Good Dublin Bike App for Apple users

saggart26

Came across this app for Dublin bikes which is really handy

https://appsto.re/ie/8tEH-.i

steve-o

Does it have anything that the official app doesn't have?
https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/allbikesnow/id333176106?mt=8

jimmynokia

steve-o wrote: »

Does it have anything that the official app doesn't have?
https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/allbikesnow/id333176106?mt=8

What makes that an OFFICIAL APP?

blackwhite

jimmynokia wrote: »

What makes that an OFFICIAL APP?

I'd imagine the fact that it's published by JCDecaux, the company that operates Dublin bikes, makes it fairly official

jimmynokia

blackwhite wrote: »

I'd imagine the fact that it's published by JCDecaux, the company that operates Dublin bikes, makes it fairly official

Maybe so but no harm in having another take on the app,often the case third party devs have better apps than official so no harm.

bk

Well when Dublin Bikes first launched, there were a few third party apps, however JCDecaux had them shutdown.

Maybe JCDecaux have relaxed on third party apps (hopefully) or they just aren't aware of that app.

I agree third party apps can often be better then the official apps. The Dublin Bus app is a perfect example of this. Google Maps, Dublin Buster, My Dublin Bus all offer significant improvements over the DB app.

LXFlyer

bk wrote: »

The Dublin Bus app is a perfect example of this. Google Maps, Dublin Buster, My Dublin Bus all offer significant improvements over the DB app.

I don't know about that.

The DB app is the only one reading directly off the DB server and gives people exactly what they need surely in terms of real time information? It's the only one that has consistently displayed buses that are curtailed correctly.

Apart from journey planning, which I'd agree it falls down on (for that I use the NTA journey planner app as it uses real time information which other apps do not, including Google maps ), what "significant" improvements do the others offer?

bk

lxflyer wrote: »

The DB app is the only one reading directly off the DB server and gives people exactly what they need surely in terms of real time information? It's the only one that has consistently displayed buses that are curtailed correctly.

Are you sure about that? I'm not. At least I've never seen any difference between the official DB app and the third party My Dublin Bus App.

I suspect the DB app is tied to the same web service interfaces as the NTA/unofficial apps.

lxflyer wrote: »

Apart from journey planning, which I'd agree it falls down on (for that I use the NTA journey planner app as it uses real time information which other apps do not, including Google maps ), what "significant" improvements do the others offer?

In other words you are saying it fails at one of the most important functions of such an app.

Google Maps/NTA journey planner -

Can actually be used to plan your journey. Includes all forms of transport, not just Dublin Bus. But even just for DB, the official app is terrible. You have to actually know the name/number of the stop you are going to/from in order to plan a journey! Completely idiotic and useless to anyone.

Dublin Buster -

The maps are broken in the official DB app. They show the route and stops, but they don't show your current location on the map.

If you are on the bus on a route you aren't familiar with and need to get off at a specific stop, it is very useful to be able to see your current location, and upcoming stops on the map.

This used to work on the official Dublin Bus app, but it has been broken for more then two years now.

Similarly the "Find Stops Near Me" function has also been broken the past two years.

To be honest it is unforgivable for such important functions to be so badly broken for so long.

The Dublin Buster app adds both of these functions back, thankfully.

- My Dublin Bus

Just a really nice and fun interface (much nicer then the official app) for the stops I use regularly.

I use My Dublin Bus, Dublin Buster and Google Maps instead of the official app.

Their is a reason why the official app has only 2 stars out of 5 on the Apple App store and lots of scathing reviews.

The biggest problem is that it simply isn't being maintained (broken GPS functionality) and not updated for latest iPhones, Apple watch, etc.

LXFlyer

bk wrote: »

Are you sure about that? I'm not. At least I've never seen any difference between the official DB app and the third party My Dublin Bus App.

I suspect the DB app is tied to the same web service interfaces as the NTA/unofficial apps.

Yes I am sure - with respect I don't tend to post things that I am not sure about. The DB app is the only one reading directly off their server and as such has always indicated curtailed services where they have been entered as such. The other apps have not.

I agree about the journey planning and posted that above. They got that wrong from the outset. It was a very poor decision to do it on the basis of stop locations.

The NTA app is the best for that in that it allows multi-operator journeys which is far more relevant and reflects real time information which other apps again do not.

But for what it is designed to do - give real time information for a stop or route, the DB app is in my experience the most accurate. I use the search by bus stop number/bus route rather than other functionality, and that's always worked for me.

I wasn't aware of the GPS issue - but I don't use it for that. I use it simply to check times at stops. Which it does more than adequately.

@bikeyapp

Hi all, I am the developer of Bikey, the app the OP posted about. To explain my motivation;

I am a daily user of Dublin Bikes, and have used similar schemes in other countries. I have tried a number of the other apps out there. More often than not, I didn't like the user experience, and often found that they try to do too much rather than doing one thing extremely well (I just want to know where my nearest station is, and how many bikes/stations it has). With this in mind, I created an app that I would want to use daily. Hopefully this is true for others also.

Hopefully some of you have had a chance to try it out. Any and all feedback is great. I will continues to work on it. Feel free to tweet @bikeyapp with any comments.

bk

lxflyer, as a software engineer I have to say that the DB app is one of the worst apps I've ever seen on the app store.

I trust you that it is reading directly the RTPI data from the DB database. However it's all other functionality is badly broken.

This isn't in fact a Dublin Bus RTPI app, it is in fact the Dublin Bus app, which means that in addition to RTPI, it is also supposed to be used for journey planning, fare information, finding your closest bus stops and mapping the bus route and it fails badly on all of these and frankly it reflects badly on Dublin Bus. The DB app should be good, but in its current state it really isn't.

The point of the original comment is that we benefit greatly from having third party apps, as they can offer a better user experience or fix broken functionality like in the DB app.

smackyB

lxflyer wrote: »

Yes I am sure - with respect I don't tend to post things that I am not sure about. The DB app is the only one reading directly off their server and as such has always indicated curtailed services where they have been entered as such. The other apps have not.

You are definitely wrong on this. Other apps use the same server including My Dublin Bus and my own one, Next Bus Dublin. If you don't believe me try sniffing the traffic from the DB app and compare it against the others.

LXFlyer

smackyB wrote: »

You are definitely wrong on this. Other apps use the same server including My Dublin Bus and my own one, Next Bus Dublin. If you don't believe me try sniffing the traffic from the DB app and compare it against the others.

I'm pretty close to sure your data is coming off the NTA/DCC server as opposed to the DB one.

For quite some time there was an issue with that NTA server not reflecting curtailed services (buses not travelling the entire route) correctly.

smackyB

lxflyer wrote: »

I'm pretty close to sure your data is coming off the NTA/DCC server as opposed to the DB one.

For quite some time there was an issue with that NTA server not reflecting curtailed services (buses not travelling the entire route) correctly.

Okay seeing as you won't take my word for it, here's a screengrab from a traffic sniff of the DB app I just took:



As you can see it is hitting a subdomain of the Dublin Bus website, not the NTA. My app hits the exact same endpoint.

LXFlyer

I stand corrected!!

I must have had the NTA apps in mind when that issue arose.