GIS Software?

Question

Dear Yahoo Answers,
I am a teacher a at a school currently involved in a GIS Competition.

The Program requires schools to gather up a GIS team and solve a thesis or questions using GIS and similar.

My GIS group has decided to do the project on “The optimization of the school bus routes".

This involves the students checking out the routes of the 6 buses at our school. What they want to do is by using the routes and data collected from the students who catch the bus to optimize the routes and suggest which route would be better. They also want to be able to compare it with our Public Transport System and compare and contrast efficiency etc.
They want to import data etc. and put it into a interactive 3D project equipped with Fly Throughs etc and comparison of efficiency, time saved etc. if they caught other means of transport or if the bus routes were chosen. They want the end project to be inviting and appealing.


I am here to ask what software we should use. Money is not an issue so any software that anyone thinks can really help us put this all together. Any GIS Software that can really aid us in this manner and any Interactive and Creation Software that can help us.

Any Contribution will be greatly appreciated.

Thanx,
Mr Wilkinson,
Perth,
Western Australia

Answer 1

ESRI is by far the leading GIS software company and can certainly handle the analysis that you are looking to perform. They also tend to give discounted educational software for educational institutions. Check out their ArcGIS Desktop (ArcMap) software. You'll also get several data CD/DVDs with the application, although I'm not sure how detailed their Australian data set is. The local ESRI office in Australia may even be able to assist your class in setting up the software and walking you through some examples.

Other vendors to consider include Intergraph, ERDAS, AutoDesk, and MapInfo. If you really want to show off, consider some of the open source software from GeoTools (a collection of Java libraries to perform GIS functions).