I’ve spent a while looking at this point and all the options I’ve tried so far don’t work very well. I’m looking for an app, website or desktop program that has the ability to navigate using public transport. At the moment the best thing I’ve found is osmand but sometimes it just doesn’t work, it will just spend ages loading without ever finishing (I’ve let it load for at least 10 minutes) Also comaps/organic maps can only do short distances or it just crashes out saying there is no route available.

Does anyone have any good options or is osm still only have very primitive public transport offerings?

  • schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    8·
    5 days ago

    Navigating on public transport inherently requires full data on public transport timetables.

    Public transport timetables are out of scope of OSM, there is no good way to enter them, they raise copyright concerns, they would quickly be outdated. So OSM is just the wrong tool for the job…

    I use an app called “Öffi” https://f-droid.org/packages/de.schildbach.oeffi for calculating routes on public transport. It queries the open APIs of public transport networks. I don’t know whether it supports the one you need, but e.g. in Germany and Austria it is very usable.

        • pineapple@lemmy.mlOPEnglish
          1·
          18 hours ago

          Dude! your amazing!

          This is exactly what I was looking for! I tested it out with a transport route that goes near my place and I’ll admit the transport was about 50m ahead of where it said it was on the map but aside from that frickin awesome!

          Also bimba actually provides a tutorial to add gtfs data from other places to the map so I might do that if I get around to it. Since it does still seam to be the most usable mobile app.

          • balsoft@lemmy.mlEnglish
            2·
            17 hours ago

            I did none of this, it’s the devs of transitous/bimba who are the amazing ones :)

            But I’m glad I could help you find it!

  • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.websiteEnglish
    3·
    5 days ago

    This depends on which area you want to navigate in, how well OSM is maintained there, and on the interface situation between the providers of public transport and the open internet. I think the latter is the biggest problem. Is the transport data available and available in a stable format that OSM can tap into? And the answer is most likely no. The Googles and the Apples have teams that take care of their maps offering and that work through the patchwork of APIs and formats to come up with not totally bad solutions to this mess. Unpaid volunteers will have a harder time getting to the same level. So OSM is not the way to go here - most likely. I’m sure islands of great data exist.

      • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.websiteEnglish
        2·
        4 days ago

        Sorry, can’t help you there because I don’t have a clue. I’m in Japan and landed on the Yahoo Japan app because in my experience they do better than the G’s and A’s here locally.

          • FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.websiteEnglish
            2·
            1 day ago

            Yahoo Japan is a separate entity from the US juggernaut of ancient times. They run a transportation app called Yahoo!乗換案内 or roughly Yahoo Transfer Information. I live here so I can read enough Japanese to get by. But there is no English version.

            There used to be a non-Google English competitor that faded away a few years back. The network is quite dense here in the big cities and disruptions happen. So you’ll need something that alerts you to problems along the route. They stopped being tied into whatever API that requires. And it’s been so long I forgot what they were called. I prefer the Yahoo one to Google Maps because their algorithm that finds best connections works better in my experience. But that’s coupled with me knowing my way around Tokyo okay as well. YMMV.