Anyone who has ever used a London bus knows all about the frustrations that accompany TFL’s four wheeled roadster. Irregular service, four buses in the wrong direction before yours arrives and confusing stop locations can all help frustrate and grate on those who live in London and baffle visitors to the capital.
These frustrations could soon be a thing of the past thanks to the London Bus Checker application. The app is also available for Android (which we tested) and Apple iOS.
Start London Bus Checker and you’re presented with a main map and your location a la Google Maps. Zoom in and you have an array of pins with route numbers on them.
Tap on a pin and the app presents you with the stop name, buses that stop there and the option to either show the entire route plotted on the map.
Once you’ve found your nearest bus stop, simply select it and a well designed display indicates arrivals and a bus stop icon as it would look on the road illustrated above (right). In addition, the bottom part of the display indicates notifications such as closures and accidents.
The bus checker app also lets you star favourite stops and search for stops within the app.
With the competent UI therefore, it’s pleasing to report that London Bus Checker works very well. With live updates proving reliable in our week with the app, it has definitely saved us waiting time and helped us visualise alternative routes.
We could have liked to see a route planner in the application – like the one available on TFL’s website, but that is our only realy gripe. London Bus Checker making our commuting life a lot easier and would recommend it to any of our London bus using readers.
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