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Summary

Where’s my School Bus? was developed to allow the parents of the 33,000 Boston Public School students who ride the bus, to find out where their child’s bus is. The program aims to give real time tracking of school buses through a mobile web app. Our hope for parents and students is that in a small way this is making their day-to-day experience better.

Why we did this

Boston winters often involve heavy snowfall and when the snow falls, that means that buses might be delayed. For parents, not knowing when a bus will arrive, or not knowing where a bus carrying their child is, can be frustrating. Buses were already equipped with GPS, but parents needed to call a hotline to locate their bus. Due to a limited number of staff and phone lines, when it snowed, the calls could be overwhelming. This challenge became an opportunity to utilize the GPS systems that were already installed on the buses and to rethink how to more easily get that information to parents.

The Experiment

Hypothesis: Giving parents easy access to the location of specific school buses can help address a consistent concern for parents and, in turn, deepen their trust in Boston Public Schools.

Partnering with Code for America, Zonar (GPS Provider), and the Boston Public Schools (BPS) we created a mobile web app in 2011, where parents could easily locate their child’s bus. The program was designed with security and safety concerns in mind. After a successful first year that was tested with a three different parent groups, the City and BPS invested $25,000 into the project to improve the app’s interface and user experience. For this updated version, we partnered with Vermonster, a local software company, and launched it in 2013.

The Results and Lessons Learned

  • There are 300 – 400 uses of the app on a typical school day with significant spikes early in the school year and during bad weather.
  • We have heard from users that knowing where a bus is, even if that bus is late, gives people a better peace of mind and appreciation of the bus system.
  • Additional uses that have been requested for future versions include an easier sign in process for repeat users; an estimated time of arrival for buses; and a version of the app tailored for school principals and after school programs.
  • The app is open source and is being experimented with by other school districts.

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