Designing a School Transportation Management System with Public Transportation Capabilities

The safe, efficient transportation of students to and from school is a challenge faced by school districts across the country. Providers of public and human services transportation also aim to deliver their services efficiently. While there are a number of ways in which efficiency may be improved, the implementation and use of technology and coordination among transportation providers has regularly produced significant, positive results. Most of these efforts have been located in urban locations, but there have been rural successes as well. In this study, a routing algorithm is used to examine the efficiency resulting from computerized routing for a rural North Dakota school district and coordinated transportation efforts in that community are briefly explored. Given similar challenges facing rural pupil and non-pupil transportation providers and the success of the application of routing algorithm and coordination in other, primarily urban, locations, a pilot study to investigate the value of their introduction in a rural North Dakota was initiated. This report includes the findings from a pilot project in the Enderlin, ND, community. The report begins with a review of literature in three fields. First, work in the area of school transportation, including routing from an operations research standpoint, is presented. Next, general concepts about the coordination from the fields of transit are presented. Finally, research and case studies involving the coordination of pupil and non-pupil riders are reviewed. A profile of the Enderlin community and its reason for selection is presented. Current and projected demographic data is provided, as is information on the local economy, available services, and mobility issues. Possible high-demand locations for users of public transportation, both local and regional, are identified. This is followed by an overview of the process and results of the application of modern routing and school transportation techniques to the Enderlin School district. The report concludes with an outline of possible next steps and opportunities for further research on the issue.

• Record URL:
  https://www.ugpti.org/resources/reports/details.php?id=566
• Corporate Authors:

  Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute

  Small Urban and Rural Transit Center, North Dakota State University, P.O. Box 6050
  Fargo, ND  United States  58108-6050
• Authors:
  • Ripplinger, David
  • Wang, Yan
• Publication Date: 2007-3

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 31p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Algorithms; Coordination; Demographics; Literature reviews; Pilot studies; Public transit; Routing; Rural areas; School trips
• Geographic Terms: Enderlin (North Dakota)
• Subject Areas: Passenger Transportation; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01680117
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: SP-165
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 11 2018 11:16AM