A Bump in the Road: Modeling Efficiency of School Parking Lots

Overview

Many parents drive through the L.T. Ball Intermediate School drop-off system to drop their children off. This system, like other school drop-off systems, is inefficient, blocks traffic flow, and is potentially dangerous for children. With the Tippecanoe School District preparing to build a new Hyatt campus school building, the team found this issue extremely relevant. They aimed to create a safer, more efficient drop-off system for the new PreK-8 school by first investigating the issues with the L.T. Ball drop-off system. The team collected data at L.T. Ball, timing individual events. The team analyzed this data using queueing theory, the study of how entities flow through lines. Here, direct experimentation in the real world presents challenges. Instead, the team used the data they collected and Simio, a modeling and simulation software, to create a base model. They made 4 variations of the base model. Variation 1.1 had additional drop-off points, 1.2 had two queues, 1.3 doubled the number of cars, and 1.4 doubled delay time at the drop-off point. The team measured efficiency with several factors, and Variation 1.2 outperformed the base each time. Working with the PreK-8 school plans, the team modeled the system as currently planned, then used their previous findings to create a model with a different placement and route. Their new drop-off plan was more efficient than the original. The team has contacted the school board with hope that their ideas may be implemented into the PreK-8 school.

Competition history

• AJAS 2026 Category not listed

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