A Boston University computer science student co-created the website whenisthebus.com that tracks the BU Shuttle in real-time from any device with a browser.
BU community members can already track the shuttle through the university’s mobile app, but it is only available to iPhone users.
Ken Garber, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences and co-creator of the website, explained that he decided to create the website with his friend David Tandetnik so Android users could also have a way to track the shuttle.
“The official BU app is only for iPhone, which is one of the reasons we decided to make this website,” Garber wrote in an email. “It’s also pretty useful for me, since I use the bus often but have an [A]ndroid phone — there’s not an official BU bus app for [A]ndroid, so I wanted an easy website to visit to see the bus times.”
Garber wrote that the homepage of the website includes a list of stops with the shuttle’s estimated arrival times, which differs from other student-made websites and apps, which only provide a map to show the shuttle’s location.
“A few people have pointed out that there are some other student-made bus websites and apps that work on Android,” Garber wrote. “I think the people who made those had the same idea in mind as we did. ‘whenisthebus.com’ is slightly different in that we purposefully don’t include a map.”
Tandetnik, a sophomore studying computer science at Northeastern University, said he thinks a big asset of the website is its accessibility.
“The beauty of it is that since it’s a website, you can access it from anywhere,” Tandetnik said. “There are no restrictions. If you have an internet connection, you can figure out the next bus time. There’s no downloading other apps, just the site, and it gets you all of this information”
Tandetnik said he has received positive feedback about the website from several BU students.
“When we showed it to a couple of our BU friends, they found that the site had an increased level of convenience,” Tandetnik said. “They agreed that in many ways that it was easier to type in just that short website name and access the bus times that way.”
Several BU students said they use BU’s mobile app to track the shuttle — but due to its lack of reliability, they’d be interested in using the students’ new website as a backup.
Alyssa Benalfew, a graduate student in the School of Public Health, said she often uses the BU mobile app to track the shuttle.
“I like the app,” Benalfew said. “When I turn on my location, it won’t let me scroll further down the street to see more stops, so that’s my only caveat with using it.”
Garber’s and Tandetnik’s website aims to mitigate this issue, as it doesn’t include the often-malfunctioning map.
Libni Delfin, a CAS junior, said she doesn’t use the BU mobile app to track the shuttle because of its faults, although she said she would like to.
“[The BU mobile app] would be helpful, except whenever I try to open the app, it always says I’m not connected to WiFi or internet,” Delfin said. “So, I never actually get to use it.”
Samantha Kim, a junior in the College of Communication, said she thinks Garber’s and Tandetnik’s website could be useful, especially when the BU app doesn’t work.
“It would be useful for if my phone was not working or the app was glitching, just because I have my phone on me all the time,” Kim said.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this article said the students created an app instead of a website. The current version reflects this change.
