This Is the Best Public Transport App I Have Ever Used.
I’m a big fan of apps that give you the information you need at a glance without getting in your way. Transit is a great example.
This free app is perfect if you’re ever waiting for a bus, train, or any other form of transportation. Just open the app and you’ll see the next departure times for all lines near where you’re standing. You can tap on any line to see a more detailed schedule. You can usually also see where the next train or bus is right now, thanks to real-time data.
All of this takes the anxiety out of using public transportation. Instead of wondering when the next bus will arrive—or if it will arrive at all—I can glance at my phone and know exactly how long I have to wait. I live near Portland, Oregon, and use this feature almost every time I drive into the city—it’s just nice to know when the next train will arrive.
But the app has also saved me while traveling. One day, while biking north of Victoria, B.C., one of my tires went flat. Walking back into town would have taken hours, and I had no cell signal. The Transit app, miraculously, had a cached version of the bus schedule and told me the closest stop. I was on a bus 15 minutes later and quickly into the city center.
Even outside of emergencies, Transit makes navigating new cities on public transit a lot less daunting. In addition to real-time departures, there’s also a way to ask for directions, just like you can on Google or Apple Maps. And while both of those apps offer public transit routes, the Transit app does a better job of suggesting multiple routes.
This app also makes it easy to customize it to your riding style. I, for one, am happy to walk a few miles if it means I don’t have to sit at a bus stop for a long time waiting for a transfer. Transit lets you customize how long you’re willing to walk and how fast you’ll walk. There’s also really great support for combining bikes and public transit, something that Google and Apple Maps don’t really offer. As a result, you can get around faster using Transit’s directions once you’ve customized them to your preferences.
Transit operates in 951 cities around the world , mostly in North America and Europe. There’s a paid version called Royale that gives you access to things like more comprehensive schedules and customization options. These features are offered for free in some cities , as I discovered during a recent visit to Grand Rapids, Michigan. If you’re a regular transit user or just enjoy using public transit when you visit a new city, I highly recommend giving this app a try.