Case Study: Boston Public Schools achieves $5M in transportation savings and streamlined bus routes with SAS Analytics

Boston Public Schools uses SAS® Analytics to consolidate stops, improve student experience and save money

Boston Public Schools, the nation’s oldest public school system serving 57,000 students, faced rising costs and operational strain from a complex transportation network: in 2016 it ran 650 buses, roughly 20,200 stops and a $120 million annual transportation budget. Legacy stop patterns and manual route planning made it hard to balance student safety, walk distances and on‑time performance while controlling costs.

Using SAS Analytics to model routes, stops and policy tradeoffs, BPS consolidated stops, introduced individualized walk‑to‑stop limits and streamlined routes systemwide. The changes eliminated about 50 buses (≈8% of the fleet), are projected to save over $5 million, reduced stops by about 20% and cut roughly 13,000 pounds of carbon emissions per day, while improving service for students.

Boston Public Schools

John Hanlon

Chief of Operations