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

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Re: One City Saved $5M by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm

#11
post #8

Here’s an article about some MIT folks who tried to do this and were shut down by annoying rich people. My greatest frustration is that they complain about black box algorithms when in fact it is a perfectly clear, ambiguity-free optimization function. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/story/joi-ito-ai-...

It was a good article but my main takeaway was that the city botched the marketing of the planned change. Had they communicated what was being planned and why ahead of time, as well as providing the tool/simulation to make it more tangible to residents, they might have had less objection to the change. If not, they at least would have likely had more support from the majority who stood to benefit to counteract it.

No, they tried a build perfect, cost optimal system to maximize ROI. They ended up losing money. A solution you cannot implement isn’t good engineering.

Big changes that impact tens or hundreds of thousands of people need to be staged out to minimize impact. The Big Bang approach doesn’t work for problems like this — i bet a few thousand people would lose jobs over these schedule changes.

Re: One City Saved $5M by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm

#12
When I was a summer intern for a county computer service facility in the early 80s, they had a big IBM mainframe, and a bespoke program for school bus routing. Every summer, this program consumed a fair amount of the activity for the facility, which contained more than a dozen individual school districts.

I don't know the extent to which it was capable of optimizing the schedules, but it was considered to be a pretty big deal. There was apparently a lot of hand-coded logic for dealing with things like one-way streets and not wanting bus stops on busy streets.

Re: One City Saved $5M by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm

#13
post #9

The end of the article notes the whole plan was scrapped based on parental feedback. More background: https://www.media.mit.edu/articles/what-the-boston-school-bu...

So, from reading the article, it seems like this policy researcher helped torpedo a positive change that he spent insufficient time researching and attempting to understand. He did this, unknowingly, but nonetheless in service rich people defend their advantages over the needs of poor people. His initial accusations of failure to engage with parents was actually false, by his own admission. The researchers followed an exemplary engagement process that attempted to balance the needs of all stakeholders. But reflexive hand-wringing, marshaled effectively by those who stood to lose a little of their existing advantages, destroyed the work, along with the political capital that would otherwise have made it happen.

Is there an expression of remorse anywhere in the article? I didn't see it. Suggestions for how things could be done better are all well and good. But I don't think I'm unreasonable in expecting some contrition from someone who participated in a screw up this gargantuan.

Re: One City Saved $5M by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm

#14
Could've used this 30 years ago when I was forcibly-bused across town to a "magnet" school 1.5 hours in each direction (3 hours of busing total). Getting up a 4:45 am and not getting home until after 6 pm as a pre-teen sucked. The big thing is the route they took was very circuitous and served both many stops and schools.

Re: One City Saved $5M by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm

#15

Here’s an article about some MIT folks who tried to do this and were shut down by annoying rich people. My greatest frustration is that they complain about black box algorithms when in fact it is a perfectly clear, ambiguity-free optimization function. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wired.com/story/joi-ito-ai-...

It's the same system and it's mentioned in the OP.

I was overeager

Re: One City Saved $5M by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm

#16
post #9

The end of the article notes the whole plan was scrapped based on parental feedback. More background: https://www.media.mit.edu/articles/what-the-boston-school-bu...

Thats not quite right - they did optimize bus routing and did save $5M. But when "the algorithm" suggested further improvements that required changing school start times (presumably so that the same bus and driver could work multiple routes to multiple schools), there was pushback and those changes weren't implemented.

Re: One City Saved $5M by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm

#18
post #9

The end of the article notes the whole plan was scrapped based on parental feedback. More background: https://www.media.mit.edu/articles/what-the-boston-school-bu...

My read suggests that the recently proposed changes to school start times was scrapped, but that the bus scheduling is still in place.

Re: One City Saved $5M by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm

#19
> Running the algorithm in the summer of 2017 allowed for the system to eliminate 50 buses

Or read another way: "Running the algorithm eliminated 50 jobs due to automation".

This right here is what Yang is all about. The incredible loss of jobs due to technology.

Re: One City Saved $5M by Routing School Buses with an Algorithm

#20
post #19

> Running the algorithm in the summer of 2017 allowed for the system to eliminate 50 buses Or read another way: "Running the algorithm eliminated 50 jobs due to automation". This right here is what Yang is all about. The incredible loss of jobs due to technology.

I'm no economist, but that 5 million saved will be spent on other job creating activities. Perhaps it won't be a 1:1 replacement, but it's certainly not the elimination of 50 jobs.
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