Welcome to Ritchie's Bus Schedule!
This web app is dedicated to helping students at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) navigate the campus bus system more efficiently. If you've ever found yourself frustrated with missing the bus or spending too much time navigating the RIT website to find bus schedules, this app is designed for you.
The primary goal of Ritchie's Bus Schedule is to provide a convenient and user-friendly way for students to determine the current status of RIT buses based on the time schedule provided by RIT. The motivation for this project stemmed from personal experience; the frustration of missing the bus in the morning and the inefficiency of the existing system inspired the creation of a more streamlined solution. With a focus of using the technology that just works, the app is designed to be reliable and fast.
Unified Status Page
View the status of all RIT buses at a glance on a single page.
Detailed Bus Pages
Access detailed breakdowns of individual bus statuses.
Stop Page
Find out which bus is coming next at a particular stop.
Customization
Favorite buses and stops to display on the top of the homepage for quick access.
The project began in December 2023, and since then, it has seen significant progress. Initially developed by Hiroto Takeuchi, the team has recently expanded to include another developer, Sam Ruan.
Ritchie's Bus Schedule leverages the powerful t3 tech stack, which includes Next.js, React, and Tailwind for the frontend, tRPC for remote procedure calls, Drizzle ORM for database interactions, Vercel for API and hosting, and Supabase as the database. This modern stack ensures a robust and scalable application.
THE APP'S
SIMPLICITY
is
KEY
RELIABILITY
USABILITY
SECURITY
EFFICIENCY
While we could have shown the buses on the map like our competitors, we decided to go on a different approach. Instead of relying on real-time data, the app uses the provided bus times table to make educated guesses about bus locations. This approach ensures that the app remains functional and reliable, even with limited resources, thus reducing downtime. Instead of showing the bus locations on the map, we try to highlight the most important information, like the time until next stop. This makes the app more user-friendly and accessible to all students.
This does come with the downside of not accurately being able to show the delayed busses, but that is reflected on our transportation system is not something we as students can control. However, there are plans to implement a feedback system to report real-time data to the app, which could improve the accuracy of the app and is under development.
User security and privacy are paramount. The app uses Clerk for authentication, simplifying the authentication process and ensuring user data remains secure. Additionally, the app does not track user locations, reducing complexity and enhancing privacy.
While a final form of feedback system is not yet in place, the team is eager to receive feedback from users. As the app is released for the public, user input will be invaluable in shaping future updates and features. Temporary feedback can be provided through the GitHub repository, where users can submit issues and feature requests. The team is committed to fostering a community-driven development process and welcomes contributions from users.
Try the App!
Ritchie's Bus Schedule is a testament to the power of innovation driven by personal need and community benefit. As the app continues to evolve, it promises to make navigating the RIT bus system easier and more efficient for all students. We hope you find the app as useful and transformative as we do.
