Communications of the ACM
How Boston Saved $5 Million by Routing School Buses With An Algorithm
Credit: Boston Herald
The Boston Public School District in 2017 had the highest transportation costs in the United States, around $2,000 per student per year, representing 10% of the district's budget. BPS hosted a competition where researchers could experiment with anonymized BPS data sets to create efficient routes and optimal start times for each school.
Millions of decision variables included varying road widths, differing bus infrastructures, students who need monitors, and students with a special need that requires door-to-door service.
A team from the MIT Operations Research Center developed an algorithm that won the competition. The city tested the algorithm for the first time in the 2017-2018 school year. The results were dramatic. The algoithm created a system-level route map that was 20% more efficient than the routes done by hand. Running the algorithm in the summer of 2017 allowed for the system to eliminate 50 buses, an 8% drop in the fleet. 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.
From Route Fifty
View Full Article
No entries found