Slug Rides

Inspiration

As students of UC Santa Cruz, we understand the frustrations of the on-campus transportation system all too well. The unpredictability of the metro and shuttle services as well as a lack of information regarding changes or delays in schedule can be an inconvenience. This is where our inspiration for Slug Rides came in. We wanted to create an application that would solve these problems, making commuting on campus as seamless and stress-free as possible.

What it does

Slug Rides is a cutting-edge transportation app designed to make the lives of UC Santa Cruz students easier. Our app serves as a one-stop shop for all metro and shuttle services on campus, offering real-time tracking information and estimated arrival times to help students plan their commutes. Students can monitor bus locations, stay informed of any changes or delays in schedule, and check the capacity of the buses. Our social feed allows students to connect with one another and share their experiences through comments and photos as well. Slug Rides is the ultimate solution for efficient and informed transportation on campus.

How we built it

Developing Slug Rides was a process that began with identifying the pain points experienced by UC Santa Cruz students. Our team attended various workshops offered at CruzHacks, such as Introduction to Figma, Introduction to GitHub, and Getting Started with Lightship, to learn about the tools available to us. Using Figma and the Google Maps API, we then created a digital sketch of the app's flow and designed an interactive user interface.

Challenges we ran into

While working on Slug Rides, our team faced a few challenges. This was was all our first-time participating in a hackathon, so it was a challenge to build an entire product in such a short period of time. At times, the problems and solutions we identified were beyond the scope of our skills, which made it challenging to move forward as well.

What's next for Slug Rides

Slug Rides has the potential to revolutionize efficient transportation on the UC Santa Cruz campus, and we are far from finished. We hope to build out this application to its full potential, including developing a robust backend that will allow for efficient and seamless operation. In addition, our next steps include the creation of a separate flow for drivers, allowing them to communicate with students and report information such as delays and bus capacity. Our goal is to continue to improve the user experience, making Slug Rides the go-to app for all transportation needs on campus.