Douglas Buses is a new app to help Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students who ride the bus find their buses easier. The app was created by three MSD students to help their peers locate their buses.

When you first click onto the app you see two options; you can either click on Admin or Student. Once you click on student, you see a diagram of the MSD bus loop with each bus’s approximate location. On the map it displays each bus with a number one through 22. This corresponds with a numbered list below, next to the number given is the actual bus number. This is to help students locate where in the bus loop their bus is located.

The app also then displays which buses are on campus; if the bus is not on the list then it currently has not arrived at MSD yet to pick up students.

Assistant Principal Lisa Farris is mainly in charge of updating the app but Assistant Principal Kristine Knapp also assists. The app got approved by both Apple and Android developers and then was published on October 9.

This app has been in process since the summer of 2022, when the idea was first created. Senior Riley Tromer, and his development co-workers, seniors Shadi Buchanan and Xander Grevensteynwere collaborated on creating this app.

“We decided that [the bus board]was not efficient, and was causing people to be late to their bus that departs only 10 minutes after school ends,” Riley Tromer said. “We also included space for extra bus information, because the main way to previously send out this information was via the announcements at the end of every single day, which many times people cannot hear.”

The app was originally created to help students since sometimes the bus board outside that displays everyone’s bus numbers is not always visible or up to date. It also does not accurately show where in the loop the buses are located. All bus riding students at MSD need to see the board at the same time and with all the kids surrounded, it can make it hard to see. They wanted to help students have the important information at school dismissal on their phones that is accessible by administration to update.

The app is currently up and running for students to access, in hopes that it will solve confusions at dismissal.