Feasibility Analysis of Demand Response Transport (DRT) over Route Buses Using Operating Cost Functions

In the outskirts of Korean provincial cities, the demand for using route buses is decreasing due to the declining population. Local governments provide subsidies to bus companies to ensure residents’ right to move and maintain route buses. While the local government’s fiscal burden to maintain the route bus system is increasing, the quality of route bus services is gradually decreasing. In order to reduce the increasing financial burden for maintaining the route bus system, and to increase the mobility of residents in areas where public transportation services are weak, it is necessary to operate a demand responsive transport (DRT) that replaces route buses. DRT that replaces route buses is a system that abolishes existing buses and provides DRT services. However, the guidelines suggested by the central government do not have specific criteria for selecting regions that can operate DRT, which replaces route buses. For this reason, each local government is struggling to implement DRT, which replaces route buses. This study suggested a method of route sections in which the taxi-type DRT operation is more economically efficient than the route bus operation by examining the relationship between the cost function of the route bus and the taxi-type DRT. In addition, by applying the method suggested in this study to the vulnerable areas of local buses in Changwon-si, four routes were selected for more effective taxi-type DRT operation than route buses. The method suggested in this study is a general function found through the investigation of the relationship between the cost of running a route bus and the cost of a general taxi. DRT is recognized as a high quality door-to-door transportation mode for local residents where public transportation service is less expensive than a route bus and is believed as fully transferrable in other cities where want to provide DRT services. The suggested analysis framework and data from the results from this research are expected to be utilized in supporting policy making process for local governments that intend to operate DRT replacing route buses in the future.