Laid-off TfL staffer creates hit taxi iPhone app

    A former transport planner at Transport for London (TfL) has developed an iPhone application that allows users to calculate black cab fares based on the time of day and projected traffic conditions. 

    

    Steve Knox, who is still technically employed by TfL but currently undergoing a redundancy consultation, developed the app over a period of three months in his spare time in partnership with Tim Edwards, a sales director at Marriott Hotels.

    

    The duo spent around £500 to create the application, which is based on Cocoa, one of Apple's native object-oriented application program environments. According to Knox, some extra resource was employed to help out in the process.

    

    “We would like to expand and work on other ways to connect taxi drivers to customers through the user base we’ve already got,” Knox told Computing.

    

    Since its release on Apple’s app store on 8 February, the application – on sale for 59p – has been downloaded by between 500 and 1,000 users.