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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

#61

Post by tom_mellior »

mac01021 wrote: post #34
joe_the_user wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boston is different from this in a whole variety of ways. 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 w…

Isn't Boston's climate very similar to most of Germany's?

It does look rainier than Munich, say: https://www.weather2travel.com/weather-comparison/?placename...

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

#62

Post by superpermutat0r »

b_tterc_p wrote: post #4

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-...

The thing is, all of these algorithms should be able to do well with arbitrary constraints. If it means saving less money then so be it.

Many of these systems start optimizing some simple criteria and work fairly well. But with additional constraints they fall apart.

Even companies that manage their own fleets for their own needs would like different things to purely optimizing distance/duration. They might want to balance the workload across all of their drivers, separate the drivers so they drive in a particular area, undefined start or end of the driving job.

In the case above, something could have definitely be done, if the algorithm was efficient enough.

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

#64

Post by msh »

TomMarius wrote: post #43
ragebol wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing special to see from an European point of view...

Huh? Is Boston not the classic car-oriented USA city?

no, too old for that (at least central boston).

When I visited I found transport to be very european compared to other US cities I have visited.

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

#65

Post by msh »

ShinTakuya wrote: post #44
ac29 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's really sad, there's so much to be gained by staggering school start and end times. Even in places where school buses aren't used - for instance, burden can be reduced on public transport among other things.

But school start and end times need to fit somewhat with the parents worklife and out of school activities, they do not exist in a vacuum.

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

#66

Post by atomwaffel »

mattlutze wrote: post #48
mac01021 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't Boston's climate very similar to most of Germany's?

Boston is at 42.3601 N longitude, which is actually pretty far south-ish compared to Germany. For comparison, Munich, Germany is 48.1351° N, Barcelona, Spain is 41.3851° N

Yes, as a European, I’m always amazed at how far south the northern US and even southern Canada really is.

With that said, those are latitudes, not longitudes.

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

#67

Post by wil421 »

mattlutze wrote: post #48
mac01021 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't Boston's climate very similar to most of Germany's?

Boston is at 42.3601 N longitude, which is actually pretty far south-ish compared to Germany. For comparison, Munich, Germany is 48.1351° N, Barcelona, Spain is 41.3851° N

That makes no sense. I’m in Atlanta but I’m pretty close to Saudi Arabia if you put the US over Europe. I can tell you I don’t live in a desert.

Chicago is comparable to Rome yet Rome rarely sees snow or the very cold windy weather Chicago is known for. You’re ignoring the whole jet stream.

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

#68

Post by ghaff »

TomMarius wrote: post #43
ragebol wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing special to see from an European point of view...

Huh? Is Boston not the classic car-oriented USA city?

Yes and no. It's famously congested and challenging to drive in--one of the most expensive road infrastructure projects in the US ever (the "Big Dig") notwithstanding. But the downtown core as well as large parts of the adjacent Cambridge are actually pretty walkable and the public transit, subway in particular, is pretty decent. (Regular users rightly complain a lot about it, especially in winter, but then thats true of most cities including in Europe.)

I live about an hour outside of Boston and have to go in for a few days later this week and I'll be taking public transit.

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

#69

Post by gerbilly »

b_tterc_p wrote: post #4

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-...

Cry me a river for the poor optimization function.

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

#70

Post by rypskar »

atomwaffel wrote: post #66
mattlutze wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Boston is at 42.3601 N longitude, which is actually pretty far south-ish compared to Germany. For comparison, Munich, Germany is 48.1351° N, Barcelona, Spain is 41.3851° N

Yes, as a European, I’m always amazed at how far south the northern US and even southern Canada really is. With that said, those are latitudes, not longitudes.

>>With that said, those are latitudes, not longitudes.

Someone once told be a simple way to remember the difference. Longitude and latitude was first used be Greeks to travel the Mediterranean ocean (not sure if that is true, but helps with remembering); The Mediterranean ocean is long from East to West, so moving in the long direction changes the longitude.

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