2024 Volume 10 Issue 3 Pages A_1-A_8
In Japan, a lot of studies have been made on the demand for and the cross-sector benefits of public transport services. Although shared-ride taxi has been becoming highly important to meet the low demand mainly in rural areas of Japan, there have been few studies focused on the demand for shared-ride taxi and the impact of shared-ride taxi on health. Consequently, it might be difficult for local authorities to consider where to introduce shared-ride taxi services and how to improve existing shared-ride taxi services, from the perspective of feasibility and health improvement. This study mainly aims to identify the factors that influence (1) the demand for shared-ride taxi and (2) the impact of shared-ride taxi on physical health. The results of our study clearly show the following: (1) the catchment area of shared-ride taxi service is 200m which is smaller than that of bus services; (2) the spatial relationships among homes, shared-ride taxi stands, and railway stations influence the number of shared-ride taxi users; (3) the impact of shared-ride taxi on physical health is not uniform but depends on individual attributes of and residential location of shared-ride taxi users.
