Public Bus Live: A Simpler Way to Catch the Bus in Regina

Anyone who rides transit in Regina knows the feeling. You are standing at a stop on a cold morning, checking your phone, wondering whether the bus has already gone by or is still five minutes away. For years, I was one of those riders, opening the TransitLive map again and again to track down my bus. It worked, but it never felt quite right on a small screen, and it could not answer the one question I kept asking: what is the fastest way to get where I am going right now?

So I decided to build my own answer. The result is Public Bus Live, a free web app that brings live bus locations, stop arrival times and a full trip planner together in one place, designed first and foremost for the phone in your pocket.

Where the idea came from

Public Bus Live started as a personal tool. I wanted something that opened instantly, showed me my bus without extra taps, and told me plainly when to leave the house. As the project grew, I realized that many other riders in the city probably wanted the same thing. What began as a weekend experiment slowly turned into a complete transit companion for Regina.

What it does

The heart of the app is a live map of every Regina Transit bus currently on the road. Buses move across the map as their positions update, and you can narrow the view to only the routes you care about. When you choose a route, the map also hides every stop that is not on it, so the screen stays clean and easy to read.

Tap any stop and a small card appears showing the next arriving buses and how many minutes away each one is. From that card you can follow a specific bus on the map, save the stop as a favourite, share a direct link to it with a friend, or get directions to that spot.

The feature I am most proud of is the trip planner. You type in where you want to go, whether that is a street address, a landmark or a stop number, and Public Bus Live works out the best ways to get there. It considers routes with up to two transfers, includes the walking portions at the start and end of your journey, and lays everything out on a clear timeline. Each option is drawn on the map in the colour of its route, with walking sections shown separately so you can see exactly where you need to go. If walking would actually be faster than waiting for a bus, the app will tell you that too.

Once you have picked a trip, you can ask the app to remind you. It keeps an eye on your bus and sends you a notification three minutes before you need to head out the door, so you are not left standing in the wind any longer than necessary. When live data is available for your first bus, the planner shows whether it is running on time.

When you first open the site, it can use your location to find the stops closest to you and show the next buses coming to each of them. You can also press and hold anywhere on the map to get directions to or from that exact point.

Built for everyone

Public Bus Live runs entirely in the web browser. There is nothing to download from an app store and no account to create. On most phones you can add it to your home screen, and from then on it opens just like a regular app. The interface is available in English and Vietnamese, and I put real care into keeping it light, readable and fast, even on older devices or a weak mobile connection.

Where the information comes from

Live bus positions and arrival predictions come from the public data behind the TransitLive service. Scheduled trips used by the planner come from the official transit schedule published by the City of Regina. I want to be clear that Public Bus Live is an independent personal project. It is not an official Regina Transit product, and it is not affiliated with the City. Predictions are only as accurate as the data behind them, so on unusual days, during detours or in bad weather, it is always wise to leave a little extra time.

What comes next

This is very much a living project. I am still refining the trip planner, improving how detours are shown, and looking for small ways to make daily trips smoother. The most valuable thing anyone can give me right now is honest feedback. If something looks wrong, if a trip suggestion does not make sense, or if there is a feature you wish existed, I would genuinely love to hear about it.

Try it yourself

You can visit Public Bus Live at https://publicbus.dustinle.ca/ Open it on your phone the next time you are heading out, try planning a trip, and let me know what you think in the comments or in a message.

Public transit works best when riders have good information. My hope is that this small project makes catching the bus in Regina a little easier, a little more predictable and a little less cold.