Living in a big city has its advantages, but it is also easy to lose your way when getting around. Maps can help only to some extent, though Google Maps tries valiantly to keep us from getting lost. Government agencies and utilities haven’t bothered to do much in helping citizens and travellers get around cities.

Here’s where private app players such as Ridlr have stepped in. Ridlr started off as Traffline (which still exists). Its facilities are concentrated mainly around Mumbai.

Its USP is that users can buy BEST bus tickets, passes (daily and monthly) and even recharge them using the app. It also allows users to recharge Mumbai metro smart cards. The Ridlr bus ticketing app works differently. It is not possible to buy tickets on the app before boarding a bus. Once you board a bus you have to key in the boarding place and destination and generate a token number. The token number has to be given to the conductor who will issue a paper ticket.

This could be quite cumbersome, and there have been complaints on the Google Play Store about wrong tickets issued by the ticketing machine with the conductor. The location services must also be switched ON on your mobile.

The one big advantage of the app here is that you don’t have to pay cash or haggle for change with the conductor. The renewal process for bus passes obviates the need to go to a depot. Again, this involves validating the token number generated in the app with a bus conductor the next day. If the validation is not completed within four days, you will have to go to a depot to get it validated.

The app also enables tickets for suburban bus services such as Navi Mumbai Municipal Transport and Mira Bhayandar Municipal Transport. It also displays time-tables for buses, train and metro services across several cities. Apart from displaying real-time traffic, it also shows parking information.

Ridlr also covers several other cities and towns, but as of now, none of them have facilities for buying tickets or passes like in Mumbai. Live traffic facility is also available on Ridlr’s website for 12 cities and towns as of now.

The Traffline app, which is from the same developer, restricts itself to parking information and real-time traffic. The ticketing and renewals of smart cards and bus passes are available only on the Ridlr app. Going forward, we hope to see bus ticketing facilities for other cities on this app too.

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