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One senior citizen standing at a bus stop turns to another and says, “What time does the 11A bus come this way?”
“Well,” says the other. “I’m not sure. I usually catch the number 17. It takes me to meet up with the number six bus, so I can get home in time for my soap opera. But if I miss the 17 at the half hour mark, it’s another hour before I can meet up with the six. I can also take the number 13, but that leaves me having to transfer two more times instead of just one. So, I make sure I’m here five minutes early for the 17, because sometimes he’s here early.”
“I see,” says the first octogenarian. “So, when did you say the 11A stops here?”
Bus routes and other transportation schedules are math problems that only transportation software can solve. Depending on the size of the system, the frequency of running times and the needs of the people using the transportation in question, this type of scheduling can be a nightmare. It’s a complicated system no human should be expected to tackle without the use of automated software.
Even if the system is not as massive as some city bus schedules, it’s still useful. Public transit, Para transit, dial-a-ride, rideshare, welfare-to-work, and medical transportation can all benefit from a finely tuned system developed by software. It can also help businesses needing to schedule duty and crew planning, which could be a math puzzle all on its own. By making the scheduling process less complicated, the schedules themselves become easy for anyone to follow. There’s no way anyone should try to lay out a complete and doable transportation schedule without the help of computer software
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