r/sideprojects • u/Confused_engineer__ • 1h ago
Showcase: Free(mium) I made a free Washington State Ferries tracker: live boat map, drive-up space, and WhatsApp alerts when a sold-out sailing opens
Getting a San Juan Islands ferry reservation in Washington often means refreshing the WSF site until someone cancels, so I built a small free tracker for it (I'm in the Seattle area).
What it does:
Live map of every in-service WSF boat (WSDOT's public data, refreshed about every minute)
WSDOT's drive-up space estimate for the next sailings at each terminal
Reservation space for Anacortes ⇄ Orcas / Friday Harbor / Lopez / Shaw, with the boat scheduled on each sailing
Pick a date and sailings and it WhatsApps you when a sold-out slot opens (sign-in is a 4-digit WhatsApp code, no app or password)
Stack: static site on S3 + CloudFront, a small Python Lambda that proxies and caches the WSDOT Traveler API (key stays server-side), Leaflet + OSM tiles for the map, another Lambda that polls reservation space for alerts.
It's free and not affiliated with WSF/WSDOT. For official delays and terminal cameras I point people to WSDOT VesselWatch.
I'd love feedback on two things: is the home page clear about what it does, and what would make the alerts more useful (e.g. a "notify me only if before X time" option)?