Bus Driver

Bus Driver is a top-down bus game where you drive a long city bus along ten routes, pulling into numbered stops to pick up and drop off a crowd of cute animal passengers. Stop for red lights, steer clear of cars and curbs and try to keep to the timetable. You can play Bus Driver online free in your browser with no download, using a keyboard or the on-screen steering wheel and pedals on a phone.

How to play

Each route starts at the depot with the bus already in its lane. A dotted blue line on the road shows the way, the minimap shows the whole route, and a yellow arrow points to the next stop when it is off screen.

• Drive: press Up or W for gas and Left/Right or A/D to steer. Down or S brakes, and if you keep holding it once the bus has stopped, the bus slowly reverses. On a touch screen, drag the steering wheel left or right and hold the GAS and BRAKE pedals.
• Serve the stops: every stop has a yellow zone painted in the lane next to a shelter. Bring the bus to a stop with its whole body inside the zone and the doors open by themselves, or press Space or the Doors button. Passengers get off, the ones waiting at the shelter get on, and then the doors close. The last stop on each route is the terminal, marked T, where everyone gets off.
• Doors and safety: the doors will not open while the bus is moving, and the bus will not pull away while they are open.

Rules, rating and coins

You start every route with a full five-star rating, which drops each time you break a rule:

• Red lights: some intersections have traffic lights. If the front of the bus enters the intersection while your light is red, you lose 15 points. Yellow is still fine.
• Crashes: hitting another car costs 20 points, and scraping the curb costs 8.
• Timetable: the Due timer above the game counts down to the next stop’s scheduled time. Arrive on time for a bonus, while a late arrival costs 5 points. The timetable gets tighter on later routes.

If your rating reaches zero, the route fails and you can retry it straight away. At the end of a route you get one to five stars depending on how much rating you kept. You earn coins for every passenger who gets on or off, plus bonuses for on-time stops, perfectly centered stops and stars. Coins buy new paint jobs for the bus: City Red, Teal, Night Owl and Gold. Your stars, coins and skins are saved in your browser.

The ten routes

The routes get longer and busier as you go. The first route has two stops, a single right turn and almost no traffic. By the last route you are serving seven stops through nine sets of traffic lights with a dozen or more cars on the road. Cars in Bus Driver stop at red lights and wait behind your bus while you load passengers, but at intersections without lights you have to watch for cross traffic yourself.

Tips

• Swing wide on right turns. A long bus with its rear wheels far behind the front cuts inside on every turn. Wait until the front of the bus is well into the intersection before you steer, or the back corner will clip the curb.
• Brake early for stops. The bus is heavy, and the zone is only a little longer than the bus. Ease off the gas a bus length before the zone and roll in slowly. Stopping right in the middle gives a perfect-stop bonus.
• Read the lights from a distance. Each traffic light box sits on the corner before the intersection on your side of the road.

FAQ

Is Bus Driver free?

Yes. It is free to play with no account and nothing to install. Pick a route and press Drive.

Does it work on phones and Chromebooks?

Yes. On a phone or tablet, use the on-screen steering wheel, pedals and Doors button. The game area won’t scroll the page while you drive. On a Chromebook or laptop, use the arrow keys or WASD in any modern browser.

Can I pause the game?

Press P or Esc, or use the Pause button. The game also pauses if you switch tabs.

How do I unlock more routes?

Finish a route to unlock the next one. You can replay any unlocked route to improve its stars.

Prefer a slower driving challenge? Try Parking to squeeze cars into tight spaces, or go flat out in Retro Racer.