Footbus makes it easy to create, share and manage routes so you can walk together. With Footbus you create or join a group, then create or join a route within your group,so routes are only shared with the members of that group. Make an immediate route in seconds or plan regular routes in advance. Group members can suggest alterations like adding stops along the way. Click on the route any time to see when and where to meet, route map, route members and messages. All in one place, no more scrolling through group chats.
We like to call the group admin the ‘Controller’, the person who creates the route the ‘Driver’, those that join the route the ‘Passengers’ and meeting points along the way are ‘Stops’ - as we see Footbus like a walking bus. Hence the name.
For anything else, read on or email us at contact@footbus.com
Open the app, click on ‘My Groups’, click ‘Create New Group’. If you are already in any other groups, you can search for members of the other groups and select those you want in your new group. If not, give your group a name and click ‘Continue’ to create a link to share with your friends to invite them to join your group.
Users will receive a notification that they have been invited to join a group which they click on for details. Or go to ‘My Groups’ and select ‘Invites’. The group invitation will tell you the name of the group and who has invited you to join it. Make sure you know the person inviting you before accepting any invitation to join a group.
Yes. You can pass on the share link to join a group, or select the group and ‘Add New Member’ but only the group admin (Controller) can admit new members, so you might want to let them know that you have someone to join their group.
Yes. You can be in as many as you like. You can create groups or join other people’s groups, there is no limit.
Click ‘My Groups’, click the group name, and the list of members will pop up.
Yes. Select the group and click ‘Add New Member’ and it will create an invitation link for you to share. Again the group controller will have to accept anyone invited to their group after it is created.
Click ‘My Groups’, and select the group and select any member by pressing the three dots by their name. You can remove a member, add them to your contacts or add or remove ‘Driver Privilege’ to let them create routes (see below). You can also create an invitation link to share with someone you want to invite to your group by pressing Add New Member.
In most cases you will want all your group members to be able to create routes, so when you create a group just leave ‘Driver Privilege’ on. If you are making a large group and only want a few members to be able to create routes, you can turn ‘Driver Privilege’ off when you create your group. Once members have joined your group, you can select those that you want to be able to create routes and add ‘Driver Privilege’. The dots by their name will turn from grey to yellow when they have ‘Driver Privilege’ so you can see who your drivers are. You can also remove ‘Driver Privilege’ in the same way.
They will receive a notification that they have been removed from your group.
Sure, My Groups, group name, select the red ‘Leave Group’ icon.
As your Route is only shared within your group you need to select the group that you want to share the route with from the dropdown list first. If you are not in any groups, you will need to make one or join one before you can create and share a route. People won’t see your routes until after they have joined your group, so you might want to wait until you receive confirmation that users have accepted your group invitation before you start creating and sharing routes.
Click ‘My Routes’, or click the route icon on the bottom of the screen, and click ‘Create New Route’. This will take you to the screen where you enter all the details for your new route. You will be the route ‘Driver’ and will see a steering wheel icon next to the route.
After you have selected the group that you want to share your route with, just fill in the details asked in each of the fields. You will be asked to give your route a name, where you are starting and ending the Route, date time and so on.
Yes. You can either just start at one point, and end at another, or you can add stops along the way. Just slide the ‘want to add stops’ toggle and you will be able to add more stops on the next screen.
Yes. You can do this before you create and send the route. Just click on the route icon at the side of the stop that you want to move and drag it up or down the list of stops.
Not yet. If you want to change the direction of the route, add a stop or two in the direction that you want it to travel. We will add in- app route drag to adjust as soon as we can.
When you press ‘Create Route’, the route will be sent to the members of the group that you are sharing your route with. They will receive a notification with the route details and will be able to accept or decline the Route. The Route will then be added to your upcoming list in My Routes.
If you have left the ‘Allow group members to suggest route alterations’ button on, they can suggest another stop along the way by pressing ‘Alter’. You can then accept or decline their suggestion. If you accept, just press the button and the adjusted route will be shared with those in your group who have already accepted the route and the person who suggested the additional stop will be notified that their stop has been added.
When you have gathered with all your Passengers, click ‘Start Route’ as you leave to turn tracking on. This will allow anyone who is meeting you along the route to see where you are via the moving blue dot so they can be ready to meet you. The route will also move from Upcoming to Ongoing for all route members.
When you get to where you are going click End Route. This will tell the app to stop tracking your location and allow all route members to leave a review if they want to.
Yes. Go to My Routes, select the Route and press Cancel Route. Passengers will get a notification that the route is no longer going ahead.
If you know that you can’t make it but want others to be able to walk the route anyway, you can ask someone else to be the ‘Driver’. Just message everyone on the route to say you are going to have to cancel but could someone else take it over as a new driver. You can then select them as the new driver by adjusting the toggle next to their name, and they will be able to start and end the route. You can then exit the route to be removed from the list of ‘Passengers’.
You will receive notifications as people accept or decline the invitation to join your route. Select the route in My Routes and click the members icon for a list of the route members (Passengers) who are walking with you
Every route comes with in-route messaging and you can add a message whenever you want. Just select the route in My Routes to send a new message once you have accepted it. You will see all route messages in one place so will know if someone is on their way but a bit late, or if you are meeting inside if it is raining. A red message symbol will appear on the route name so you know to check for new messages. Messages will be seen by everyone on the route, so please keep all your messaging civil! When the route ends the messages expire.
We track the Driver when they start a route so that Passengers can see where people on the route are. This is really useful if you are meeting at a stop halfway along the route. When you get to your destination, end the route and you can give it a rating. If you forget to end your route when you get to your destination, we will auto-end location tracking after a set period.
If you are not meeting anyone after the first stop, once you are all together start the route, and you can then end the route straight away, or whenever you like, to turn off tracking.
Footbus lets you share a link to the app stores via the hamburger menu. Simply ‘Share Footbus’ and forward the link.
Yes. We really want people to use Footbus. We think it is safer to walk together at night, and more fun to walk together in the day. It is better for your health to walk, and for the health of the planet. We will keep it free as long as we can.
Yes we do value your feedback. Either through the App Stores or via ‘Feedback’ in the hamburger menu.
Talking with a student who was worried about crossing a dark park near university on her own made us think that there must have been other students on campus who felt the same, and who would be happier walking together. We also thought that especially in university towns there are tons of routes that students regularly walk, from halls to campus, from home to the library, to the town centre, to parks, to bars and clubs...... Hence the idea of a ‘walking bus’ – Footbus – so that students can walk together.
By email –contact@footbus.com