Demand Responsive Transport Service of ‘Dead-End Villages’ in Interurban Traffic

András Lakatos, János Tóth and Péter Mándoki
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András Lakatos: Department of Transport Technology and Economics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary
János Tóth: Department of Transport Technology and Economics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary
Péter Mándoki: Department of Transport Technology and Economics, Budapest University of Technology and Economics, H-1111 Budapest, Hungary

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-17

Abstract: Providing a sustainable public transport service for areas with several small villages or hamlets is a challenge for the whole of Europe. To serve ‘dead-end villages’, vehicles must make a to-and-fro detour to each village, which requires considerable performance from the operator, and the service must also be ordered from the responsible bodies. The number of inhabitants in rural areas is constantly decreasing, and the remaining residents are aging. This process is due to the fact that economically active people in the country tend to move into towns offering jobs and public institutions instead of commuting to work. The performance requirement of serving low transport demand areas like ‘dead-end villages’ is high, while the number of passengers is very low. Furthermore, passengers are economically less active, and thus their transport must largely be subsidized. The present study hypothesizes that replacing traditional public transport with demand responsive transport (DRT) can make the service of rural areas with less public transport service and low demand sustainable. To prove this hypothesis, a generally applicable, innovative method of analysis based on performance–allocation is introduced, and the application of this method is illustrated by a case study conducted in northeastern Hungary. The number of ‘dead-end villages’ is high in the surveyed area; consequently, the results are impressive. The mathematical model applied here uses several parameters (e.g., population, traffic surveys, trip distance, operational costs), thus the analysis is highly complex.

Keywords: demand responsive transport; public transport; sustainable transport; dead-end villages (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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