The Travel South Yorkshire online interactive map is a great way to view local bus routes, access walking paths, and search for roads within the South Yorkshire area. The page can be accessed on the Internet using this link:

http://maps.travelsouthyorkshire.com/?x=430561&y=381402&z=2&fs=1

The map is designed to show the buses running in each area, and the search features help users to look for bus times and routes, places of interest and other forms of travel i.e. trams and trains routes and times.

The map is easy to navigate: zooming in to the map using the + sign in the left hand corner shows road names of the area and the ability to zoom out using the – button allows for greater view of the South Yorkshire area. The map is fully accessible, and the use of either a computer mouse or the arrows in the left hand corner allows for scrolling and movement.

Whilst this map can act as a local knowledge base for road names, the real highlight of this map is that all of the South Yorkshire Travel bus stops are listed down the left-hand side in numerical order. Clicking on a chosen bus route number then automatically moves the user to the location of the first bus stop on the route, and further clicking on the ‘bus’ icon on the map lists a mini-timetable in a pop-up box. The mini-timetable states the service number of the bus and the operators and moving between the tabs shows a live timetable and also a personal journey planner. From this, you can plan your bus journey and find estimates of travel times and routes. Moreover, various other icons are displayed on the map, including tramlines, hospital locations and school locations; all of them have a journey planner available upon clicking on the icon.

For more information, the tab ‘Key’ down the left-hand side describes instructions for downloading the public transport key map for help with understanding the icons and keys used in the map.

Using the search bar in the ‘search’ tab allows the user to type in a bus number and downloadable timetables will appear for that bus service, allowing users to search for the exact bus service that they need information for.

Another useful feature is the places of interest search option located within the ‘Walking’ tab. This feature lists walking routes by area in alphabetical order. Scrolling to the bottom of the list allows the user to choose the desired area and clicking on a route brings up a journey planner pop-up box, much like the bus and tram journey plan options. Viewing the pdf for each route produces an online information page for that particular walk, and many include the types of wildlife and sites to be seen. This is particularly handy for keen hikers and wildlife watchers, and it makes for a nice feature on the whole. Finally, for ease of use, the map can be shared with friends, printed out, and toggled from full screen to half-screen by using the options in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

For more information, the ‘help’ tab offers a comprehensive description of all of the features of the map, and also provides a small guide for how best to use it.