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In the exploration of bus activity we identified stops along the 152 and 49 that saw much usage as stated by Lane Tech students. Across the 152 busline, stops at Campbell, Talman, Rockwell, Western, and the Lane Stadium were the most stated stops. For the 49 bus, the Addison and Roscoe bus stops were the most stated.
Beginning this investigation we identified that stops around Lane would be most often used in the morning as students get off of the bus and afternoons as students get on the bus. In a spreadsheet, we listed the coordinates of each stop as well as the direction that the bus would head. We then added 4 columns for: May Mornings, October Mornings, May Afternoon, October Afternoon. For each stop we determined the mean off route at each stop on May and October mornings on weekdays as well as the mean on route at each stop on weekdays.
Following the completion of the Spreadsheet, we exported the data into Google MyMaps. After plotting each stop on the map using the coordinates, we created 4 layers. Every layer corresponds to a different column in the Spreadsheet so the off route on May and October mornings and the on route of May and October afternoons. Every color of each stop corresponds to a different amount of traffic relative to the other stops at that time. Green means that there is less usage or traffic at that stop, yellow means medium traffic at the stop, and red is a high usage of the stop. In order to properly use the maps, only turn on the time at which they would want to see.
The goal of this function was to allow students to be able to use the map in the corresponding season that they seek to go on the bus. Students may use the MyMap in order to understand in the morning the stops to get off at for the least shoving as well as the stops to get on where there is the least traffic.
In our findings, we saw that the Western stop of the 152 bus going west saw the most traffic as people got off the bus (107.5805) on October Mornings. This was a large difference to May Mornings of the same stop that had a mean of 62.9885. While no direct reason could be uncovered, we inference that May is towards the end of school. May sees AP exams which alter student schedules in the morning. Additionally in May, Seniors may go to class less as well as Sophomore and Juniors may have received Drivers License and as such would not require to use the bus in May.
Another finding included the usage of the Roscoe North bus stop. This bus stop comes before the Addison North stop and sees much less on route usage in the mornings and afternoons by a substantial margin. In the mornings it would be ideal to get off at the Addison stop as it is a closer walk in order to enter the building. However, it may be seen as ideal to walk to the Roscoe stop in the afternoons in order to get a seat on the bus if a student is going North.
These are heatmaps of boardings for both the 49 (left) and 152 (right). These maps encompass both directions on each route.