How One City Saved $5 Million by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm

guest · Aug 13, 2019

How One City Saved $5 Million by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm
August 12, 2019
https://www.routefifty.com/tech-data/2019/08/boston-school-bus-routes/159113/

The yellow school bus has remained largely unchanged since it first debuted in 1939. But while the buses look the same, their routes have grown infinitely more complex in the past 80 years, as the number of students, schools, and road systems grow and change.

Drawing bus routes for Boston Public Schools involves challenges unique to the city. [...] the resulting bus routes can be meandering and complicated.
[...] differing bus infrastructures (for example, the presence of wheelchair lifts or child safety restraint seats), students who require the same bus driver every year, students who have monitors, and students who have been in fights and, therefore, need to be on different buses.

In 30 minutes, the algorithm created a system-level route map that was 20% more efficient than the ones done by hand. The longer the algorithm runs, the better solution it produces, until it cannot be improved.
Buses drove 1 million fewer miles that year and cut 20,000 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per day. The district reinvested the $5 million saved back into classroom initiatives.
Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

How One City Saved $5 Million by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm

guest Guest

Log in or Sign up

How One City Saved $5 Million by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm

guest Guest

Useful Searches