Route Radar

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Inspiration

Utilizing public transportation not only offers environmental benefits but can also be a cheaper alternative to driving. Navigating local transportation apps and websites to figure out which route to use or which bus stop to go to can be overwhelming and confusing for those who are not familiar with the local public transportation infrastructure.

What it does

Route Radar integrates data from both the UGA transportation system and the Athens-Clarke County transportation system into a singular application so users have access to a centralized platform for all of their transportation needs. The user interface of Route Radar is intuitively designed to ensure ease of navigation and easy accessibility for all users.

How we built it

We began the project by creating a mock-up of our desired app in Figma. We spent time learning about the APIs for the UGA and ACC transportation. We then unified the two into a single seamless data source for use in our application. We researched different technologies to determine the most appropriate one to use for our demo and settled on react-native which works on both Android and iOS.

Challenges we ran into

We were unfamiliar with many of the platforms we were using. We originally planned to create the application using a PWA but ran into trouble with CORS which didn't let us access external APIs when trying to retrieve bus tracking data from Athens-Clarke County and UGA. Eventually, we realized that react-native didn't have this issue since it made the requests directly and not through a browser.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are proud of having a good-looking mock-up and a functional prototype of an app. We we began this project we were unsure of how much we would be able to accomplish in such a short amount of time -- especially given all of the setbacks along the way and the amount of time we had to dedicate to researching the new platforms and technologies we were going to use.

What we learned

We have learned how to work as a team and how to quickly learn and use new platforms.

What's next for Route Radar

Route Radar has the potential to become a fully formed app that can be used for any of Athen's transportation tracking information needs. Perhaps one day Route Radar can expand to cover MARTA and other transportation systems throughout Georgia and beyond.