21–30 of 155 posts
> 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.
> 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.
$2000 per student per year is insane for a bus service. That's like $10 a day. You could probably UberPool every kid at that price since you'd have a high utilization rate for two narrow 30 min to 1 hour windows each day.
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-...
Sure, when you introduce an approach that suddenly creates considerable inconvenience for some population of parents, sure they complain (no one likes having to drop off kids at ~ vaguely recalling ~ 10 am and pick at 5 pm, sheesh, it was something terrible). Some large portion of working people are fairly dependent their children having ordinary school schedules. Maybe these were relatively better off parents in the public school system - where the actually wealthy use private schools (I know Boston well enough to attest to this). So the algorithm failed to "optimize for those they could effectively screw" but hey, would it be too much to ask to just give all schools a sane schedule? Maybe pony up that extra money, give up the need to optimize everything, keep the tail of bus optimization from wagging the dog of school scheduling?
I remember walking to school in elementary school, later taking the bike for 20 min or public transportation. I don't live in a particularly dense area.
Is Boston too sparsely populated to have schools in walking or biking distance?
Seems that we accept distances of 1-2 km for elementary school walks. (0.6 to 1.2 miles)
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.
In Germany we're assigned to the nearest school. I remember walking to school in elementary school, later taking the bike for 20 min or public transportation. I don't live in a particularly dense area. Is Boston too sparsely populated to have schools in walking or biking distance? Seems that we accept distances of 1-2 km for elementary school walks. (0.6 to 1.2 miles)
1) Americans just in general tend to drive their kids to school dues to fear of child abductions and related ever-present paranoia.
2) Boston's transportation system is broken on just about every levels. The street organization is irrational, derived haphazardly from ad-hoc pre-auto paths. The public transit system was also built in an ad-hoc and is at level where full transit lines stop for days at a time. So all that's left is driving, though Boston drivers have a terrible reputation too!
3) Boston's weather is also miserable - the place is at just latitude so that wet, 30 degree weather prevails in winter, giving freezing rain, frozen rain, slush and all manner of nastiness. Plus horrible hot, humid summers. So you have to avoid walking a lot.
4) Boston experienced court-order busing to end segregation in the 1970s, so it's often true that students aren't in schools closest to them geographically.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having done some work in truck route optimization in the retail / wholesale petroleum delivery space I'm a little shocked that their inefficiency was so bad to begin with. (There are some really fun problems in this space. Traveling salesman meets bin packing, just for starters.)
These are often done by hand, I'm really not surprised.
There may be three ways to get from one neighborhood to another, and the locals know that one is faster, safer, or both at certain times of day.
I have this argument with a couple of friends who don't understand why I use different routes at different times of day and specifically why I don't use their route, when they've never been in that part of town during rush hour.