Transportation Challenge
We are hoping that we can reach out to the Boston community -- and beyond -- for your help addressing the inefficiencies and rising costs in our transportation system. Equitably balancing bell times will impact the lives of nearly 100,000 students in Boston each year. And optimizing bus routes will allow us to increase efficiency while reinvesting in classroom.
Photo "School Buses" by Dean Hochman is licensed under CC BY 2.0
The Challenges
Our routing system has evolved since we began busing, when we used string and pins to represent routes and stops. However, we haven’t begun to fully incorporate the tremendous potential of advances in transportation and mapping technology. We believe that if we tap into this technology, we will unlock new algorithms and approaches for automating routing and for doing so efficiently and accurately, with just a few clicks of a mouse. We hope to use this challenge to generate a new system of bus routing that can be used by the spring, to ensure our routes will be ready for the 2017-18 school year.
Step 1: Optimize Bus Stop Locations
We are working to consolidate bus stops to increase efficiency and decrease student ride time, while also ensuring that students are able to walk safely and quickly to a nearby bus stop. Based on where students live, their destination schools, and the type of service required (i.e. Corner Stop, Door to Door, Wheelchair) how will you assign students to a stop?
Step 2: Improve Routing Efficiencies
We are working to get all students to school as quickly as possible in time for the start of the day. Given the location of bus stops, how would you connect these stops to schools over the course of a day creating a full route for a bus that starts and ends at a given bus yard? How will you account for different types of services required (Corner Stop, Door to Door, Wheelchair)?
Step 3: Balance Bell Times
Now that you’ve figured out how to calculate the most efficient routes, what happens when the rules change? That is, how can you assign a start time to a school and minimize the number of buses that we need (as well as the total system wide drive time)? How will you take into account new data that we may give you regarding school preference?
These two challenges -- maximizing both the efficiency of our routing and our bell time structure -- are interrelated but will be addressed on different timelines.
Any participant can submit a response in just one of the challenges or in both. Each contest will have two winning teams -- but the same team could win both contests. And since solving the bell times puzzle will require a routing solution, we imagine that many participants will want to take part in both.
Event | Routing Challenge | Bell Times Challenge |
Sample Data and Competition Overview Posted on Website | Week of March 6, 2017 | |
RFI and Background Documents Released | April 1st, 2017 | |
Public Kickoff Event | April 1st, 2017 | |
Requests Can Be Submitted for Actual Student Data | After April 1st, 2017 | |
Question Deadline | April 10, 2017 | |
Consolidated Q&A Posted by BPS | April 14, 2017 | |
Submission Deadline for Round 1 | 4/30/17 | 6/18/17 |
Round 2 Participants Announced | 5/7/17 | 6/21/17 |
Submission Deadline for Round 2 | 5/10/17 | 6/27/17 |
Interviews with BPS | 5/12/17 | 6/30/17 |
Public Presentations and Next Steps' Announced | 5/16/17 | 7/10/17 |
Note: All deadlines -- unless otherwise stated -- are at 11:59p.m. EST on the date given. All of these dates are subject to change.
More Information
Superintendent Tommy Chang
John Hanlon
Regina Robinson
Andy Rotherham
Dimitris Bertsimas
Jascha Franklin-Hodge
Mike Hughes
Steve Poftak
Velecia Saunders
Background Information
- The Challenge Overview: This is your one-stop shop for everything you need to know about the challenge - including an overview, evaluation criteria, timelines, and more!
- Kickoff Presentation: This is a copy of the presentation shared at our kick-off
- Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA): This NDA must be submitted in order to advance through the Challenge. This NDA, accompanied by a one-page letter outlining your qualifications (read more in the Challenge Overview!) will enable access to a more realistic routing dataset
- Principal Transportation Handbook: A helpful resource created by our transportation team providing more context around our transportation policies
- Rules of the Road: A punnily named resource that summarizes the constraints and guidelines that need to be considered as part of your solution
- Sample Output: An example of a file to submit with your solution that will help you, and us, check your solution for compliance
- List of Answers to Submitted Questions: A constantly updated list of FAQs surrounding the challenge
- Bell Time Preference Data Overview: A constantly updated list of FAQs surrounding the Round 2 Challenge on changing school start times
Raw Data
- Simulated "Fake" Student Address Dataset*: This file was created with the support of students and faculty from BU's Hariri. This file contains data similar to the data-set we will share with those who choose to submit an NDA - a neccessary step to move into Round 2 of the Challenge - but contains simulated data very similar to our overall student assignment patterns
- One Page Overview of Simulated "Fake" Dataset*: This file contains instructions on the information included in this dataset
In order to win either competition, you must have requested and received the real dataset. This dataset will be given out after the Kickoff Event (on April 1st, 2017) on a rolling basis to participants who submit the following three documents:
- A brief (less than a page) note summarizing why you are interested in solving this problem, what qualifications you have, and how you would think about solving this problem based on the sample data
- A signed Non-Disclosure Agreement (see Appendix 2 in the RFI) signed by everyone on your team who will be using the confidential BPS data
- An agreement outlining the terms and conditions of the competition (see Appendix 3) signed by everyone on your team
- A high level description of your optimal routing or bell time solution
- This should include key performance metrics (i.e., the number of required buses, routes, stops, and driver hours)
- An excel file pairing each student to a stop, route, and bus - this allows us to check your solution at the student level
- An interface -- of your choosing -- that allows us to visualize your solution. This can be as high tech (secure web portal) or low tech (printed directions) as you'd like
In order to win either competition, you must have requested and received the real dataset. This dataset will be given out after the Kickoff Event (on April 1st, 2017) on a rolling basis to participants who submit the following three documents:
- A brief (less than a page) note summarizing why you are interested in solving this problem, what qualifications you have, and how you would think about solving this problem based on the sample data
- A signed Non-Disclosure Agreement (see the NDA file in the "Resources" section above, or see "Appendix 2" in the "Challenge Overview"). Everyone on your team who will be using the confidential BPS data must sign this NDA
- A high level description of your optimal routing or bell time solution
- This should include key performance metrics (i.e., the number of required buses, routes, stops, and driver hours)
- An excel file pairing each student to a stop, route, and bus - this allows us to check your solution at the student level
- An interface -- of your choosing -- that allows us to visualize your solution. This can be as high tech (secure web portal) or low tech (printed directions) as you'd like