Evaluating efficiency determinants of rural bus routes in northern Taiwan: A network DEA with temporal data aggregation

Ming-Miin Yu and Yi-Hsuan Chiang

Journal of Transport Geography, 2025, vol. 128, issue C

Abstract: This study evaluates the production, service, and overall operational efficiency of 19 rural bus routes in northern Taiwan, focusing on the challenges of delivering transport services in remote and low-density areas. A two-stage analytical framework was adopted. In the first stage, multi-period Network Data Envelopment Analysis (NDEA) was employed to assess stage-specific efficiencies across time. Particular attention was given to ensuring consistency between data-level and efficiency-level aggregation, addressing a critical methodological issue in multi-period efficiency measurement. In the second stage, Bootstrap Truncated Regression (BTR) was applied to examine the influence of external factors beyond conventional inputs and outputs. The findings identify route length, operating mode, and taxi service integration as significant determinants of efficiency. Further, quadrant-based importance-performance analysis reveals critical mismatches between route efficiency and strategic relevance, offering a basis for targeted improvement. This study provides actionable recommendations for policymakers and transit operators, including optimizing route design to reduce inefficiencies, integrating flexible transport modes, tailoring subsidy mechanisms, and institutionalizing multi-period evaluation frameworks to support data-driven governance in rural transportation systems.

Keywords: Two-stage method; Multi-period network data envelopment analysis; Demand responsive transport; Bootstrap truncated regression (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966692325002431

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jotrge:v:128:y:2025:i:c:s0966692325002431

DOI: 10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2025.104352

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Transport Geography is currently edited by Frank Witlox

More articles in Journal of Transport Geography from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().