Demand-Responsive Transport in Rural Areas
Introduction
Flexible public transport services, such as call buses and demand-responsive transport (DRT), have already been widespread in rural areas for many years. Until now, they have mostly been aligned legally and operationally with conventional scheduled services and have relied on traditional communication technologies. What role can line-based demand-responsive services (LBV) with flexible minibuses play under the conditions of the planned mobility transition, especially in rural areas?
The consultants at PTV Transport Consult assist in pre-evaluating new mobility services and in designing comprehensive mobility solutions.
Project Description
With the amendment of the Passenger Transportation Act (PBefG) in August 2021, municipalities now have better legal opportunities through the newly established “line-based demand-responsive transport” (§ 44 PBefG) to introduce demand-driven shared rides with flexible minibuses (on-demand ridepooling) as part of public transport. In addition to using new technological developments for ordering, planning, and operation (smartphone apps, route-planning algorithms), there is also the possibility to define virtual stops, thereby significantly reducing access and transfer times in public transport.
The study examined the role that line-based demand-responsive services (LBV) with flexible minibuses can play under the conditions of the planned mobility transition—that is, with increasing passenger transport volumes in public transport—particularly in rural areas. In doing so, the highly varied spatial and settlement structures in rural regions had to be taken into account.
Project Details
Approach
Using operational simulations with PTV Visum and PTV MaaS Modeller for concrete examples, the effects of line-based demand-responsive transport were demonstrated for three spatially very different areas:
- Central cities of a rural region (RegioStaR-7 type 75)
using the city of Soest (North Rhine-Westphalia) as an example
- Medium-sized towns, urbanized areas of a rural region (RegioStaR-7 type 76)
using the neighboring towns of Neuenrade and Balve (North Rhine-Westphalia)
- Small-town and village areas of a rural region (RegioStaR-7 type 75)
using the town of Zahna-Elster (Saxony-Anhalt)
For all three examples, passenger transport demand and thus public transport demand under the conditions of the mobility transition were derived from the study “Climate-Neutral Germany 2045” (Öko-Institut e.V., Wuppertal Institute, Prognos AG, 2021) and specified for three public transport service scenarios with different LBV shares and service area sizes.
The LBV operational simulations (PTV MaaS Modeller) enabled an assessment of operational effort and transport-related benefits.
Results
Line-based demand-responsive transport (LBV) under § 44 PBefG has significant potential to improve public transport in rural areas. Small-town and village regions with low demand potential and widely dispersed travel requests are particularly well-suited as deployment areas. In central cities, medium-sized towns, and urbanized areas of rural regions, however, route- and schedule-bound transport with standard buses is often the better alternative during peak hours; otherwise, an excessively high number of small vehicles would be required to meet demand.
A dense network of pick-up and drop-off points in LBV shortens access and egress times in public transport. Additionally, there are more direct connections without transfers, reducing average travel times in public transport across all spatial types, particularly in small-town and village-dominated areas.
The risk of a high detour factor increases in small-town and village areas due to the spatial dispersion of the already lower demand potential.
High vehicle occupancy rates, an important indicator for transport effectiveness and LBV economic efficiency, can be achieved mainly in central cities of rural regions, while the values are considerably lower in urbanized areas and even more so in small-town and village areas.
As feeder and distributor services for route- and schedule-bound public transport, LBVs strengthen the overall public transport system, provided that connection reliability is ensured. Spatial and temporal demand bundling at transfer points offers opportunities for higher occupancy rates in LBV, though operational flexibility in vehicle deployment is limited.