Abstract
The goal of the project is to automatically generate school bus routes for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). The research team examined four algorithms, including two from the existing literature and two new ones that the team developed. A major focus of the researcher’s work was the construction of “mixed-load routes,” which transport students from multiple schools. Based on the measurements (whose imperfections were discussed), three of the four algorithms perform at least as well as the existing route plan and one of those three performs better than the existing route plan. The research team also delivered a user-friendly routing program to LAUSD that uses one of these algorithms, and the software was publicly available. The research team’s insights and results are also applicable to other school districts that permit mixed-load routing.