KakaoBus App Tells You How Crowded Buses Are

I don’t often post actual blogs here but I thought this functionality is so great I should share about it. 

In Seoul, the best way to stay informed of subway and bus time is to download an app that will show you real-time data. It’s probably for the best, because even subway trains hardly ever stay on schedule, no matter their claims to the contrary. For buses, forget about it. There might be a time schedule somewhere but Seoul traffic is so bad that it would be hard to keep buses on schedule anyway.  

Under those circumstances, it’s always good to have an app. Plus, with an app, you can just leave your home in time before your bus arrives.

What is cool about the KakaoBus app (iOS/Android) is that recently (a few weeks ago actually), for select bus lines, they added info on how crowded the buses are. 

In practice, that means you can look at live time tables that tell you which stop each active bus is at, ETA for the next two buses, and each bus’ filling rate. The filling rates are “Empty”, “Comfy” and “Crowded”.  

The screen showing my bookmarked bus stops. 

You can see the current position of each bus on the line and their filling rate.