HOMEWORK INSTRUCTIONS

Homework #1
Morgantown PRT Usage Problem

Background Information
For over thirty years, the Morgantown Personal Rapid Transit
system has provided an efficient means of traveling between
West Virginia University’s three campuses. Over the course of a
year, PRT vehicles travel over 850,000 miles and transport
nearly 2.4 million passengers, all while achieving 98% uptime.

Problem Statement
In this assignment, students will analyze Morgantown PRT usage and reliability
statistics to find patterns in usage and system failures.

Instructions
IMPORTANT: Complete the steps below in the order they are given. Completing the
steps out of order may complicate the assignment or result in an incorrect result.

1. Download and extract the provided Data Files ZIP file. It contains the following
files for use in this assignment:
a. usage.csv – Data on PRT usage from January 1985 to September 2012
[1].
Column Name Type Description
Month Date/Time Year and month of the data.
Miles Traveled Number Number of miles traveled in the month.
Passengers Number Number of passengers in the month.
Average Operational Number Average number of vehicles that operated
Vehicles during the month.
Service Days Number Number of days the system was scheduled to
operate in the month.
b. availability.csv – Information on PRT system availability from January
1985 to September 2012 [1].
Column Name Type Description
Month Date/Time Year and month of the data.
System Percentage Percentage of scheduled hours the system
Dependability was operating correctly.
Trip Reliability Percentage Percentage of started trips that finished
without trouble.
Scheduled Hours Number Number of hours the system was scheduled
to operate.
Operated Hours Number Number of hours the system was actually
operational.
Downtime Events Number Number of times the system had downtime
in the month.

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 HOMEWORK INSTRUCTIONS

Homework #1
Morgantown PRT Usage Problem
2. Begin by creating a new Microsoft Excel workbook named
lastname_firstname_hw1_mpup.xlsx.
3. We must adjust the sheets in our workbook.
a. Rename Sheet1 to Usage.
b. Add a new sheet named Availability.
c. Add a new sheet named Analysis Questions.
4. Import the following items into the workbook:
a. usage.csv file – Import starting in cell A3 of the Usage sheet. The file is
comma-delimited and has headers.
b. availability.csv file – Import starting in cell A3 of the Availability sheet.
The file is comma-delimited and has headers.
5. We wish to apply formatting to the Usage sheet.
a. Create a table based on cells A3 through E336 using a style of your
choice. The table has headers.

The table will overlap external data ranges. Convert the selection to a
table and remove all external connections.
b. We need to add two additional columns to store rank and daily usage
data.
i. Insert two new table columns to the right of existing column E.
c. For the table, turn on the Total Row option.
d. Enter text in the cells as indicated below.
i. A1: PRT Usage - Firstname Lastname
ii. F3: Passengers Rank
iii. G3: Passengers per Day
e. Merge-and-center cells A1 through G1.
f. Set the font size to 16-point for cell A1.

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 HOMEWORK INSTRUCTIONS

Homework #1
Morgantown PRT Usage Problem
6. We need to perform calculations to analyze the Usage sheet data.
a. In column G, calculate the average number of passengers per day using
the formula:
[𝑃𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟𝑠]
[𝑆𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑒 𝐷𝑎𝑦𝑠]

IMPORTANT: In column G, delete the contents of any cell displaying a

divide-by-zero error (#DIV/0). These occur in cases where the PRT was
not operational during the month.
b. In column F, use the RANK.EQ() function to rank each month by the
number of passengers.
c. We would like to summarize our usage data.
i. In the total row, individually average columns B through E.
ii. In the total row, do not display any statistics in columns F and G.
7. We must apply additional formatting to the Usage sheet.
a. Add borders to the cells as indicated below:
i. E3 through E337: left – thick solid line
ii. F3 through F337: left – thin solid line
b. Format the cells as indicated below:
i. B4 through E337: number with no decimal places, use 1000
separator
ii. G4 through G336: number with 1 decimal place, use 1000
separator
c. AutoFit the widths of columns A through G.
d. Apply conditional formatting to the average number of passengers per
day in cells G4 through G336.
i. If the average number of passengers was less than 5,000 (< 5000),
change the fill color to red and the text color to white.
ii. If the average number of passengers was at least 10,000 (≥ 10000),
change the cell fill color to green and the text color to white.
8. We also wish to apply formatting to the Availability sheet.
a. Create a table based on cells A3 through F336 using a style of your
choice. The table has headers.

The table will overlap external data ranges. Convert the selection to a
table and remove all external connections.

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Homework #1
Morgantown PRT Usage Problem
b. We need to add an additional column to store downtime data.
i. Insert one new table column to the right of column F.
c. Enter text in the cells as indicated below:
i. A1: PRT Availability
ii. G3: Average Downtime Duration (Hours)
d. Merge (but do not center) cells A1 through G1.
e. Apply the Title cell style to cell A1.
9. On the Availability sheet, we wish to calculate availability statistics.
a. In column G, calculate the average downtime duration using the formula:
([𝑆𝑐ℎ𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑙𝑒𝑑 𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠] − [𝑂𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝐻𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠])
[𝐷𝑜𝑤𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝐸𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑠]

IMPORTANT: In column G, delete the contents of any cell displaying a

divide-by-zero error (#DIV/0). These occur in cases where there were no
downtime events.
10. We must apply additional formatting to the Availability sheet.
a. Format the cells as indicated below:
i. B4 through C336: percentage with 1 decimal place
ii. D4 through F336: number with no decimal places
iii. G4 through G336: number with 2 decimal places
b. AutoFit the widths of columns A through G.
11. We need to setup the Analysis Questions sheet so that it can store responses
to the analysis questions.
a. Enter text in the cells as indicated below:
i. A1: Question Number
ii. B1: Response
b. Bold the contents of row 1.
c. AutoFit the width of column A. Set the width of column B to 100 (8.39”).
d. Set the height for rows 2 through 5 to 110 (1.53”).
e. Change the vertical alignment setting for columns A and B so that the
text is displayed at the top of each row.
f. Turn on text wrapping for column B.

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Homework #1
Morgantown PRT Usage Problem
12. Starting in row 2 of the Analysis Questions sheet, answer four of the five
analysis questions below. Respond to one question per row.
a. In recent years, system dependability has tended to be worse in the
winter than in other times of the year. Why might this be the case?
b. There are normally more passengers riding the PRT during Fall semesters
than Spring semesters. Why might this be the case?
c. During high usage periods, PRT cars travel directly from one station to
another while bypassing intermediate stations. During lower usage
periods on nights, weekends, and summers, however, it operates as a
circulator and stops at each station. What might be an advantage to this
circulator mode?
d. System dependability measures the percentage of time that the PRT was
functioning as designed. Trip reliability is the likelihood that a trip that
departs a station arrives at its destination without encountering problems.
Why is the trip reliability so much better than the system dependability?
e. Currently, WVU students and employees ride the PRT for free. Assume
that a charge of $0.50 per trip was imposed on all riders to pay for PRT
maintenance. What might be the short-term and long-term financial
impacts of this change?

Grading Rubric
This assignment is worth 50 points. It will be graded by your instructor using this
rubric, with partial credit awarded as appropriate:
Steps 3a-c 1.5 points total Steps 7d(i)-(ii) 4 points total
Step 4 5 points Steps 8a-e 3 points total
Steps 5a-f 3.5 points total Step 9a 4 points total
Step 6a 4 points total Steps 10a-b 1.5 points total
Step 6b 5 points total Steps 11a-f 3 points total
Steps 6c(i)-(ii) 3.5 points total Steps 12a-e (pick 4 of 5) 2.5 points each
Steps 7a-c 2 points total

The analysis questions in Steps 12a-e will be evaluated using this rubric:
Standard
Answer is reasonable.
Answer is supported.
Meets Requirements
(1.25 points)
Answer addresses the
question prompt and is
factually correct or a
reasonable interpretation of
available data.
Logical rationale is provided
to support the given
answer.
Does Not Meet
Requirements (0 points)
Answer does not address
the question prompt, is
factually incorrect, or is an
unreasonable interpretation
of available data.
Logical rationale is not
provided to support the
given answer.

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 HOMEWORK INSTRUCTIONS

Homework #1
Morgantown PRT Usage Problem

Acknowledgments
The image in the introduction appears courtesy of Sean Marshall [2].

References
[1] “PRT Daily Report,” West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia, Jan.
2013.
[2] S. Marshall, PRT 3. 2008. Available:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/7119320@N05/3057888160.

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