NewSchool SF
commute

a commute system for students
with equity in mind
As MDEs students we had the opportunity to work with a local education institution serving many lower income families, and tackling an imminent transportation problem...
| Team members: Blake Terry, Junyan Li, Wiryan Tirtarahardja, Yifan Mao
| Special mention: NewSchool SF working group parents, and NSSF parents
| Role: Design Research, Visual Design, Data Visualization
| Time span: 8 weeks
The New School of San Francisco is a tuition-free public school designed in partnership with local educators, parents and community leaders. Inquiry, equity and personalized learning are at the heart of how our students learn, grow and thrive. We are a K–12 school currently serving Kindergarten through 6th grade.
newschoolsf.org

A future location problem

NewSchool SF is being moved to a new location that increases their current and prospective students' commute time by up to 30min, creating extra burden to their parents.

Research insights

Families would rather remain with NSSF for the next curriculum year but the additional students' commute time pose a challenge for lower income families
Many parents, especially lower income families express concern on their schedule incompatibility with the expected drop off and pick up times of their kids
Many parents have enrolled their kids into afterschool programs, and have concerns over the time lost during commute and waiting for pickup.
Based on what we have learned, summarized the challenge:

How might we

Create / plan a transport system that meets the diverse timing demands of the students and their families
Incorporate trust, transparency, equity and the community volunteering values of New School and its families
Promote adoption of the transport system to be able to support families that need it the most

Communicating to the families

The working group of New School have already worked on a bus system plan serves the higher density of their students, while prioritizing lower income families through a cross subsidy plan. The challenge was to communicate this plan in a visual way that could be distributed and presented remotely by the faculty to the families.
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The visual communication was designed to answer common and specific concerns of the students families such as:
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Travel distance from current and prospective families location to the bus stops, and within a 20-minute commute distance.
Anonymizing density and location of lower income families out of courtesy.
Operating cost and subsidy / equity plans as a measure of sustainability for both the school and lower income families.
A deliverable presentation summary for families to keep and digest regarding their future plans.
Results: student retention was above a 95% re-enrollment rate for the 2020 - 2021 academic year.

Proposal: a flexible drop-off / pickup staging area

To accommodate the schedule constraints of parents, we identified the need for parents to be able to drop-off and pickup their kids before/after the bus has arrived on their stop. However, the concern was the safety and size of the location to facilitate K-9 students over a period of time.
The objective is to design a bus stop which functions more like a staging area, where kids are able to hang around in safety and comfort until the bus or their parents arrive.
Furthermore, the spaces need to be able to accommodate possible future plans of being afterschool activities spaces while students wait for their parents.
A mock of a proposed staging area utilizing a Boys and Girls Club building while having the bus stop area separate and serviced by a volunteer faculty or parent to fulfill the location size need.

A web portal to provide current information and transparency

As the students' commutes become an extension of their school experience. Students' check in and check out in and out of staging areas are as important as they arrive and leave school. The portal integrates with NSSF's usage of digital sign ins for students to keep track of their location throughout the various phases of their commute and afterschool activities.
The web portal contains a
Family portal to keep track of their child's current location, who are they riding with (if applicable) and faculty / staff on duty at various points in charge i.e pickup and drop-off location.
Overview and policy pages for parents to manage their child's enrollment with the transportation plan.
Special thanks to:
CCA MDes C5, Team Transport: Blake Terry, Junyan Li, Yifan Mao, CCA MDes faculty
NewSchool SF and the working group, along with with parents
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