Rickshaw Pulse (Open & Free)

Rickshaw Pulse is an Android-first community app that helps daily travelers understand if rickshaws are active on a route at a given time.

This is not a booking app. No payments, no subscriptions, no ride requests, and no exact private tracking.

What this repo includes

• mobile/ – Flutter app (Traveler + Driver modes)
• backend/ – lightweight Node.js API with file-based persistence
• Open map stack:
  • OpenStreetMap tiles/data
  • Nominatim geocoding/reverse geocoding
  • No paid API and no API keys

Core capabilities

• Route selection (start + end)
• Time-based availability check
• Driver active/inactive toggle
• Approximate ETA ranges (not exact)
• Save daily routes
• Availability history labels (usually / sometimes / rare)
• Traveler mode without login
• Driver mode with simple login

Architecture

• Mobile: Flutter + flutter_map
• Backend: Express.js API + JSON storage (easy to replace with PostgreSQL later)
• Privacy-first:
  • No precise tracking timeline for travelers
  • Driver location stored only while active and rounded to 3 decimals
  • No payment/identity documents in app

---

Quick start

1) Backend

cd backend
npm install
npm run dev

Backend runs at http://localhost:8080.

2) Mobile app

cd mobile
flutter pub get
flutter run

Use --dart-define=API_BASE_URL=http://10.0.2.2:8080 for Android emulator.

---

API overview

Driver

• POST /api/drivers/login
• POST /api/drivers/:driverId/status

Traveler

• GET /api/availability?startLat&startLon&endLat&endLon&hour
• POST /api/routes/save
• GET /api/routes/saved/:travelerId
• GET /api/history?startLat&startLon&endLat&endLon

Open geo proxy (no API keys)

• GET /api/geo/search?q=... (Nominatim search)
• GET /api/geo/reverse?lat=...&lon=... (Nominatim reverse)

---

Community model

• Drivers indicate availability and rough location while active.
• Travelers check expected availability by route + time.
• History is generated from actual active records, not mock data.

License

MIT