Buslens - Discover nearby bus routes on an interactive map
Show HN: Buslens – where can I get to by bus? (UK)
Buslens is a web-based tool that visualizes bus routes near your location on an interactive map, using OpenStreetMap and CARTO basemaps. Simply open the site and see all available bus services, route numbers, and destinations at a glance. It's perfect for exploring public transit options in unfamiliar areas or planning your next journey. The map is responsive and works on both desktop and mobile, making it easy to check bus connections on the go.
Buslens turns the complex web of bus routes into a clear, visual map, making it effortless to see where you can go by bus.
- andrewfromx
the LA transit app is amazing these days. You can even pick an icon and when I see a bus coming I can see if a "friend" is on it. It's not like full on profiles and messages, just a unique icon you can pick from 1000's but I see the same lobster or alien over and over on routes I take. And it means they have the transit app open. So I step on the bus and look everyone in the eyes and try and see if I get lobster or alien vibes.
- RobinL
Author here. Wasn't expecting this to blow up!
This is a quick prototype, made for my 7yo who loves buses.
A few tips:
- Click the freeze icon to be able to zoom and pan without it changing the location of the lens
- Double click to position the lens
Thanks for feedback about the data. The bus stop and route data comes from the Department for Transport’s Bus Open Data Service (BODS), using the national GTFS feed. It seems some things like Manchester metro creep in.
All these caveats aside, as soon as I got this working it felt like a promising direction. I will pay attention to everyone's comments and suggestions and iterate! Thank you!
Incidentally there's a bunch of other free stuff I built for my 7yo on the root domain
- soleveloper
It reminds me a site where you'd pick a point on map and see where you'd get to in 15/30/etc minutes, including walking iirc.
Then you could even pick *two* points in map and see their intersection in time period, which was great for finding places to meet friends.
- Closi
Nice idea and appreciate it's a prototype - appears very glitchy for me in Chrome where bus routes appear/disappear when zooming in/out, i.e. it can show no routes at all, but then if you either zoom in or out they appear (some - not all).
Not sure if just me / my browser but thought I would share.
This is in Edinburgh btw - not sure if it's just an issue with that city.
- taffronaut
This answers a question that I often have in the UK - "Do I have a non-zero chance of being able to get (near to) to somewhere by bus?". There's no clear way to answer that since UK buses were deregulated in 1986 [1]. For me, this isn't a tool to plan an immediate journey. Yes, UK buses are sparse and unreliable in rural areas. Often it's quicker to walk 1-2 miles than to wait for a bus. The service might not even run every day. Personally I've had pretty good experience of occasional recreational travel on main bus routes outside of cities and towns in Wales which is why I am interested in this.