Awful route planner on Dublin Bus website

Boulevardier

I needed to go from the city centre, where I work, to SuperValu on Sundrive Road recently. I did not know which routes would take me there, so I tried the DB route planner.

God almighty! I entered O'Connell St and was then asked which bus stop I wanted to start from. How the hell am I suposed to know that if I don't know what routes are going where I want? Then in the destination box, I again had to choose an exact stop number, and again, I had no way of knowing which stop was closest to SuperValu.

Naturally, the "routes" selected for me were utterly daft and convoluted.

Could the DB website not have a way of simply telling a user which buses go from (for instance) An Lar to Sundrive Road?

markpb

Just use Google Maps. It uses the same data but doesn't make you want to tear your hair out.

munchkin_utd

had the same insane problem trying to figure how to get from Kilmainham to Croke park, so ended up walking a distance getting the luas and then walking.
Absolute stone age website and planner and no use to anyone except possibly dublin bus drivers or bus route nerds

Boulevardier

OK, but does that tell you bus routes?

bk

munchkin_utd wrote: »

had the same insane problem trying to figure how to get from Kilmainham to Croke park, so ended up walking a distance getting the luas and then walking.
Absolute stone age website and planner and no use to anyone except possibly dublin bus drivers or bus route nerds

Their mobile apps are badly broken too!

If they aren't going to do this properly, then they should just use the far better NTA journey planner on their website and apps.

RainyDay

O'Connell St is a big street, and Sundrive Road is a big road. The best routes vary, depending on where you are coming from or where you are going to.

City Centre is one option in the route planner, if you don't want to be more specific. For Sundrive, would it kill ya to look it up on Google Maps and see which end is best for you?

tricky D

Check out http://www.a-b.ie for loads of options and info.

LXFlyer

tricky D wrote: »

Check out http://www.a-b.ie for loads of options and info.

Absolutely or download the National Journey Planner app on your smart phone.

Much better as it includes all operators and features real time information.

Google maps also provides route information but is not real time.

The DB planner is a waste of time.

devnull

DB should be forced to use the Transport for Ireland one, but probably won't because that involves in admitting other operators which might be competitors with them might be included.

As far as I'm concerned all publicly funded bus operators should be made to use such centralised planner.

markpb

RainyDay wrote: »

O'Connell St is a big street, and Sundrive Road is a big road. The best routes vary, depending on where you are coming from or where you are going to

O'Connell street is 850m long. It's not exactly Younge St now, is it? Surely the DB planner could suggest the OP hobble from one end to the other to get a bus?

devnull wrote: »

DB should be forced to use the Transport for Ireland one, but probably won't because that involves in admitting other operators which might be competitors with them might be included. As far as I'm concerned all publicly funded bus operators should be made to use such centralised planner.

If I remember correctly, DB bought and launched their own journey planner *at the same time* that the NTA were launching theirs. I find it hard to believe that the NTA never mentioned it to them so this was deliberate waste of public money.

RainyDay

markpb wrote: »

O'Connell street is 850m long. It's not exactly Younge St now, is it? Surely the DB planner could suggest the OP hobble from one end to the other to get a bus?

That's exactly what the DB planner does - it shows you the time required to walk to connect to your bus.

devnull

markpb wrote: »

If I remember correctly, DB bought and launched their own journey planner *at the same time* that the NTA were launching theirs. I find it hard to believe that the NTA never mentioned it to them so this was deliberate waste of public money.

Just after Real Time Ireland was launched with advertising campaign and promotion Dublin Bus started heavily advertising their own real time app. Just after Transport for Ireland launched spider maps, Dublin Bus launched their own spider maps as well, there are many examples of similar things.

Dublin Bus was just acting in it's own commercial interests.

LXFlyer

RainyDay wrote: »

That's exactly what the DB planner does - it shows you the time required to walk to connect to your bus.

Look - really you are defending the indefensible.

As a journey planner it's pretty useless as it is based on the specific bus stop addresses rather than general areas (save for a few exceptions).

It isn't linked to timetables but only gives possible routes.

As above it was developed at the same time as the NTA planner which is far more user friendly, which frankly was a waste of public funds.

I get accused of defending DB here often enough but frankly there is no way that I would view this as a suitable journey planner.

How would anyone be expected to know the bus stop names???

LXFlyer

devnull wrote: »

Just after Real Time Ireland was launched with advertising campaign and promotion Dublin Bus started heavily advertising their own real time app. Just after Transport for Ireland launched spider maps, Dublin Bus launched their own spider maps as well, there are many examples of similar things.

Dublin Bus was just acting in it's own commercial interests.

That's not quite true - DB rolled out spider maps well before the NTA did and launched their real time app ahead of the NTA too.

schaffer1969

I've found hittheroad.ie to be the most accurate as it uses bus, luas, dart, train and walking.
The other ones I've tried all miss out on the luas/Dart combination.
For timings using google maps as most of the sites appear to be way off.

devnull

lxflyer wrote: »

That's not quite true - DB rolled out spider maps well before the NTA did and launched their real time app ahead of the NTA too.

Yes - but the updated one was only properly marketed and launched when the NTA launched theirs. DB showed a lot more interest in their own stuff only when the NTA rolled out and marketed their stuff. It was clearly to drown out the NTA products.

They suddenly had people going around the city centre handing out copies of the maps for a while after the NTA stepped up the campaign to advertise their own and buses covered in adverts for their own app. I doubt the people who were handing the maps out were paid much, but it was a waste.

This is exactly why PSO operators should have to use centralized resources and one of the main things the NTA should be doing, although I can imagine the companies would put up a lot of resistance.

LXFlyer

schaffer1969 wrote: »

I've found hittheroad.ie to be the most accurate as it uses bus, luas, dart, train and walking.
The other ones I've tried all miss out on the luas/Dart combination.
For timings using google maps as most of the sites appear to be way off.

Again though it has no times.

The NTA planner at www.a-b.ie (or the app) is the best as it is updated with live times.

schaffer1969

lxflyer wrote: »

Again though it has no times.

The NTA planner at a-b.ie (or the app) is the best as it is updated with live times.

Maybe, but it misses possible shorter journeys with certain transport combinations

Teyla Emmagan

Hittheroad.ie has much better maps. Ones you might actually find useful. The Dublin Bus website is a disgrace.

LXFlyer

schaffer1969 wrote: »

Maybe, but it misses possible shorter journeys with certain transport combinations

Like what?

The NTA app covers all transport providers

noelfirl

I can't be the only one thinking that by now timetable/ticket/route/real time/destination planning should, for Dublin Bus, Luas, the commuter part of Iarnrod Eireann and the city/town services of Bus Eireann, have been be centralised to a TFI driven setup of microsites. The operator websites should then be relegated to only information pertaining to the operator (lost and found, complaints, jobs, contacts, etc.).

It's ridiculous that the situation even exists where it's possible to use and get fecked about by several different, independent journey planners.

RainyDay

lxflyer wrote: »

Look - really you are defending the indefensible.

As a journey planner it's pretty useless as it is based on the specific bus stop addresses rather than general areas (save for a few exceptions).

It isn't linked to timetables but only gives possible routes.

As above it was developed at the same time as the NTA planner which is far more user friendly, which frankly was a waste of public funds.

I get accused of defending DB here often enough but frankly there is no way that I would view this as a suitable journey planner.

How would anyone be expected to know the bus stop names???

I'm not saying it is 'suitable' or the best thing in town, but some of the criticisms are a little OTT.

dfx-

I don't use any planner as I know the routes anyway, but I tried it there on the DB website route planner.

'O Connell Street' gave me nothing as a starting point, D'Olier St did though (Ashfield House). Sundrive Rd was fine, it gave a list of options. The option given was the 83/A...which is indeed correct.

That is literally the first time I've ever used it and it worked out ok.

schaffer1969

lxflyer wrote: »

Like what?

The NTA app covers all transport providers

I tried out a few journeys and it missed out on some combinations of luas and dart which would be the quickest journey. I found it slightly better if I typed in place names instead of selecting locations on the map.

It's actually quite good with the exception of the above. I'd use it in combination with hittheroad.ie to make sure all the possible journeys are covered. As was said earlier it probably is the most accuracy with timings.

munchkin_utd

dfx- wrote: »

I don't use any planner as I know the routes anyway, but I tried it there on the DB website route planner.

'O Connell Street' gave me nothing as a starting point, D'Olier St did though (Ashfield House). Sundrive Rd was fine, it gave a list of options. The option given was the 83/A...which is indeed correct.

That is literally the first time I've ever used it and it worked out ok.

Suppose you are going to Castleknock Village.
So, you'd type in Castleknock and you've 23 options and none of them obviously Castleknock Village! Thats a bit bonkers.

But yea, it now seems to be half ways usable.

It still suffers that it uses individual bus stops (i.e. theres 2 stops for say Drumcondra Station, one inbond and one outbound, when essentially there should be only 1 starting point, the station)

In its previous versions this crazy way of doing timetables meant that should you want a journey from say Drumcondra to the airport, but entered the city bound stop at Drumcondra and city bound stop at the airport (because heck, how could you know otherwise) you might get sent to town, then to swords, and then back to the airport, rather than walk across the road to the other stop to get the direct bus which it would do now!
Or, the system would just say those 2 stops werent connected, even though there IS a direct bus from Drumcondra station to the airport.
The earlier versions of the Journey planner were a total waste of time and effort and really should not have even been released to the public.

But with the improvements, I'll withdraw my previous comment and I'll downgrade it to usable but clunky, rather than a danger to my mental health from trying to use it.

devnull

schaffer1969 wrote: »

I tried out a few journeys and it missed out on some combinations of luas and dart which would be the quickest journey. I found it slightly better if I typed in place names instead of selecting locations on the map.

It's actually quite good with the exception of the above. I'd use it in combination with hittheroad.ie to make sure all the possible journeys are covered. As was said earlier it probably is the most accuracy with timings.

Did you select the appropriate time of day in the box?

The NTA planner works on actual recorded data not theory.

Many journeys are quicker in theory on paper but in practice are not for various factors.

The DB is not a route planner, it's a stop to stop planner.

Boulevardier

"The DB is not a route planner, it's a stop to stop planner." Well I wish they would say so.

The fact remains that it is of no convievable use in its present form. If anyone really does know what stop they wish to start their journey from, then they probably know the bus routes anyway.

The only exception I can think of would be a person starting from an outer suburban bus stop with an already-known stop number on the correct side of the road. That is probably a small minority of the site's users.

The planner needs to be taken down and replaced.

LXFlyer

Boulevardier wrote: »

"The DB is not a route planner, it's a stop to stop planner." Well I wish they would say so.

The fact remains that it is of no convievable use in its present form. If anyone really does know what stop they wish to start their journey from, then they probably know the bus routes anyway.

The only exception I can think of would be a person starting from an outer suburban bus stop with an already-known stop number on the correct side of the road. That is probably a small minority of the site's users.

The planner needs to be taken down and replaced.

Or perhaps you simply use www.a-b.ie or download the National Journey Planner app?

bk

lxflyer wrote: »

Or perhaps you simply use www.a-b.ie or download the National Journey Planner app?

Or perhaps Dublin Bus simply use the NTA planner on their website and app.

Way to go to blame the customer rather then have DB take responsibility for it's own incompetency!

LXFlyer

bk wrote: »

Or perhaps Dublin Bus simply use the NTA planner on their website and app.

Way to go to blame the customer rather then have DB take responsibility for it's own incompetency!

I'm not blaming anyone - I'm making a helpful constructive suggestion and trying to suggest otherwise is disingenuous.

Please don't accuse me of something I'm not doing - I have already made my views on the DB planner quite clear.

bk

lxflyer wrote: »

I'm not blaming anyone - I'm making a helpful constructive suggestion and trying to suggest otherwise is disingenuous.

Please don't accuse me of something I'm not doing - I have already made my views on the DB planner quite clear.

Boulevardier clearly knows the existence of the NTA app, etc. The very valid point that Boulevardier was making is that DB shouldn't be putting out their such badly broken and useless websites and apps when they could simply use the far superior NTA apps.

LXFlyer

bk wrote: »

Boulevardier clearly knows the existence of the NTA app, etc. The very valid point that Boulevardier was making is that DB shouldn't be putting out their such badly broken and useless websites and apps when they could simply use the far superior NTA apps.

I wasn't sure that he did - hence I mentioned it. None of his/her posts referenced them which would suggest that they didn't know about them.

Significant numbers of people are not aware of the NTA planners (as is clear from frequent queries here) and it is no harm to remind people that they exist, which is what I was doing, rather than, as you certainly stated (not even implied), defending DB or blaming the customer as you suggested. I wasn't, and I'd appreciate it if you didn't suggest that I was.

Boulevardier

I tried the NTA thing as well, and had problems with it, but it was less surreal than the DB planner.

If DB offer a route planner then it should be fit for purpose as a route planner. Unfortunately, it clearly is not!