Abstract
Bus service supply has diminished and finally abolished in an underpopulated region where public transport demand is in an extremely low density. Its mobility is very low as well as restrictive for elderly people and disadvantaged people who have no private means. The paper analyzes travel behavior by car passengers and community buses in a mountainous underpopulated region, Yamakoshi in the city of Nagaoka, Niigata in Japan and estimates travel mode choice models using travel diary data to reveal the constraint factors of mobility for elderly people. Finally, the paper clarifies an important factor of ‘walking distance from home to a bus stop’ to shift travel mode from car passengers into an exclusive club bus system for elderly people.
