A STUDY ON THE DIFFERENCE OF THE INTRODUCTION SITUATION AND PLANNING PROCESS ON COMMUNITY BUS AND DEMAND RESPONSIVE TRANSPORT IN LOCAL GOVERNMENTS

Abstract

 In Japan, there has been an increase in the introduction of community buses and Demand Responsive Transport(DRT) led mainly by local governments coping with mobility issue such as difficulty of private companies to operate bus routes due to a declining population and small-scale demand. In this study, the authors reviewed the existing manuals and guides on local public transportation and the unique cases, and extracted the issues that local governments are facing in their field. Based on reviews, the authors conducted a questionnaire survey of municipalities that have introduced DRT and community buses, and analyzed the differences in the areas and costs between DRT and community buses, as well as the differences in the items to be considered for introduction planning. As results, it was observed that the characteristics of each transportation system, such as the area of introduction, cost, target users, and mode of operation, were taken into consideration.