· Aaron Brethorst

Announcing Wayfinder: A New Era for Real-Time Transit on the Web

I’m thrilled to announce the release of Wayfinder, the next-generation web application for OneBusAway. This is more than just a new web interface—it represents a fundamental shift in how we think about real-time transit experiences on the web.

Why Wayfinder Matters

For years, the state of the art for real-time transit on the web has been… well, underwhelming. Most web-based transit apps feel like afterthoughts—clunky, slow, and lacking the polish that riders have come to expect from native mobile applications. Transit agencies have been forced to choose between expensive proprietary solutions or cobbling together aging open-source tools that don’t meet modern expectations.

Wayfinder changes all of that.

Built from the ground up with SvelteKit, Wayfinder delivers a blazing-fast, fully responsive experience that rivals native apps. It’s designed to work beautifully on everything from desktop browsers to mobile devices, ensuring that riders can access real-time transit information whenever and wherever they need it.

What Makes Wayfinder Different

Wayfinder isn’t just another web app—it’s a platform that any transit agency can deploy and customize for their riders:

  • Instant Customization: Agencies can fully brand the application with their own logos, colors, and navigation. The system automatically generates a complete color palette from a single accent color, ensuring visual consistency across the entire interface.

  • Flexible Map Integration: Wayfinder supports both Google Maps and OpenStreetMap, giving agencies the freedom to choose the mapping solution that best fits their needs and budget.

  • Trip Planning: Full integration with OpenTripPlanner means riders can plan complete journeys, not just check when their next bus arrives.

  • Modern Architecture: Built on SvelteKit, Wayfinder is fast, maintainable, and designed for the modern web. It’s the kind of codebase that developers actually enjoy working on.

A New Standard for the Industry

We believe Wayfinder sets a new standard for what open-source transit software can be. For too long, the gap between proprietary solutions and open-source alternatives has been too wide. Agencies with limited budgets have been stuck with tools that don’t serve their riders well, while those with deep pockets pay premium prices for basic functionality.

Wayfinder closes that gap. It’s production-ready, beautiful, and completely free. Any transit agency in the world can deploy it, customize it, and make it their own.

Get Involved

Wayfinder is open source, and we welcome contributions from developers of all skill levels:

Thank You

I want to extend a special thank you to Tarun Singh for spearheading the early development of Wayfinder. His contributions were instrumental in getting this project off the ground and shaping it into what it is today.

Aaron Brethorst Executive Director, Open Transit Software Foundation