This dashboard shares findings from the first phase of a citizen audit of bus stops that mobilised residents to assess stop conditions and usability. The project aims to foster community ownership and provide evidence-based recommendations for more accessible, user-friendly public transport amenities.
Where to Act First: Priority Map
Every stop starts at 100 and loses 10 marks for each of the 10 problems we checked for: no shelter, inadequate roof, poor lighting, unsafe at night, heavy encroachment, blocked pedestrian path, no ramp, bus stopping more than a metre out, overcrowding, waterlogging. A lower score means more problems were found. Click any marker to see that stop's issues.
Top 5 stops that scored the worst
Where two stops tie, the one with the lower safety score is listed first.
Bus stop
Score
Key issues
How stops scored
The middle stop scores 60 out of 100
Five Scorecards for Every Stop
Every stop is scored out of 100 on five things. Each scorecard is marked out of its own total — a stop keeps the marks it earns and loses the rest, so a lower score is a worse stop. Bands: Poor 0–25, Weak 26–50, Fair 51–75, Good 76–100. A stop with no shelter loses all the shelter marks — no shelter means no roof, no seat and no route board. Switch tabs to recolour the map; the list shows the lowest scoring stops for the scorecard you pick.
Lowest scoring stops — Shade & Heat Protection
Bus stop
Score
How each score is worked out
Each scorecard carries its own number of marks — Shade & Heat 7, Shelter 10, Access 11, Safety 10, Information 6. A stop loses marks for each problem found, and its score is the share of marks it kept, shown out of 100.
Worked example — Adyar Depot, Shade & Heat Protection. That scorecard is worth 7 marks. The stop has no shelter, so it loses 3 marks for no shade and 2 for no roof; it also has no drinking water, losing 1 more. That is 6 marks gone. It keeps 1 of 7, which shows as 14 out of 100.
The priority map at the top of the page works the same way, but its sums are simpler: 10 problems, each worth 10 marks, so a stop with 3 problems scores 70.
Some problems take marks off two scorecards because they cause two kinds of harm — a wide boarding gap counts against both Access and Safety. Where a stop was only visited in daytime, Safety is marked out of 7 instead of 10, so those stops are not penalised for a night rating nobody could give.
Scorecard (marks it carries)
What takes marks off
Shade & Heat Protection (7 marks)
No shade −3 / partial −2 / trees only −1 · roof absent or broken −2 / inadequate −1 · no drinking water −1 · overcrowded −1
Shelter & Comfort (10 marks)
No shelter −3 · severely damaged −2 / unclean −1 · roof broken −2 / inadequate −1 · no seating −2 / uncomfortable −1 · not enough seating −1 · no dustbin −1
Access (11 marks)
No footpath both directions −1 · footpath not walkable −1 · no ramp −1 · ramp unusable −1 · no tactile paving −1 · no crossing −1 · can’t pass without stepping on the road −1 · bus more than 1 m out or no footpath −2 / one step −1 · heavy encroachment −2 / partial −1
Safety (10 marks)
Unsafe at night −3 / somewhat unsafe −1 · no lighting −2 / partial −1 · blocked bus sightline −1 · bus halts more than 1 m into the lane −2 · no crossing −1 · no CCTV −1. Where the stop was only visited in daytime, the night rating is left out of the calculation.
Information (6 marks)
Name missing −2 / faded −1 · no route info −2 / outdated or unclear −1 · no real-time board −1 · ads dominate −1
Accessibility & Pedestrian Safety
The audit checked whether stops can be reached and used by everyone — including wheelchair users, the visually impaired, and the elderly — and whether the stop itself obstructs footpath movement.
Access features present (% of stops)
Surveyors ticked every feature they saw, so these do not add up to 100%.
Pedestrian movement around the shelter
Share of stops answering "Yes"
At 3 in 4 stops, the shelter blocks the footpath — pedestrians and wheelchair users must step into live traffic to get past.
Where do buses actually stop? (boarding gap)
Distance between bus door and kerb/platform
Encroachment & drainage
Physical usability of the stop area
Only 34 stops (18%) allow level, flush boarding. At 43 stops buses halt more than a metre into the carriageway, so passengers walk through moving traffic to board.
Night Safety & Lighting
Perceived safety at night
stops
Lighting at night
stops
Lighting and safety ratings move together
Lighting at stops rated "Unsafe" vs "Safe"
Of 32 stops rated unsafe, 20 (63%) have no adequate lighting. Of 75 safe-rated stops, only 4 lack lighting. Stops that feel unsafe are overwhelmingly the unlit ones.
Shelter Infrastructure & Waiting Comfort
Type of bus stop
31 stops (16%) have no shelter at all; 26 of these have neither shelter nor signboard
Shelter condition & weather protection
Among 160 stops with a shelter structure
Shade & capacity
Shade across all stops; capacity among the with a shelter
Amenities present (% of stops)
Surveyors ticked every amenity they saw, so these do not add up to 100%.
Weather protection gap: among sheltered stops, 49% have a roof that is inadequate (too tall, too small, gaps) or too damaged to keep rain off. 42% of stops are overcrowded, with waiting passengers standing on the road. Amenities beyond a bench are near-absent: drinking water at 9 stops, public toilet visible from 2, CCTV at 3.
Passenger Information & Advertising
Bus stop name displayed?
162 of 188 stops answered
Route information displayed?
162 of 188 stops answered
Advertisements vs passenger info
160 stops with a shelter
Only 1 in 3 stops shows a current route list, and 34% don't even display the stop's name. At 53% of sheltered stops advertisements take up most of the panel space and passenger information is secondary.
What Citizens Asked For
surveyors wrote in their own words what their stop needs. Grouped by theme — one response can mention several themes.
Take This Audit to Your City
This audit was carried out entirely by citizen volunteers using a free, open-source toolkit — and it can be repeated in any city or neighbourhood. If you are a resident group, civic organisation, student collective or government agency interested in running a similar bus stop audit where you live, we would be glad to help.
For collaboration, questions or feedback on this dashboard, write to us at hello@nagariyal.org.
