How Boston Saved$$ $$5$ Million Scheduling School Buses

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$($BPS$)$ involves a challenge unique to the$$ city, which allows parents to select their$$ child's school from a list of $10$ options. The resulting bus routes can be meandering and complicated.

Part $2$

In recent$$ years, the district was facing serious challenges. On a$$ per$-$pupil basis, BPS had the highest transportation costs in the$$ country, $$2,000$ per student per$$ year, representing$10\%$ of the$$ district's budget. The schools faced rising costs each$$ year, despite declining ridership. The$$ on$-$time performance rate of the buses was also well below that of other large districts.

Part $3$

Quirks can create millions of decision variables that affect any solution. These include varying road$$ widths, differing bus$$ infrastructures, 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.

Part $4$

BPS turned to MIT for help. The MIT team selected to tackle the problem replaced what had before been an incredibly laborious$$ process, one that took $10$ school system routers thousands of hours to create custom routes for each child and school. In $30$ minutes, the new algorithm created a$$ system$-$level route map that was$20\%$ more efficient than the ones done by hand. And the longer the algorithm$$ runs, the better solution it$$ produces, until it cannot be improved. Running the algorithm allowed BPS to eliminate $50$ buses, an$8\%$ drop in the fleet that was the largest Boston had seen in a single year. Buses drove one 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.

$$Source: Route Fifty$($Aug$.12,2019).$

Part $5$

Critical Thinking Questions

$1.$ Setting school bus routes in big cities such as Boston

A$.$

is a job for parents when they select schools for their children.

B$.$

involves millions of decisions variables.

C$.$

is best solved by a team of administrators who know the school system.

D$.$

creates a$$ five$-$year commitment with the unions not to change routes.

E$.$

is not possible without artificial intelligence.