Optimizing School Bus Stop Placement in Howard County, Maryland

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Galdi ◽  
Paporn Thebpanya
Keyword(s):  
School Districts ◽  
Current System ◽  
School Bus ◽  
School Officials ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Statistical Estimates ◽  
Bus Stop ◽  
Network Analyst ◽  
Bus Stops ◽  
State And Local

In the current system, school bus stops in Howard County, Maryland are manually placed along the school bus routes based on safety, cost-efficiency, and many other variables. With such liberal placement, bus stops are sometimes placed unnecessarily. This issue is prevalent in many school districts and often results in needlessly close bus stop proximity. In this study, the authors implemented a GIS-based heuristic to assist school officials in optimizing their districts bus stop placement. They also estimated the proportion of county-wide bus stops that could be eliminated by this approach. Following the constraints determined by State and local guidelines, the ArcGIS Network Analyst Extension was used to identify unnecessary bus stops across the study area. The initial output was re-evaluated by school officials in order to determine if those bus stops would be eliminated. The results indicate that approximately 30% of the existing bus stops were marked as “candidates for elimination” by the GIS process. After a review of these candidates, it was determined that at least 15% of the total school bus stops could be eliminated. Statistical estimates lent credence to the benefit of a re-evaluation of these bus stops. The method developed in this study can easily be replicated. Hence, it may inspire other school systems to exercise the same approach. Additionally, the results provide a gateway for future studies in examining more efficient school bus routes with less travel time, as well as investigating how much the carbon footprint of school bus fleets can be reduced.

Optimizing School Bus Stop Placement in Howard County, Maryland

2016 ◽  
pp. 1660-1676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Galdi ◽  
Paporn Thebpanya
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Current System ◽  
School Bus ◽  
School Officials ◽  
Statistical Estimates ◽  
Bus Stop ◽  
Network Analyst ◽  
Bus Stops ◽  
State And Local

In the current system, school bus stops in Howard County, Maryland are manually placed along the school bus routes based on safety, cost-efficiency, and many other variables. With such liberal placement, bus stops are sometimes placed unnecessarily. This issue is prevalent in many school districts and often results in needlessly close bus stop proximity. In this study, the authors implemented a GIS-based heuristic to assist school officials in optimizing their districts bus stop placement. They also estimated the proportion of county-wide bus stops that could be eliminated by this approach. Following the constraints determined by State and local guidelines, the ArcGIS Network Analyst Extension was used to identify unnecessary bus stops across the study area. The initial output was re-evaluated by school officials in order to determine if those bus stops would be eliminated. The results indicate that approximately 30% of the existing bus stops were marked as “candidates for elimination” by the GIS process. After a review of these candidates, it was determined that at least 15% of the total school bus stops could be eliminated. Statistical estimates lent credence to the benefit of a re-evaluation of these bus stops. The method developed in this study can easily be replicated. Hence, it may inspire other school systems to exercise the same approach. Additionally, the results provide a gateway for future studies in examining more efficient school bus routes with less travel time, as well as investigating how much the carbon footprint of school bus fleets can be reduced.

scholarly journals A Partial Allocation Local Search Matheuristic for Solving the School Bus Routing Problem with Bus Stop Selection

Mathematics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (8) ◽  
pp. 1214
Author(s):  
Herminia I. Calvete ◽  
Carmen Galé ◽  
José A. Iranzo ◽  
Paolo Toth
Keyword(s):  
Feasible Solution ◽  
Computing Time ◽  
Walking Distance ◽  
School Bus ◽  
Routing Problem ◽  
Bus Stop ◽  
Bus Routing ◽  
Benchmark Instances ◽  
Bus Stops

This paper addresses the school bus routing problem with bus stop selection, which jointly handles the problems of determining the set of bus stops to visit, allocating each student to one of these bus stops and computing the routes that visit the selected bus stops, so that the total routing cost is minimized and the walking distance of the students is limited by a given value. A fast and efficient matheuristic is developed based on an innovative approach that first partially allocates the students to a set of active stops that they can reach, and computes a set of routes that minimizes the routing cost. Then, a refining process is performed to complete the allocation and to adapt the routes until a feasible solution is obtained. The algorithm is tested on a set of benchmark instances. The computational results show the efficiency of the algorithm in terms of the quality of the solutions yielded and the computing time.

Is This the Care We Need?: An Examination of Childcare Policy in Pennsylvania

Commonwealth ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennie Sweet-Cushman ◽  
Ashley Harden
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Child Care ◽  
Current System ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Women And Politics ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Childcare Policy

For many families across Pennsylvania, child care is an ever-present concern. Since the 1970s, when Richard Nixon vetoed a national childcare program, child care has received little time in the policy spotlight. Instead, funding for child care in the United States now comes from a mixture of federal, state, and local programs that do not help all families. This article explores childcare options available to families in the state of Pennsylvania and highlights gaps in the current system. Specifically, we examine the state of child care available to families in the Commonwealth in terms of quality, accessibility, flexibility, and affordability. We also incorporate survey data from a nonrepresentative sample of registered Pennsylvania voters conducted by the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics. As these results support the need for improvements in the current childcare system, we discuss recommendations for the future.

Whose money matters in public education: A “public” good that parents purchase

2021 ◽  
pp. 147821032110343
Author(s):  
Eunju Kang
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
School Districts ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
New York State ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Education Funding ◽  
Funding Policy ◽  
State And Local

Instead of asking whether money matters, this paper questions whose money matters in public education. Previous literature on education funding uses an aggregate expenditure per pupil to measure the relationship between education funding and academic performance. Federalism creates mainly three levels of funding sources: federal, state, and local governments. Examining New York State school districts, most equitably funded across school districts among the 50 states, this paper shows that neither federal nor state funds are positively correlated with graduation rates. Only local revenues for school districts indicate a strong positive impact. Parents’ money matters. This finding contributes to a contentious discourse on education funding policy in the governments, courts, and academia with respect to education funding and inequality in American public schools.

Modeling Bus Capacity for Bus Stops Using Queuing Theory and Diffusion Approximation

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110302
Author(s):  
Chao Wang ◽  
Weijie Chen ◽  
Yueru Xu ◽  
Zhirui Ye
Keyword(s):  
Approximation Method ◽  
Service Time ◽  
Diffusion Approximation ◽  
Coefficient Of Variation ◽  
Queuing Theory ◽  
Queuing Model ◽  
Bus Stop ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Bus Stops ◽  
Bus Service

For bus service quality and line capacity, one critical influencing factor is bus stop capacity. This paper proposes a bus capacity estimation method incorporating diffusion approximation and queuing theory for individual bus stops. A concurrent queuing system between public transportation vehicles and passengers can be used to describe the scenario of a bus stop. For most of the queuing systems, the explicit distributions of basic characteristics (e.g., waiting time, queue length, and busy period) are difficult to obtain. Therefore, the diffusion approximation method was introduced to deal with this theoretical gap in this study. In this method, a continuous diffusion process was applied to estimate the discrete queuing process. The proposed model was validated using relevant data from seven bus stops. As a comparison, two common methods— Highway Capacity Manual (HCM) formula and M/M/S queuing model (i.e., Poisson arrivals, exponential distribution for bus service time, and S number of berths)—were used to estimate the capacity of the bus stop. The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of the diffusion approximation method is 7.12%, while the MAPEs of the HCM method and M/M/S queuing model are 16.53% and 10.23%, respectively. Therefore, the proposed model is more accurate and reliable than the others. In addition, the influences of traffic intensity, bus arrival rate, coefficient of variation of bus arrival headway, service time, coefficient of variation of service time, and the number of bus berths on the capacity of bus stops are explored by sensitivity analyses.

Study on the Optimal Improvement of the Bus Station

2012 ◽  
Vol 253-255 ◽  
pp. 1776-1781
Author(s):  
Wen Hua Jiang ◽  
Xian Xiang Wang ◽  
Hang Fei Lin
Keyword(s):  
Site Location ◽  
Bus Stop ◽  
Site Layout ◽  
Urban Bus ◽  
Bus Station ◽  
Bus Stops

Starting from several aspects of site location, site size and site layout, this document studies the urban bus stop systematically, proposes the setting principles of urban bus stop. Take Yiwu bus stops for example, which focus on the analysis of the reasonable setting of the sites, and has provided guidance for the layout of urban bus stop.

scholarly journals Some pennies are more equal than others: Inequitable school facilities investment in San Antonio, Texas

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marialena D. Rivera ◽  
Sonia Rey Lopez
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
School Districts ◽  
School Finance ◽  
San Antonio ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Educational Facilities ◽  
District Leaders ◽  
School District Leaders ◽  
Property Wealth ◽  
State And Local

In Texas, local taxpayers fund the majority of educational facilities construction and maintenance costs, with local wealth influencing facilities outcomes. The traditional school districts that comprise the predominantly Latino and segregated San Antonio area vary considerably in property wealth as well as district capacity and expertise. We conducted an analysis of 12 San Antonio area school districts to address the questions: 1) To what extent do state and local investments vary by district? 2) How do district actions and constraints affect facilities quality and equitable investment? Methods include descriptive quantitative analysis of facilities investment data and qualitative interviews with school district leaders, staff, and school finance experts. Examining Texas school finance data demonstrated the variance in school district investments in educational facilities. Despite some districts with lower property wealth exerting higher levels of tax effort, they were able to raise less money per student for educational facilities through interest and sinking taxes. Interview findings revealed that several districts acknowledge lacking the capacity to maintain high-quality facilities for all students. Respondents frequently criticized current state policies and funding for educational facilities as inadequate, inequitable, and inefficient and expressed a need for policy improvements in an era of increasing state disinvestment.

scholarly journals Investigating the impact of Innovative Treatments on Driving Behavior at School Bus Stops: A Driving Simulator Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa Suhail Almallah ◽  
Shabna Sayed Mohammed ◽  
Qinaat Hussain ◽  
Wael K. M. Alhajyaseen
Keyword(s):  
Driving Simulator ◽  
Driving Behavior ◽  
School Bus ◽  
School Buses ◽  
Bus Stop ◽  
Typical Condition ◽  
Simulator Study ◽  
And Control ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Traveling Speed

The illegal overtaking/crossing of stopped school buses has been identified as one of the leading causes of students’ injuries and fatalities. The likelihood of students in getting involved in a school bus-related crash increases during loading/unloading. The main objective of this driving simulator study was to study the effectiveness of different treatments in improving students’ safety by reducing the illegal overtaking/crossing of stopped school buses. Treatments used in this research are LED, Road Narrowing and Red Pavement. All proposed treatments were compared with the control condition (i.e., typical condition in the State of Qatar). Seventy-two subjects with valid Qatari driving license were invited to participate in this study. Each subject was exposed to three situations (i.e., Situation 1: the school bus is stopped in the same traveling direction, Situation 2: the school bus is stopped in the opposite traveling direction, Situation 3: the school bus is not present at the bus stop). Results showed that LED and Road Narrowing treatments were effective in reducing the illegal overtaking/crossing of stopped school buses. Moreover, the stopping behavior for drivers in LED and Road Narrowing was more consistent compared to the Red Pavement and control conditions. Finally, LED and Road Narrowing treatments motivated drivers to reduce their traveling speed by 5.16 km/h and 5.11 km/h, respectively, even with the absence of the school bus. Taking into account the results from this study, we recommend the proposed LED and Road Narrowing as potentially effective treatments to improve students’ safety at school bus stop locations.

School Bus Seat Belts?

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 134-134
Author(s):  
HARRY F. LAWS
Keyword(s):  
Seat Belts ◽  
School Bus ◽  
School Officials ◽  
School Buses ◽  
Children's Behavior

To the Editor.— The recently debated issue of whether or not to put seat belts on children riding school buses seems to be gaining momentum and attempts are being made to amass data supporting their usage on grounds of safety. My observation is that safety, although it is important, is not the most important issue today on school buses. Discipline, or lack thereof, is more of an issue. Data already exist to support the use of seat belts to improve children's behavior, and it would seem to me that recommending seat belts on school buses for that purpose makes much better sense and would be rapidly adopted by school officials! Perhaps we need to adjust the thrust of our argument!

scholarly journals A Method of Bus Network Optimization Based on Complex Network and Beidou Vehicle Location

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peixin Dong ◽  
Dongyuan Li ◽  
Jianping Xing ◽  
Haohui Duan ◽  
Yong Wu
Keyword(s):  
Graph Theory ◽  
Complex Network ◽  
Network Optimization ◽  
Original Network ◽  
Network Efficiency ◽  
Bus Stop ◽  
Time Performance ◽  
Network Time ◽  
Vehicle Location ◽  
Bus Stops

Aiming at the problems of poor time performance and accuracy in bus stops network optimization, this paper proposes an algorithm based on complex network and graph theory and Beidou Vehicle Location to measure the importance of bus stops. This method narrows the scope of points and edges to be optimized and is applied to the Jinan bus stop network. In this method, the bus driving efficiency, which can objectively reflect actual road conditions, is taken as the weight of the connecting edges in the network, and the network is optimized through the network efficiency. The experimental results show that, compared with the original network, the optimized network time performance is good and the optimized network bus driving efficiency is improved.

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