[Gsc-hca-family] [Gsc-hca-all] HCA Transportation Project

[Iain Dunning]

Hi all,

As some of you may know, a team of dedicated students from a variety of
disciplines have been taking a data-driven look at the transportation
options for off-campus students using a variety of resources such as
MIT-commissioned surveys, consultant estimates of housing occupancy rates,
MBTA schedules, and more. They determined there was a serious gap in
service for students living near north and east of campus, e.g. Inman
Square, East Cambridge. Several routes were determined and evaluated using
advanced mapping techniques, numerical optimization, and even driving
around Cambridge with a GPS!

The end result is a proposed new shuttle service running on weekday morning
and evenings, and in the evening on weekends. After presenting this
proposal to a variety of administrators over the past few months and
iterating, an excellent presentation was made today to the MIT Presidential
Committee for Transportation and Parking by Pierre-Olivier Lepage, Alex
Jacquillat and Brian Spatocco. They clearly argued the need for a new
shuttle, demonstrating its benefits not only in terms of convenience and
accessibility for off-campus students, but for the improvements in safety
that having a night shuttle can offer.

The Committee was very receptive to the proposal, and asked some fantastic
questions. The committee will discuss the issue and make recommendations,
but regardless of the exact outcome at this stage we have demonstrated that
a new analytical approach to MIT-run transportation works and can be
applied to shuttles both existing and forthcoming.

We'd like to thank everyone who worked on the project, including Alex
Malikova, Yunke Xiang, Alex Jacquillat, Iain Dunning, Maokai
Lin, Pierre-Olivier Lepage, Brian Spatocco. Furthermore we'd like to thank
Larry Brutti from the Parking & Transportation Office for all his
assistance in not only forming the proposal, but in presenting it as well.

This project is not yet over, and the HCA team is excited about taking what
we've learned and applying to continue advocating for the graduate student
community.

Sincerely,
Iain Dunning and Randi Cabezas
GSC Housing & Community Affairs Co-chairs, 2012-2013
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