Boston School Bus routing optimization

This compendium, prepared by the Division for Public Institutions and Digital Government (DPIDG) of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), aims to capture emerging trends in digital responses of UN Member States against the COVID-19 pandemic along with other digital government initiatives and provide a preliminary analysis of their main features. These cases are shared for exchange of information so that Member States can learn from each other and possibly create new partnerships.

For the Boston School Bus system, a team from the MIT Operations Research Center created the winning algorithm—Quantum—using Google Maps services to optimize school bus by creating a system-wide route map that is 20 per cent more efficient than the manual version. The application of the algorithm allowed the school district to eliminate 50 buses—a substantial 8 per cent reduction.

Country

United States of America

Institution

City of Boston