<p>School bus routing and scheduling are among the major problems because school bus transportation needs to be safe, reliable and efficient. Hence, the research question for this thesis is to answer how to transport students in the safest, most economical and convenient manner. The objective of this thesis is to create a GIS based school transport management system which helps in bus-stop allocation, design fastest and safest bus routes with AVL facility. This thesis also aims to investigate how a school transportation management system may improve the transportation security. The result from this study has helped to develop a school bus routing and scheduling prototype model for Sujatha High School, Hyderabad. This prototype model will help the school transportation management to design shortest and fastest school bus routes and they can also allocate bus stops, which will help them in selecting the pick-up stops for the students and staff, according to their concentration in the areas. This thesis has also, through literature study, investigated how a school transport management system can improve the transportation security. For the time being, there is a general belief that ICT contributes to improving the security, although a quantification of such improvements are lacking. The user interface application has been developed by using VBA and ArcGIS 9.1 Network Analyst provided by Environmental Science Research Institute and it has been evaluated by GIS users.</p>

School bus routing and scheduling are among the major problems because school bus transportation needs to be safe, reliable and efficient. Hence, the research question for this thesis is to answer how to transport students in the safest, most economical and convenient manner. The objective of this thesis is to create a GIS based school transport management system which helps in bus-stop allocation, design fastest and safest bus routes with AVL facility. This thesis also aims to investigate how a school transportation management system may improve the transportation security. The result from this study has helped to develop a school bus routing and scheduling prototype model for Sujatha High School, Hyderabad. This prototype model will help the school transportation management to design shortest and fastest school bus routes and they can also allocate bus stops, which will help them in selecting the pick-up stops for the students and staff, according to their concentration in the areas. This thesis has also, through literature study, investigated how a school transport management system can improve the transportation security. For the time being, there is a general belief that ICT contributes to improving the security, although a quantification of such improvements are lacking. The user interface application has been developed by using VBA and ArcGIS 9.1 Network Analyst provided by Environmental Science Research Institute and it has been evaluated by GIS users.

abstract: Mobile healthy food retailers are a novel alleviation technique to address disparities in access to urban produce stores in food desert communities. Such retailers, which tend to exclusively stock produce items, have become significantly more popular in the past decade, but many are unable to achieve economic sustainability. Therefore, when local and federal grants and scholarships are no longer available for a mobile food retailer, they must stop operating which poses serious health risks to consumers who rely on their services. To address these issues, a framework was established in this dissertation to aid mobile food retailers with reaching economic sustainability by addressing two key operational decisions. The first decision was the stocked product mix of the mobile retailer. In this problem, it was assumed that mobile retailers want to balance the health, consumer cost, and retailer profitability of their product mix. The second investigated decision was the scheduling and routing plan of the mobile retailer. In this problem, it was assumed that mobile retailers operate similarly to traditional distribution vehicles with the exception that their customers are willing to travel between service locations so long as they are in close proximity. For each of these problems, multiple formulations were developed which address many of the nuances for most existing mobile food retailers. For each problem, a combination of exact and heuristic solution procedures were developed with many utilizing software independent methodologies as it was assumed that mobile retailers would not have access to advanced computational software. Extensive computational tests were performed on these algorithm with the findings demonstrating the advantages of the developed procedures over other algorithms and commercial software. The applicability of these techniques to mobile food retailers was demonstrated through a case study on a local Phoenix, AZ mobile retailer. Both the product mix and routing of the retailer were evaluated using the developed tools under a variety of conditions and assumptions. The results from this study clearly demonstrate that improved decision making can result in improved profits and longitudinal sustainability for the Phoenix mobile food retailer and similar entities. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Industrial Engineering 2016

[pt] O transporte escolar é fundamental para garantir o acesso e permanência dos alunos nas escolas públicas, principalmente nas áreas rurais, onde os estudantes estão localizados em uma grande área com baixa densidade e as estradas encontram-se em situações precárias. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo aplicar a metaheurística Iterated Local Search para o roteamento de 13.664 alunos da zona rural do estado do Rio de Janeiro. Para isso, considerouse o problema de roteamento de veículo escolares, do inglês School Bus Routing Problem (SBRP), com frota heterogênea e escola única, com o objetivo de minimizar o custo total considerando as restrições de capacidade dos veículos e distância máxima de percurso. Para aplicação do método, foram considerados os dados fornecidos pela Secretaria de Estado de Educação do Rio de Janeiro (SEEDUC-RJ). Os resultados são apresentados em dois cenários, o primeiro considera os dados de 79 rotas utilizadas pela SEEDUC-RJ para comparação dos resultados obtidos com o ILS. O método mostrou uma redução de 40,5 por cento no custo médio das rotas e 46 or cento na quilometragem média por aluno. O segundo cenário considera o roteamento da totalidade dos alunos, que foram divididos em 506 instâncias considerando escola e turno. A maior instância roteada possui 534 alunos. Os resultados consolidados por município são apresentados e mostram a concentração de municípios com maior custo médio por rota no noroeste fluminense. A implementação das rotas propostas pode trazer economia significativa com as despesas relacionadas ao transporte escolar rural, além de indicar um aumento no nível de serviço para os estudantes, com redução da quilometragem média por aluno. / [en] School transport is essential to ensure access and permanence of students in public schools, especially in rural areas, where students are located in a large area with low density and roads are in precarious conditions. This work aims to apply the Iterated Local Search metaheuristic to route 13.664 rural students in the state of Rio de Janeiro. For this, we considered the School Bus Routing Problem (SBRP), with heterogeneous fleet and single school, in order to minimize the total cost considering the vehicles capacity constraints and maximum travel distance. To apply the method, the data provided by Secretaria de Estado de Educação do Rio de Janeiro (SEEDUCRJ) were considered. The results are presented in two scenarios, the first considers data from 79 routes used by SEEDUC-RJ to compare the results obtained with the ILS. The method showed a reduction of 40.5 percent in the average cost of routes and 46 percent in the average mileage per student. The second scenario considers the routing of all students, who were divided into 506 instances considering school and shift. The largest routed instance has 534 students. The results consolidated by municipality are presented and show the concentration of municipalities with the highest average cost per route in northwestern Rio de Janeiro. The implementation of the proposed routes can bring significant savings with expenses related to rural school transport, in addition to indicating an increase in the level of service for students, with a reduction in the average mileage per student.