Beruflich Dokumente
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By
Mohammed Abdul Khader Nayati
My mother-father are the most beautiful woman & man I ever saw.
All I am I owe to my mother-father. I attribute all my success in life
to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from
them. It is my greatest pleasure to dedicate this small achievement
to my parents.
Abstract:
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.
Acknowledgements
A thesis does not just appear out of nowhere, and although it is supposed to be a contribution
by one person for a Degree, there are still a lot of people who have helped me out over the
years. I have been fortunate enough to have had the support of so many people and without it
this would not have been possible. While most people did not help directly on the project,
every one of them contributed in some way towards helping me to get where I am today, even
things like just being a friend and going out and having fun. Others were responsible for
giving me a push in the right direction in life, and for everyone listed here I am eternally
grateful for their help.
Id first like to thank the Almighty ALLAH (SWT) for guiding me through this one and a half
year of hard work. Thank you for helping me to make the correct decision even when I am
unable to see the path ahead. For keeping me healthy, fit and strong I thank Thee.
I sincerely wish to express my gratitude to my supervisor Prof. Anders stman for his
support, guidance, patience and encouragement throughout the course of this research. Also, I
am greatly indebted to him for his critical review of the manuscript of my thesis.
I would like to thank Mr. Anders Brandt for helping me and guiding me through my
Admission process in Hgskolan i Gavle. I am thankful to Mr. Dhanunjaya Reddy, for
providing the GIS data of Hyderabad city, without which this work would have been very
difficult.
I would like to thank the staff members of Sujatha High School. Special thanks to Mr. P.B.Jai
Singh for giving me the opportunity to work on this project. Their unwavering support and
confidence in my abilities were the primary motivating factors for me.
A special thanks to my friends and colleagues, Mr. Mir Mahammed Hussain Hashmi, Mr.
Mohammed Hassan & Syed Tariq Mehdi. Your expertise, ingenuity and helpfulness in the
GIS portion of this report are totally worthy of mention. I wish you all the best in your future
endeavours.
I would also like to express my gratitude to all people who are not mentioned in this
acknowledgement by name, but still have contributed to my work and studies in the past few
years. I thank all my relatives, friends and online friends, who supported me through the times
when my sanity was fragile and for their patient understanding of my sense of isolation. All of
their names cannot be acknowledged specifically owing to space and word constraints.
The chain of my gratitude would be definitely incomplete if I would forget to thank some of
the most important people in my life My parents and my brothers. You all have urged me on
with your most untiring support and seemingly unlimited belief in me To you all else pales
and I dedicate this thesis to you.
Table of Content
1. Introduction
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Problem Context
1.3. Problem Statement
1.4. Objectives
1.5. Research Methodology
1.6. Reading Guide
2. Study Area
2.1. Population
2.2. Vehicular Growth
2.3. Transportation Scenario
2.4. Traffic Accidents in Hyderabad
5. Interface Design
5.1. School Bus Routing & Scheduling User Interface Development
5.1.1. Mechanism
5.1.2. Fastest Route
5.1.3. Shortest Route
5.2. Rapid Prototyping Model for School Bus Routing & Scheduling System
5.3. Software Development for School Bus Routing & Scheduling System
5.3.1. ArcMap 9.1
5.3.2. ArcGIS Extension Network Analyst
5.3.3. Visual Basic for Applications
5.3.4. School Bus Routing & Scheduling Input Sources
5.3.5. Themes for Analyst
5.3.6. Designed Interface of School Bus Routing & Scheduling System
Appendix
References
List of Figures
1.1 Research Model
1.2 Location of Hyderabad in India
2.1 Road Map of Hyderabad
2.2 Vehicle Registration Hyderabad City
2.3 The Urban Agglomeration area of Hyderabad
2.4 Traffic hold-ups a common sight in the city
3.1 Scalable ArcGIS Family
3.2 Functionalities of ArcGIS9.1 Network Analyst Extension
3.3 Global Positioning System for Vehicle tracking System
3.4 Road map of GPS tracking
3.5 Global Positioning System
3.6 Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL) system setup
3.7 Automated Vehicle Location Map Layer
3.8 Architecture of AFMS
10
List of Tables
Table 2.1
Table 2.2
Table 2.3
Table 2.4
Table 3.1
Table 4.1
Table 5.1
Table 6.1
Table 6.2
11
1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
Transport demand in most Indian cities has increased significantly, due to increases in
population as a result of both natural increase and migration from rural areas and smaller
towns. Fast growth of Indias population like other developing countries has trigger a greater
need for well organised public transport service to carry many passengers through over
crowded and congested urban areas.By 2001 over 285 million Indians lived in cities, more
than in all North American cities combined (Office of the Registrar General of India 2001).
There has been especially rapid growth of the very largest metropolitan areas such as
Mumbai (Bombay), Kolkata (Calcutta), and Delhi, which now exceed 10 million residents
each. Chennai (Madras), Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Bangalore each have more than 5
million residents. And 35 metropolitan areas have populations exceeding 1 million, almost
twice as many as in 1991. Since large cities are far more dependent on public transport than
small cities, the need for public transport services has increased faster than overall
population growth. [Pucher et al., 2004]
Approximately 23 million public school students travel through 400,000 school buses two
times daily to go to and from school. In addition, it has been estimated that an additional one
to two million students travel in school buses to and from school-related activities every day.
[National Association of State Directors of Pupil Transportation Services, 1998]
School bus routing is a version of the travelling salesman problem, normally referred to the
group of vehicle routing problems (VRP), also with or with no time window constraints. In
addition to the plentiful studies that addressed the vehicle routing problem, different software
methods have been developed that can be used to reduce the operating cost. Three factors
make school bus routing unique:
1) Efficiency (the whole cost to run a school bus)
2) Effectiveness (how well the demand for service is fulfilled)
3) Equity (fairness of the school bus for each student).
School bus routing has two separate routing issues assigning students to bus stops and
routing the buses to the bus stops. [Spasovic.L et al., 2001]
12
13
1.4 Objectives
The objective of this thesis is to create a GIS based School Transport Management System.
The GIS based school transport management system will include the following facilities.
a) Bus stop allocation
b) Fastest and Shortest route for the buses
c) Automatic Vehicle Location
In addition this thesis aims to investigate how a school transport management system may
improve the transportation security.
14
15
The Development Model in figure 1.1 demonstrates the flow of work of this project in order
to develop the school transport management system. The research model has been divided
into four different modules and each module has their own task to complete. The four
modules involved are explained below.
Problem Analysis Definitions: Analysis of the existing system and the problems
associated with it are explained in the starting part of the research. In this module the
problems associated with the school transportation and the need of school routine and
scheduling are studied. Literature study gave the profound knowledge of the various
approaches and solutions to the existing problems in the system. The security aspect is
also an important part of the whole transportation process and technologies like GPS
and GIS allow dynamic information about the students' travelling activity. Different
methods and technologies were studied to investigate how a school transport
management system can improve the transportation security. Different methods and
technologies were studied to investigate how a school transport management system
can improve the transportation security. Based upon the above study, the objectives
are set for the development work.
GIS Database Design: After learning about the problems and setting the objectives,
the next task involved creating a GIS database, which is the most important part of the
entire application. It deals with the compilation and development of the spatial as well
as non-spatial data according to the user requirements. It includes primary data
collection which is followed by the data processing and the outcomes of that is the
final spatial database which can be used to develop the application.
Prototype Design: The next task includes prototype model design on which the
application will be developed. The prototype design relies upon the awaited output and
on the needs and requirements of the user which were taken from the initial module.
The prototype model will describe and explain all the components which will
assemble the system. And once the prototype model is designed and GIS data is
gathered, the application is ready to develop. Based on the designed prototype model
for the application, ESRIs ArcGIS along with the Network Analyst was installed and
configured.
Evaluation & Results: This module involves the evaluation of the School Routing &
Scheduling model and the feedback in form of results from the users.
16
17
18
2: STUDY AREA
The city of Hyderabad is the capital city of the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh with
more than 4 million inhabitants. Hyderabad was founded by Sultan Quli Qutub Shah, Sultan
of the Qutb Shahi dynasty, in 1591
Hyderabad City, is rapidly positioning itself as centre for administrative, financial, industrial,
educational, medical, cultural activities ensuing in high growth rate. At present Hyderabad
development area comprises of Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (172.6 sq. km), Ten other
municipalities (416.44 sq. km), Secunderabad Cantonment (40.17 sq. km), Osmania
University (2.85sqkm), rural component (1162.62 sq. km) and Urban component of Ghatkesar
(15.78 sq. km) totaling to 1905.04 sq. km of area. Hyderabad Urban Development Authority
(HUDA) is the nodal agency for promoting planned development of the city and for planning
transport related projects within the urban agglomeration. [Randhir, 2002]
Different development plans focused specifically on land use deployment, and a residual
component of land allotted to roads to address transportation problems. Hyderabad Area
Transportation Study (HATS) conducted in 1983 was the first main project in the area of
transportation planning. It has suggested a multi planned implementation programme covering
Transportation System Management actions, Network development, Mass Transit system,
Land Use planning and Region development strategy for next 15 years. The Vehicular
population, which is about 1.1 million, is logging a steady, annual growth rate of over 10 %.
[Randhir, 2002]
2.1 Population
Population acts on land through a range of actions, which can be largely classified as
agricultural, commercial, industrial, transportation, administration etc. With more than four
million people, the city of Hyderabad is the seventh biggest city and one of its fastest growing
cities in India. The citys population has increased at an average rate of over three percent per
annum in the last 20 years; and in recent times, this rate has increased to 5.6% per year. Now,
every ten years, 2.2 million more people come to dwell in Hyderabad. It is expected that by
2020 its population will reach 11 million [Jennifer.D & Sunil.T, 2006]
19
20
Vehicles
Two Wheelers
Vehicles Registered
8,56,397
CAG
13.9%
Four Wheelers
1,26,472
11.9%
Three Wheelers
58,851
10.4%
Buses
2,480
9.8%
21
Hyderabad is an emerging metropolitan city, the numbers of vehicles are increasing day by
day, traffic jams, growing vehicular pollution, lack of footpaths and insecure roads for
pedestrian, giving more important to flyovers rather than efficient public transport are some of
the indication which gives the idea about the present difficult situation of Hyderabad. [Reddy
J.S 2006]
According to LT Ramboll (2004)the current modal split in Hyderabad is 37% walking trips,
9% cycle rickshaw, bicycle and other slow moving vehicles, 30% two-wheelers, 15% public
transit, 7% auto-rickshaws, and 3% private cars and taxis. Together these modes generate
10, 296,160 daily trips. Exclusive of walking, public transit constitutes 24% of total trips.
22
Disorganized and random growth of the city, joined with migration from the districts and lack
of efficient public transport system, has resulted in a disordered and a chaotic condition for
traffic in the city. Since last couple of years many flyovers has been built but that does not
have helped much in easing traffic jams. In some places widening of roads has helped but lack
or disappearance of sidewalk is forcing many commuters to use their own vehicles even for
very small distances. Therefore walking on city roads has become very dangerous in
Hyderabad which is why in the last twenty years the number of vehicles has grown extremely
high. People are increasingly depending on personal vehicles for transport. Travelling modes
of the last 20 years are shown in the below TABLE 2.2 [Randhir, 2002 & Reddy J.S 2006]
Mode of Travel
Buses
Scooters/ M.Cycles
Cars
Auto rickshaws
Bicycles
Others
Composition of traffic
flows during - 1986 (%)
2
18
4
6
42
28
Composition of traffic
flows during 1998 (%)
13
15
14
18
10
5
23
1995-96
2018
74
No of
Passengers
carried per day
in millions
2.981
1996-97
2122
75
3.177
1997-98
2217
69
3.054
1998-1999
2328
70
3.253
1999-2000
2425
63
3.050
2000-2001
2480
58
2.872
2001-2002
2605
59
3.068
Sl.NO
Year
Bus Fleet
Occupancy Rate
Table 2.3: Bus fleet and No. of passengers carried per day [HATS DB II-2002, APSRTC]
According to the data collected from APSRTC for 2002 by the Institute for Transportation
and Development Policy in Hyderabad, the APSRTC buses make almost 3 million public
transit trips everyday. Since the mid-1990s, bus passenger trips have been rather stable or to
some extent declining, averaging around 3 million trips per day. Recently some new buses
brought onto the street helped in reducing the overcrowding on the buses. But the drawback is
with increasing fuel prices, the systems operating costs have raised faster than passenger
revenues. Yearly operating losses have grown, reaching Rs. 2.17 per kilometre in 2001-2002.
[The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy 2005]
No. of Collisions
No. of Fatalities
2004
3,525
419
No. of Persons
injured
3,741
2003
3,427
451
3,373
2002
3,039
411
3,115
2001
2,618
405
2,841
2000
2,492
425
2,422
24
25
26
Many school administrators have noticed a substantial savings when routes and schedules are
managed using GIS. GIS softwares enhances the abilities of school boards to deliver an
efficient and effective student transportation system. [ESRI, 2002]
3.3 ArcGIS
Companies use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to achieve better information for good
decision making. GIS shows the real world objects on map and user friendly spatial tools to
accomplish complex task. Geographic Information System is used to display, manipulate and
analyse spatial (map) data. Spatial data are data that contain a reference to a place. Spatial
objects in GIS are represented in the form of point, line or polygon. ArcGIS is a GIS software
which is developed by Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI). ArcGIS is used by
many GIS professionals all over the world. It can be installed on both the UNIX and Network
PC platforms. The ESRI's ArcGIS family is designed as a scalable system which can position
itself in any organisation, from an individual desktop of a geologist to a globally distributed
network of a petroleum company. [Setijadji.L.D, 2003]
27
The three main applications of our interest in ArcGIS are ArcToolbox, ArcMap, and
ArcCatlog.
ArcMap: It is used to display spatial data. It is also used to edit, query and analyse map data.
ArcMap offers many ways to interact with maps such as exploring, analyzing, customizing
and presenting results.
ArcCatlog: It is used for accessing and managing data. Specially, it can be used to move,
rename and copy datasets, and preview geographic and attribute data. It is particularly useful
for backing up data.
ArcToolbox: It provides access to advanced geoprocessing functionality and it is also used to
alter vector data. It contains a collection of geoprocessing functions including tools for data
management, data conversion, coverage processing, vector analysis, geocoding and statistical
analysis.
ArcGIS extensions allow you to expand the functional capabilities of ArcView, ArcEditor,
and ArcInfo with specialized GIS tools for raster geoprocessing, three-dimensional
visualization, geostatistical analysis, and more.[ESRI, 2005]
Extension
Use
ArcGIS 3D Analyst
ArcGIS Schematics
28
Drive-time analysis
Point-to-point routing
Route directions
Service area definition
Shortest path
Optimum route
Closest facility
Origin-destination analysis
Software users can use Network Analyst for routing and network analysis. Some special
and important features of Network Analyst are
Routing - Multipoint routing, Time windows supported on stops, travelling salesman
problem.
Service Areas - Complex polygon generation, Allocation across networks
Closest Facility - Fixed and mobile asset routing, Emergency response
Organisations that take advantage of Network Analyst are transportation, logistics, health
care, public safety, education, utilities, local government, business, and many more [Elizabeth
Shafer,2005].
The Network Analyst functionality is available for the ArcGIS applications like ArcView,
ArcEditor, and ArcInfo. It is also available for ArcGIS Engine, and ArcGIS Server. The
updated version (ArcGIS 9.1) of Network Analyst has the ability to work within the new
ArcGIS geoprocessing environment together with Model Builder and scripting. ArcGIS 9.1
have a number of enhanced functionalities, which are not available in older versions. The
enhanced functionality of Network Analyst includes multipart turns; dynamic barrier
29
30
31
Figure 3.3 Global Positioning System for Vehicle tracking System [Padmanabhan .J, 2001]
Concept of satellite navigation was first conceived after the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957
when scientists realized that by measuring the frequency shifts in the small bleeps emanating
from this first space vehicle it was possible to locate a point on the earth's surface.
[Dommety.R& Jain.R 1998] TRANSIT was the first satellite based system developed in the
year 1964. The development of GPS technology started with TRANSIT. But TRANSIT
system had no timing devices on the satellite and the receiver will take around 15 minutes to
calculate its position. In 1970s United States Department of Defence developed a technology
called Global Positioning System (GPS). This system is also knows as NAVSTAR. It is
originally developed for U.S military use. This technology was U.S military department in
military positioning, navigation and weapons aiming system. [Mintsis. G et al, 2004]
32
The NAVSTAR system, operated by the Defence department of US, is the first such system
commonly available to civilian users. The Russian system, GLObal NAvigation Satellite
System (GLONASS), is alike in operation and may prove complimentary to the NAVSTAR
system [Dommety.R& Jain.R 1998].
Twenty-four (24) satellites are in orbit, of which twenty to twenty-one (2021) are in
operation. Four (4) from these 21 satellites are visible at any time from any station on earth.
The vertical and horizontal position for each specific station is feasible to be obtained in the
form of X, Y, Z coordinates (position vector). The information concerning the speed (dx/dt,
dy/dt, dz/dt) of a vehicle, airplane, ship etc. is also available all over the world, at any time,
and under all weather conditions. [Mintsis. G et al, 2004]
The life span of the satellite is 7.5 years. These satellites use solar batteries as their energy
source for their high technology systems. [Mintsis. G et al, 2004]
School transportation administrators can utilize the routing and scheduling competency of a
GPS/GIS digital mapping system to examine and plan a schools or districts optimal bus
routes based on a ordinary mapping data such as demographics, business activity, housing
patterns, highways, street intersections, railroad crossings, and rivers joint with specific
transportation attributes such as school sites, bus maintenance facilities, street names and
numbers, students home addresses, one-way streets, average traffic and bus speeds, traffic
restrictions, school accesses, etc. The technologys capability to provide real time updated
maps when new subdivisions are completed or unsafe road conditions occur allows for instant
updating of bus routes to compensate. [Driving Efficiency and Student Safety]
33
34
More complete systems may also include the following information and features:
Using the GPS satellite, the transceiver will mark the vehicle location and sends it, along with
any other vehicle data, to a base station. Data is transmitted at specific intervals, ranging from
10 seconds to 1 minute, via either two-way radio or cellular network.
35
Once data is received, it will be decoded, collected and passed to the software which used to
manage the routes and schedules at the base station. It is also possible to send the messages
from the base station to the bus.
36
37
38
39
40
42
43
Figure 4.1 explains the GIS system of school bus routing and scheduling that has been
developed. This GIS system is maintained by the GIS Developer in the School. This system
can be operated by a computer specialist or a GIS Developer.
The Base station is where all the data like the street map with street names, locations of bus
stops, students information, New Fastest Route, New Closest Route, Bus fleet monitoring
system, Emergency service in case of any emergency and other system constraints are stored.
The information model of the Base Station and how the data is collected and stored in the
database will be discussed in Section 4.4
Buses are categorized in three zones namely a) North Zone b) South Zone c) Walk Zone.
Buses that pick the students from the northern part of the city are kept under North Zone.
Buses that pick the students from the southern part of the city are kept under the South Zone.
The Walk Zone for a school is defined as the geographic areas located within the 1.5-2.0
miles walkout. Most schools dont provide bus transportation for these students and usually
students residing within this are expected to come by walk or on bike to school. But most of
the time students living under this area arrive in solo cars driven by their guardians, causing
more traffic jam possibly creating unsafe conditions for the students walking and biking
across the school. This may not be necessarily the divers fault, as there will be no traffic
lanes to guide the traffic. Hence to avoid this kind of situation Mini buses are arranged by
the school transportation authority for those students who live within a specific distance from
the school which will reduce the congestion around the school during the peak hours and will
improve the safety of pedestrians and road users around the school. So these mini buses come
under the Walk Zone.
GIS & GPS Services: Real-time reporting systems are becoming very common these days, in
order to help emergency dispatch assistance and traffic control management as being a vital
part of intelligent transportation systems. [Papadoglou, N. Stipidis, E., 2001] School bus
routing and scheduling system architecture is an integration of ArcGIS9.1, GPS and GSM
technologies. In every bus a GPS receiver is installed to determine its real-time location (x, y
co-ordinates). School bus will transmit real-time location, speed and additional data
automatically every 10 seconds. For instance location, stop emergency, fuel, street name etc.
Based on the signal transmitted by satellite and information will be forwarded to school. The
school will receive real time bus data via GSM modem; this can be achieved by GSM
network. With the help of GSM network useful data like route map, directs and voice
messages can be transmitted. The Base station receiver at school will decode all bus
transmission data and encodes any bus commands for transmission back to bus. Network
server and workstation i.e. school will allow data to be shared by multiple workstations via a
shared network drive.
The combination of GIS, GPS, and GSM technologies can be utilized in several fields.
Communication technologies combined with Location Based Services opens a large
collection of possible interesting applications such as logistic management, intelligent
transportation, defence security etc to give location based information on digital map.
[Silva.P.A, Mateus.R. et al 2004]
44
The Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) and Global Positioning System (GPS)
are extensively used in this application. In GSM apart from Short Message Service (SMS) the
user can also use other messaging services like Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) or
services like Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) to provide location-based services. GPS is
used to track a mobile user position through GPS-equipped mobile terminal. The GPS also
allows the customer to position their mobile devices and transport vehicles like buses, taxis
and cars and GPS gives the best accuracy, which really requires in the type of Location Based
Services. [Silva.P.A, Mateus.R. et al 2004]
The user sends the request message to the Bus Service (Application Server) with a request to
provide the best and the shortest route from the starting point to the destination with complete
bus information, bus time schedule and the nearest bus stop. A gateway will be used to
receive this request and to track the location of the mobile user and buses. Using the GIS
database and the geographic location of that area, a location based bus service application
server will then calculate the best route between the point where the user is and the point
where the user want to go. The gateway creates the answer for request and send to the mobile
user device. [Silva.P.A, Mateus.R. et al 2004]
45
Map data: Map data is collected from city based GIS Company which at first obtained the
base map from Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (HUDA) and Survey of India. Map
data consist of minor roads, major roads; it also includes the speed limit on roads, name of the
roads, and information about the one-way road segments.
Spatial data: In School bus Routing and Scheduling, the instantaneous location of a bus can
be tracked using GPS-GSM (Global Positioning System).
School Data: Due to school security reasons exact student location data were not available.
Thus, surrogate data to represent the student locations have been created using ArcInfo.
Around 300 points (labels) have been randomly selected from different parts of the city and
point coverage has been created. Each point would represent one student. Later this coverage
points were converted into shapefiles. Results can be seen in the result chapter.
by
merging
these
three
data:
Map,
Spatial
and
46
Feature Type
Attribute
Description
Road
Name
One-way
Speed limits
Length
Drive time
Category
Road Name
Contain one-way road information
Speed limits on that road sector
Road Length
Based on speed limit and length the drive
time is calculated
Category key number
School
Name
Label
Location
School Name
Label of the hospital
Location of the school
School Bus
ID
Employees
Identity number
Responsible employees for school
transportation, which also includes
driver(locating using GPS)
Student
Student ID
Student Name
Student Age
Sex
Grade
Location
Map Data:
Major roads are joined together to shape the road network of Hyderabad city. This road
network is used by vehicles for the purpose of transport where the traffic flow is stable and
causes for traffic jams are frequent. These major roads are represented as chain of lines in
School bus routing and scheduling user interface.
Minor road network are small streets between the buildings. This road network is used for
walking cycling and this road can be used if there is jamming on major roads. Line feature
represent Minor road in School bus routing and scheduling user interface.
47
Spatial Data:
In Scheduling and Routing of the bus, the real-time location of the bus will be tracked
instantaneously using Global Positioning System (GPS). This GPS technology is used to map
the transportation network and to transport the student quickly and to reduce the
transportation costs. Every school bus will be equipped with GPS device, and GPS signals
will be sent from the bus to the school Base station. The GPS data will be stored in the
database as x; y coordinates of the bus locations on the earth surface. The location of the bus
is represented as point features on the road map.
48
49
50
The data was ready to use, after editing the existing layers as well as adding new layers to the
database. To allocate the bus stops, first the address of the school and student location has to
be geocoded. After Geocoding, the students are divided according to their addresses and their
locations into three different zones namely a) North Zone b) South Zone c) Walk Zone.
Allocating bus stops and designing routes for the buses can be determined after assigning the
students to their respective zones. As mentioned earlier, that Buses are categorized in three
zones North Zone, South Zone and Walk Zone. Buses that pick the students from the northern
part of the city are kept under North Zone. Buses that pick the students from the southern part
of the city are kept under the South Zone. Selecting students for the Walk Zone depends on
the number of children who resides within a distance of 2.0 miles from the school. Therefore,
students who come near or within the 2.0 miles from the school will be selected for the Walk
Zone. Houses of the children with disabilities will be treated as stops for the buses. Therefore,
the buses will need to make the handicapped childrens homes a stop. Hence, they will be
picked up the buses from their respective places.
51
To allocate the bus stops, buffer zones were generated in ArcMap. A buffer around each
individual houses were created. The buffer is centered on the route of interest and is outlined
by the maximum distance that students find convenient to walk to and from the stops. In the
analysis a distance zone of 300 meters has been used, which is roughly equals to a 5 minutes
walk at 4.5 km/h. This same procedure was followed in all three zones for every bus stop. The
locations of the handicapped children will be imperatively considered for bus stops as well.
(Results can be seen in the result chapter.)
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4.7 Results
This section shows the outcome of the school bus routing and scheduling system achieved by
using ArcGIS 9.1 Network Analyst.
53
54
55
56
57
Figure 4.10 North Zone Bus Stops derived without buffer overlays
58
59
Figure 4.12 South Zone Bus Stops derived without buffer overlays
60
61
Figure 4.14 Walk Zone Bus stops derived without buffer overlays
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63
64
65
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5: INTERFACE DESIGN
5.1 School Bus
Development
Routing
and
Scheduling
User
interface
5.1.1 Mechanism
GIS based School bus routing and scheduling System was developed for routing of school bus
from school to student locations and vice versa. In this system the most important issues were
the fastest path, shortest path, bus allocation, identifying the vehicle location and storing the
students location information in the database. Mechanism involved in the development of
School bus routing and scheduling is explained below.
5.2 Rapid prototyping model for School bus routing and scheduling System
Rapid model making and prototype design is an important part of countless industries,
including transportation, architecture, product and packaging, media, and entertainment.
Rapid Prototyping helps to recognize wrong, missing or ambiguous requirements. Since
School bus routing and scheduling System comprise sophisticated graphical user interfaces,
prototypes are not only essential for clarifying the requirements but can also be used as
development basis for the user interface of the finishing product. The school bus routing and
scheduling system rapid prototype model is an operative model that is functionally equivalent
of a product. The rapid prototyping model of School bus routing and scheduling System is
target to let the clients (School transportation management) to interact with the system and
experiment with it.
Large numbers of software developers use the rapid prototyping model because the rapid
prototyping model has been tested by the clients (GIS users) himself. In School bus routing
and scheduling system, a preparatory working model has been created that reduces the need to
67
Figure 5.1 Rapid prototype model of School bus routing and scheduling System
[Zini Floriano 2001]
The two most important advantage of School bus routing and scheduling System prototyping
is its rapidity and its iterative development. Hence, the early availability of a product can
be rapidly evaluated by the client (GIS user). This allows early detection of possible mistakes
in software requirements and their appropriate modification. Besides that, it is an iterative
process which gives software developer the flexibility to modify requirements or design
choices a lot of times and therefore to avoid hasty decisions on important features of the
software product.
68
5.3 Software development for School bus routing and scheduling System
In the development of School bus routing and scheduling System following software is used:
ArcGIS version 9.1
ArcGIS extension Network Analyst
Visual Basic 6.0 programming language
The ArcMap working model includes the map display area, table of contents, number of toolbars
and menus for working with map and its attribute data. The two ways to view map data in
ArcMap are:
Geographic data view: In geographic data view, the geographical data is analyzed, symbolized
and compiled.
Layout View: Layout view is where Geographic data view, data frames are composed onto pages
for printing and publishing.
Drive-time analysis
Point-to-point routing
Route directions
Service area definition
Shortest path
Optimum route
Closest facility
Origin-destination analysis
69
70
Tool Name
Functionality
Zoom In
Zoom Out
Fixed Zoom In
Pan
Full extent
Go to next extent
Select feature
Select element
Identity
Find
Measure
Hyperlink
Route Analyst
Bus Route
Direction window
Tool Name
Functionality
71
Network Identity
72
6.2.1 Presentation
Options
Excellent
Very Good
Good
Average
Poor
Layout &
Structure
4
2
0
0
0
Ease of Use
Overall Rating
1
5
0
0
0
4
2
0
0
0
73
6.2.2 Tools
Options
Ease of Use
Excellent
Very Good
Good
Average
Poor
1
4
1
0
0
Clarity of
Controls
1
3
2
0
0
Ease of
Navigation
2
4
0
0
0
Performance
Interactivity
Number of Users 3
2
GIS Role
GPS-GSM Role
UI Output
Future Usage
1
0
Figure 6.1 Feedback from the participants for the overall performance of the system
The Figure 6.1 shows the feedback from the participants (GIS users) for the overall
performance of the School Bus Routing and Scheduling System User Interface. The feedback
was taken in terms of six factors i.e. performance, Interactivity, GIS role, GPS-GSM, Output
and Future Usage. The graph shows that almost all the participants had positive response for
School Bus Routing and Scheduling System User Interface. All the six participants have
appreciated the performance of the application, while the interactive interface design appealed
to 3 users; 4 users supported and appreciated the use of GIS, GPS and GSM technologies used
in the system. All of the users were pleased by the results obtained by the system. 4 users
gave a positive reply on implementing the model in future for a real time situation. There
were some suggestions to eliminate few errors identified by the users and improve the
interface.
74
All the participants were pleased with the present user interface
Slight changes needed to be done regarding design
Two participants suggested that extra buttons should be added for better operations.
All the 6 participants said that design methodology is good
Very easy to design routes and allocate bus stops
Model is a real solution for School transport Management.
Satisfied with the proposed methods and transportation security technologies.
75
7.1 Discussion:
This research has developed a School bus routing and scheduling prototype for Sujatha High
School in Hyderabad. This system will help the school transportation management to design
shortest and fastest school bus routes which will result in decreasing the fuel consumption and
save time, and by using this system they can also allocates bus stops, which will help them in
selecting the pick-up stops for the students and staff according to their concentration in the
areas.
Just like any other project work, this study also has its limitations. There are some limits with
the GIS data involved in the application and prototype application. The city roads network
composed of only the major and minor roads. A school transportation application should be
equipped with the street level data so that better routes can be designed. The speed limits,
one-way information and street names in the roads layer were not efficient and were incorrect.
Another key concern of this thesis is the unavailability of the data. Due to school security
reasons exact student location data were not available. Thus, surrogate data to represent the
student locations have been created using Arc Info. In manual routing systems, a human being
can understand and recognize the location of students. But in an automated system, the system
depends upon high match rates to categorize and assign students to bus stops. If students
addresses were incorrect or inaccurate then it can either delay receipt of transportation
services or routing algorithms will not produce optimum results. The primary data collected
for this research had to be edited. So, ArcGIS suite applications i.e. ArcMap was used for
editing the data. The attribute table of the digital road map didnt have all the names. So, the
names and labels were updated and few more roads were added into its attribute table which
were essential for this project. Some new layers were also compiled and added. These new
layers were created in the form of shapefiles. The road network layer was used as a base map
to add other new layers into the database. The data was ready to use, after editing the existing
layers as well as adding new layers to the database.
To allocate the bus stops, first the address of the school and student location has to be
geocoded. After Geocoding, the students are divided according to their addresses and their
locations into three different zones namely a) North Zone b) South Zone c) Walk Zone. Buses
that pick the students from the northern part of the city are kept under North Zone. Buses that
pick the students from the southern part of the city are kept under the South Zone. Selecting
students for the Walk Zone depends on the number of children who resides within a distance
of 2.0 miles from the school. Therefore, students who come near or within the 2.0 miles from
the school will be selected for the Walk Zone. To allocate the bus stops, buffer zones were
generated in ArcMap. A buffer around each individual houses was created. The buffer is
centred on the route of interest and is outlined by the maximum distance that students find
convenient to walk to and from the stops. In the analysis a distance zone of 300 meters has
76
7.2 Conclusion
The objective of this thesis was to create a GIS based School Transportation Management
System. The School bus routing and scheduling prototype is a map based application
developed for Sujatha High School. The result of the usability test of this prototype model
shows that the system developed seems to be close to operational. The prototype was
developed using GIS software ArcGIS 9.1 Network Analyst for an ordinary PC in order to
allocate bus stops and to design shortest and fastest bus routes. Thus this application will help
the school transportation management to design shortest and fastest school bus routes which
will decrease the fuel consumption and save time, and by using this system they can also
allocate bus stops, which will help them in selecting the pick-up stops for the students
according to their concentration in the areas. GPS will allows the school administration to
keep a track on the movements of the buses involved in providing transportation to the
students & thus enabling to collect the dynamic information about the student travelling
activity.
Moreover in this thesis different methods of transportation security have also been analysed
and different methods have been investigated for improving the transportation security.
Results of these studies show that these technologies can be very useful in transportation
security. These technologies can sense oncoming danger and issue timely warning to the
driver and prevent many accidents, and consequently save money and reduce personal
suffering. Based on experiences from other similar implementations, the system here
developed will most probably provide better school routes preventing many accidents, save
money and reduce personal suffering.
As the implementation of this prototype model continues, its benefits will probably will
increase both financially in the form of cost savings qualitatively in the form of service level
improvements and more accurate information for School transportation department.
77
The bus school driver is one of the mobile work force who needs to be regularly in
communication or contact with the school. Many advanced wireless technology can
help in fulfilling this requirement. Hence Mobile GIS or GIS via wireless technology
can be brought in or can be developed for better communication between the bus
driver and the school transportation department.
Current modules may be improved with more detailed applications so that daily tasks
can be automated. And modules that give corresponding functionality can be added to
the system, e.g. Passenger assignment, School rezoning etc...
78
Appendix
User Evaluation Questionnaire for School bus routing and scheduling
System
School bus routing and scheduling System is a GIS application developed for Sujatha High
School, Hyderabad. This prototype was developed using GIS software ArcGIS 9.1 Network
Analyst for an ordinary PC in order to allocate bus stops and to design shortest and fastest bus
routes. I hope that this GIS prototype application has been of value to you. Please fill out the
following survey to help and to improve the application prototype. Select the best answer for
all questions below. You are encouraged to include any questions, comments, suggestions that
you believe will enhance the capabilities of this application.
79
4. Comments
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
Section 2: Tools
Evaluate the tools provided in the application. Are the tools helpful in finding the required
information?
1. Ease of use
a. Excellent
b. Very Good
c. Good
d. Average
e. Poor
2. Clarity of controls
a. Excellent
b. Very Good
c. Good
d. Average
e. Poor
3. Ease of navigation
a. Excellent
b. Very Good
c. Good
d. Average
e. Poor
4. Search tool
a. Very easy
b. Easy
c. Average
d. Difficult
e. Very difficult
80
7. Comments
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
81
Section 3: Content
Evaluate the information available on this GIS application. Are you satisfied with the
information provided and organised? Is the information helpful and important?
1. Content
a. Excellent
b. Very Good
c. Good
d. Average
e. Poor
2. Organisation
a. Excellent
b. Very Good
c. Good
d. Average
e. Poor
3. Role of GPS and GSM in this Application?
a. Very easy
b. Easy
c. Average
d. Difficult
e. Very difficult
4. Was the help provided in the application to use the tools simple and useful?
a. Excellent
b. Very Good
c. Good
d. Average
e. Poor
5. What level was the information presented?
a. Got what I was looking for
b. Near to my expectations.
c. Average
d. Very poor
82
6. One of the aims of this research work was to investigate how a school transport
management system may improve the transportation security. Do you think that the
technologies and methods which are mentioned in this research work will be really helpful? In
your opinion which method or technology will be more useful or helpful in transportation
security?
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
83
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