News SPECIAL REPORT
Route Optimization, Planning Made Easier With Technology and Ingenuity
WRITTEN BY BARB FASING M
any components are encompassed by route optimization, such as meth- ods for student and driver safety, reducing fleet sizes, tightening travel times on bus routes and using various commercial software, to stream- line the routing process.
Denver Public Schools used several of these elements to optimize routes and save time and money, as well as solving driver shortage issues. “Te overall approach for DPS was ‘how can we become more efficient?’” said Nicole Portee, executive director of transportation at DPS. Te district sent questionnaires to both the school sites and throughout the com- munity to address how and why the change in bell times would impact the students. After studying questionnaires and evaluating the rearrangement of bell times, DPS identified ways to cure driver shortages, locate better geographic spots for pick-ups and drop-offs and to devise ways to serve more students on fewer buses. For instance, Portee said the change in bell times, combined with a tier system, al-
lowed the bus drivers to perform back-to-back routes instead of assigning each driver one single route. According to Portee, the changes addressed the school’s desire for improvement.
DPS then looked to optimize routes by acknowledging shortages of drivers and how buses could be used more efficiently. Tey learned to centralize bus stops by routing
Texas-Sized Routing Issue
Northern Texas residents did not expect an EF-4 tornado to make landfall on the night of Dec. 26, 2015. But Garland ISD’s transportation department was prepared and leapt into action immediately after the event to establish ways to get the stu- dents to their schools safely and around the destruction. Fortunately, winter break provided additional time for staff to rear- range routes.
A Garland ISD school bus navigates the aftermath of an EF-4 tornado that hit North Texas in December.
Liz Jennings, transportation technical
analyst for Garland ISD, used the district’s Seon vMax Compass software routing to assist in efficiently and safely designing alternate routes. She explained that bar- riers and layers were placed on the Seon routing maps, which required the soft- ware company to reroute buses to usable roadways. The tornado, having cut through several surrounding communities, required many of the routes to be automatically re- vised to safe paths around the destruction. Many students were forced to relo-
cate to living quarters outside of district boundaries. With the Seon route planning, the staff was able to create new routes and optimize the safety of transportation for all those students. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act allowed for all students displaced from their homes by the storm to receive transportation ser- vices to and from their schools. Some 1,000 students were affected by
Don West, transportation director at Harlem School District 122 in Illinois, said routing software has helped his operations reduce 10 routes over a two- year period and track actual student addresses.
20 School Transportation News • JULY 2016
the tornado, and another 2,500 students lived in areas with attributed wind damage.
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