app.
“I needed several different programming languages, mobile app development, object oriented programming, user interface design – everything that I studied at Griffith University helped me. Plus the feedback from fellow students who beta tested Where’s That Bus.”
The app currently has a 4.9 star rating on Google Play.