A PROPOSED NEW TRANSPORT SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING CONVENIENT, INEXPENSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE PUBLIC TRANSPORT SERVICES IN RURAL AREA

Abstract

 In rural areas with small populations, it is not easy to ensure both profitability and convenience of individual transportation services. In fact, public expenditures by local governments are increasing year by year, and it appears that the current situation is becoming unsustainable. In order to improve this situation, this paper proposes a new public transportation service system, which manages taxi and volunteer transport in an integrated manner. Through model analyses under several geographical, socio-economical and operational conditions, we confirmed that this system works rather well and provides a less expensive and more convenient transport services for the residents in rural areas in a sustainable manner.