Janith Leanage is a web genius. First he came up with a Colombo Bus Route map but now he’s converted it to a website which is – holy of holies – usable. Usable is important because it means human beings can use the site. There are plenty of good idea or pretty implementations, but what makes a website awesome is how (and if) it works. And this works. You can find buses from here, joyfully.
It even tells you what side of the road the buses stop on. And it has a fast and working mobile version. And it’s open source. Forgive my geekgasm, it’s just too much.
Truly excellent work. The best Sri Lankan coding I’ve seen in years, if not ever. Not that anyone cares about the code. The application just works. Now if only public transport in general was as intelligent.
Not quite AI (Intelligence) yet. To be fair even google or Mapquest with resources many magnitudes of Janiths dont quite get it right specially in big cities.
Asked website for directions from Bamba Junc to Battaramulla
The advice was take the 155 to St Bridgets and then hop on to a 177. Functional and factual yes.
Obviously the better choice is to take a Galle Road bus to Kollupitiya and then get on to a 177 and probably be assured of a seat too.
I assume the web directions were based on distance. Maybe the algorithm can eventually incorporate information like
a)the start point of bus versus shortest distance where connecting bus can be caught
b) The time of travel between optional changeovers (specially at particular hours of the day). The 155 is horribly slow between Bamba and Town Hall specially at around 1:30 pm.
Good work but not geekgasamic yet in my opinion.
cheers
fantastic work but some route numbers missing and not practical. agree with above comment. for example when asked for the route from kottawa to piliyandala gives a long and illogical route of going to thimbirigasyaya and taking 120 from there whereas there is a direct bus, route no 255, from kottawa to piliyandala. however the effort is highly commendable! technically great work but improvements required from a research point of view!
I wan to find the 141 bus route from kirillapone to Colombo general cemetery