Ohio
Tech company behind Kentucky school bus problems had similar issues in Ohio last year
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The company behind a disastrous change to a Kentucky city’s school bus routes that resulted in more than a week of canceled classes had similar problems in two cities in neighboring Ohio last year.
Touting its connections to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, bus-routing vendor AlphaRoute pitched its mathematical models and machine-learning technology as a way of saving money and smoothing out complex bus routes in Louisville, Kentucky, and school districts across the U.S.
But real-world problems often got in the way.
Columbus began running new routes planned by AlphaRoute in fall 2022 after entering into a three-year, $1.6 million contract. But there were problems from the beginning. Most importantly, the district was not able to make adjustments quickly with the company’s software. It decided to pivot mid-year to the software it was previously using from another company, Versatrans, said district spokesperson Jacqueline Bryant.
Cincinnati Public Schools told The Associated Press in an email that it was under contract with AlphaRoute for less than one year, beginning in April 2022 at a cost of $150,000.
“AlphaRoute provided route analysis and made efficiency recommendations. CPS was not satisfied with the results and had to reroute and physically evaluate each stop,” according to the statement.
Several other districts listed as partners on the company’s website said they either no longer worked with AlphaRoute or never were its customers. The school district in Providence, Rhode Island, a listed partner, said it considered the company’s proposal in 2021 but “went in another direction.”
AlphaRoute said in a Tuesday night written statement that it recognized the Kentucky school cancellations have been “terribly disruptive” and that it has had a team in Louisville helping to address them since Saturday.
“We at AlphaRoute have been working alongside the district to fix as many issues as possible as fast as possible, so that service is greatly improved when schools reopen on Friday,” it said.
In Louisville, the transportation changes recommended by AlphaRoute for Jefferson County Public Schools proved disastrous on the first day of school. Some students were not picked up in the morning while others did not arrive home until nearly 10 p.m.
The fiasco resulted in hungry and tired children, angry parents and exasperated politicians. Schools had to be closed to reevaluate the transportation plan, and students will have missed more than a week of school when they begin returning on Friday as part of a staggered reopening. The fallout has included a call from some state lawmakers to explore splitting up the state’s largest school district.
Like other districts, Jefferson County turned to AlphaRoute for ways to increase efficiency and cut the number of bus routes after a nationwide driver shortage left them scrambling for solutions to transport students. The company, based in Waltham, Massachusetts, uses computer algorithms to map out bus routes and stops.
In a March 2021 letter to Jefferson County seeking to justify its use as a single contractor, company co-founder and CEO John Hanlon outlined how his firm could solve some of the “daunting challenges” of a busing system he described as inefficient and one of the most complex in the country, with 65,000 daily bus riders.
Hanlon touted AlphaRoute as the only company capable of both rerouting buses and planning staggered school start times. Superintendent Marty Pollio championed the idea, saying the combination would allow for more efficient use of buses and let teenagers sleep longer so they could be more alert in school.
A researcher who studies automation bias — in which people are prone to overly trusting the abilities of automated systems, from factory robots to ChatGPT — said what happened in Louisville fits into a broader problem with the use of artificial intelligence technology.
Students having to walk long distances to bus stops early in the morning might have been “algorithmically correct” because it satisfied the objectives and constraints of the algorithm under Kentucky law, “but in reality parents would not want their kids walking that far at 6 a.m.,” said Aaron Schecter, a professor of information management systems at the University of Georgia.
Similarly, an algorithm might satisfy its goal of minimizing total routes, to lessen the number of drivers, at the expense of another criterion such as the time it takes to transport students. Schecter said machine-learning algorithms such as AlphaRoute’s are typically trying to optimize an objective and can overlook “worst case” harms even if the average result is satisfactory.
“The underlying principle here is that people were wooed by something that seemed sophisticated, and they trusted that AI would be a magic fix,” said Schecter, who hadn’t evaluated the specific technology used.
AlphaRoute’s Hanlon is the former chief operating officer of Boston Public Schools and has emphasized the company’s origins as a partnership between MIT researchers and the school district.
In a 2019 scientific paper, a team lead by Dimitris Bertsimas, an MIT professor who is also a co-founder of AlphaRoute and its parent company, Dynamic Ideas LLC, said that using an algorithm for selecting the best school start times would empower Boston leaders “to make decisions based not on the political whims of special interest groups but on an objective standard agreed on by the community.”
News articles at the time said the researchers helped Boston cut 50 buses for a savings of $5 million, although transportation officials did have to vet and tweak the routes before they were used.
However, Boston only ever used routing software in a limited capacity and has no relationship with AlphaRoute today, district spokesperson Max Baker said.
In a follow-up paper in 2020, Bertsimas and his team acknowledged that Boston didn’t follow its recommendations for changed bell times and elaborated on a number of routing challenges, from the city’s meandering topography to the equity-minded policies tracing back to racial desegregation efforts of the 1970s. But it said the experiment led it to develop a new software system that it was showing to nearly 30 school districts across 17 states.
Nearly 500,000 school buses nationwide transport 25 million students, said Molly McGee-Hewitt, executive director with the National Association for Pupil Transportation. The driver shortage is a real problem, she said, but one that can be solved by offering competitive pay and benefits and reducing bureaucratic barriers to entry.
“You can’t have world-class schools without world-class infrastructure, and that includes transportation,” she said.
Routing can be complicated, especially in districts that are transporting children across town to magnet schools, charter schools, special needs schools and even private schools, McGee-Hewitt said. Various software vendors have been successfully helping schools manage that challenge for years.
In a news conference Monday, Jefferson County Public School Superintendent Pollio said one significant deficiency was that the recommended routes weren’t accounting for the latest information. He said AlphaRoute gave the district the new routes earlier in the summer, but since then thousands of stops had been added as new students enrolled ahead of opening day or parents requested a different bus stop.
“When stops are added to routes, we did not properly add the time that was needed for a bus driver to complete that,” he said, explaining that those extra minutes were adding up.
“We had some room for error in our former schedule. We do not have room for error now,” he said.
In assessing fault for the opening day fiasco, Pollio has said he’s “not going to put it on the company. … I said it from the very beginning, I take responsibility for it myself.”
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Loller reported from Nashville, Tenn. AP Technology Writer O’Brien reported from Providence, Rhode Island.
Ohio State football coach Ryan Day on Indiana ahead of Big Ten game
What Ohio State football coach Ryan Day sees in 10-0 Indiana as the Hoosiers prepare for Saturday game in Columbus
(This story has been updated to accurately reflect the most current information.)
Ohio State football fans should be in better shape driving to Saturday’s game after road crews cleared a major traffic crash near campus.
All southbound lanes on State Route 315 beyond North Broadway Street were closed for several hours Saturday morning due to a crash, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation. A semitruck carrying fuel jack-knifed around 6:30 a.m., blocking traffic on the freeway just before the Gooddale Street exit.
The truck was moved from the freeway around 8 a.m., and the freeway reopened about 45 minutes later.
How to get to Ohio Stadium for Indiana game
Ohio State athletics suggests these alternate routes to get to Ohio Stadium:
Traveling from the North
- I-71 South to Hudson Street or 17th Avenue exits
Traveling from the South
- I-71 North to SR-315 North
- Exit at Ackerman Road or Olentangy River Road
Traveling from the East
- I-670 West to SR-315 North
- Exit at Ackerman or Olentangy River Road
- 670 West to 71 North to 17th Avenue or Hudson Street
Traveling from the West
- I-270 South to 70 East to I-670 to SR-315 North
- Exit at Ackerman Road or Olentangy River Road
- Fishinger Road to Kenny Road to Ackerman Road
- Riverside Drive to Fishinger Road or Lane Avenue
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CINCINNATI — Thanksgiving week represents the state semifinals for high school football teams in Ohio and Kentucky.
In Division I, Moeller (13-1) is expected to take on Centerville (11-3) in a state semifinal to be played at Princeton Nov. 29. This will be Moeller’s fourth consecutive state semifinals after defeating St. Xavier 28-23.
Friday night’s sold-out game at Mason (7,000 capacity) was the second meeting between the Greater Catholic League South division rivals this season. Moeller defeated host St. X 45-37 Sept. 20. This was the first time the two teams had met in a regional final since 2014.
Moeller, Ohio’s No. 1-ranked team by MaxPreps, was the No. 1 seed in Region 4 this season. St. X, ranked No. 8 statewide by MaxPreps, is the No. 6 seed.
Region 8’s top seed, Anderson (14-0), will play Sunbury Big Walnut in a Division II state semifinal Nov. 29 at a location to be determined.
Unbeaten Anderson defeated No. 2 seed La Salle 28-21 in a regional final at Princeton.
Anderson is ranked No. 11 in the MaxPreps Ohio rankings (regardless of division) while La Salle was No. 18.
Friday was the fourth meeting between the two programs including the first matchup since a 2021 second-round playoff game in which the Lancers won 45-21, according to La Salle football broadcaster Jeff Bosse. The Lancers were also victorious in a 2020 regional semifinal and a 2007 regular-season game.
Anderson, winning its second straight regional title, now makes its fourth state Final Four appearance in program history. The Raptors were a 2023 state semifinalist, 2008 state runner-up and 2007 state champion — all in Division II.
Taft (12-2) is also heading to the state semifinals after a 26-12 win over Alter in the Division IV, Region 16 regional final at Monroe. The game was a rematch of a Week 3 game in which Taft won 36-7 over visiting Alter. That was part of the Senators’ three-game win streak to start the season.
Taft was in its first regional final since 2021, which was Tyler Williams’ first season as head coach.
The Senators have won the first Cincinnati Public Schools football regional championship since 1992, according to CPS athletics. Cincinnati Academy of Physical Education (CAPE) won the last of its three state championships in 1992 (Division IV). CAPE also won state titles in 1986 (Division III) and 1985 (Division IV).
Kentucky played its regional finals Friday night. Ryle defeated Central Hardin 43-14, getting their first regional championship since 2020.
In Class 5A, Cooper dominated at home against Southwestern, advancing after a 56-15 win. Highlands also won big, running away at the half to defeat Pulaski County 42-18.
In a rematch of last year’s Class 4A state championship, Covington Catholic defeated Boyle County 31-28.
Beechwood defeated Martin County 44-7 in Class 2A play.
Indiana was in the semi-state round Friday night. In Class 3A, Batesville lost on the road at Heritage Hills.
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What you should watch for as No. 5 Indiana hits the road against No. 2 Ohio State in this top-five battle, with our updated prediction for the game.
Just about everything is on the line in this one, as both Big Ten rivals look to take either a major step towards College Football Playoff eligibility, or potential elimination with a loss.
Ohio State sits in third place in the Big Ten standings thanks to that 1-point loss at Oregon earlier this year and wants revenge against the Ducks in the conference championship game.
Standing in the Buckeyes’ way is an undefeated Indiana team that has won 10 games for the first time ever and playing some of the country’s most productive offense, but hoping to impress the selection committee, which is less than enthused with the Hoosiers’ 106th-ranked strength of schedule.
What can we expect as the Hoosiers take on the Buckeyes in this Big Ten clash over the weekend?
Here’s what you should watch out for as Ohio State and Indiana meet in this Week 13 college football game, with our updated prediction.
1. Battle at the line. Ohio State is down two key blockers, as left tackle Josh Simmons and center Seth McLaughlin are both out for the season with injuries.
That’s a matchup to watch against an Indiana front seven that ranks 13th in FBS in negative plays created this season, racking up 7.3 tackles for loss per game.
For its part, Ohio State is among the best groups nationally in warding off that pressure, ranking 6th in the country surrendering just 3.4 stops behind the line per game.
2. Strength vs. strength. It’s no secret that Indiana has been putting up points this year, coming into this week ranked No. 2 in the country with 43.9 points per game, behind just Miami. That figure drops by less than a point on average when playing on the road.
But the Buckeyes have proven brilliant at preventing other teams from scoring this season, ranking No. 1 in FBS by allowing just 10.3 points from opponents, a number that falls to about a touchdown allowed on average when playing at home.
3. Get to the QB. Sure, the Hoosiers can score plenty of points, but it’s their defense that could make the bigger impact in the game, especially when generating pressure against Ohio State quarterback Will Howard, whose mobility and improvisational skills are still an open question.
That vulnerability has resulted in turnovers at times this season, as he ranks fifth among quarterbacks with 7 fumbles and has accuracy problems when forced to move in the pocket.
Howard hasn’t displayed consistent speed to get away from edge rushers, and he could have a similar issue against Indiana’s Mikail Kamara, who leads the Big Ten with 9.5 sacks.
Ohio State’s quarterback has dealt with persistent accuracy concerns when forced to move around and, given the Buckeyes’ newfound injuries on the line, that could allow Indiana to design blitzes that bring pressure through the interior and force Howard to the outside and into some hurried throws.
Most football computer models expect the Buckeyes to handle the Hoosiers in this game.
That includes the College Football Power Index, a computer prediction model that uses data points from both teams to simulate games 20,000 times and pick winners.
Ohio State is the big favorite in the game according to the index, coming out ahead in the majority 73.4 percent of the computer’s simulations of the matchup.
That leaves Indiana as the presumptive winner in the remaining 26.6 percent of sims.
How does that translate to an expected margin of victory in the game?
Ohio State is projected to be 9 points better than Indiana on the same field in both teams’ current composition, according to the model’s latest forecast.
More … Ohio State vs. Indiana prediction: What the analytics say
Ohio State is a 10.5 point favorite against Indiana, according to the lines at FanDuel Sportsbook.
FanDuel lists the total at 53.5 points for the game (Over -108, Under -112).
And it set the moneyline odds for Ohio State at -430 and for Indiana at +330 to win outright.
Three times this year, Indiana has played a game that analysts called the biggest test of its perfect season, but the Buckeyes do actually represent a marked talent discrepancy from anyone the Hoosiers have seen yet.
And while Indiana is a solid 8-2 against the spread this season, the best mark among Power Four teams, Ohio State is the first ranked team it will play, and IU is 3-9 ATS against ranked competition over the last three seasons, the third-worst record in the country.
Indiana’s worst offensive performance of the season came against Michigan, which was perhaps uncoincidentally the best defense it played to that point, and the Buckeyes are even better at bringing pressure up front and locking down throwing lanes on the back end.
The Hoosiers will get some big gainers through the air and bother Howard in the pocket, but don’t have the tacklers to contend with the variety that Ohio State can throw at them.
College Football HQ picks …
More … Ohio State vs. Indiana score prediction by expert football model
When: Sat., Nov. 23
Where: Columbus, Ohio
Time: 12 p.m. Eastern
TV: Fox network
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, please call 1-800-GAMBLER.
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