Demand-responsive transport (DRT), also known as demand-responsive transit, demand-responsive service, [1] Dial-a-Ride [2] transit (sometimes DART), [3] flexible transport services, [4] Microtransit, [5] Non-Emergency Medical Transport (NEMT), [5] Carpool [6] or On-demand bus service is a form of shared private or quasi-public transport for groups traveling where vehicles alter their routes each journey based on particular transport demand without using a fixed route or timetabled journeys. [7] These vehicles typically pick-up and drop-off passengers in locations according to passengers needs and can include taxis, buses or other vehicles. [8] [9] Passengers can typically summon the service with a mobile phone app or by telephone; telephone is particularly relevant to older users who may not be conversant with technology. [10]
One of the most widespread types of demand-responsive transport (DRT) is to provide a public transport service in areas of low passenger demand where a regular bus service is not considered to be financially viable, such as rural and peri-urban areas. [11] Services may also be provided for particular types of passengers. One example is the paratransit programs for people with a disability. The provision of public transport in this manner emphasises one of its functions as a social service rather than creating a viable movement network. [12] [13] [14]
DRT can be used to refer to many different types of transport. When taxicabs were first introduced to many cities, they were hailed as an innovative form of DRT. They are still referred to as DRT in some jurisdictions around the world as their very nature is to take people from point-to-point based on their needs. [15] [16] [7]
More recently, DRT generally refers to a type of public transport. They are distinct from fixed-route services as they do not always operate to a specific timetable or route. [17] While specific operations vary widely, generally a particular area is designated for service by DRT. Once a certain number of people have requested a trip, the most efficient route will then be calculated depending on the origins and destinations of passengers.
Share taxis are another form of DRT. They are usually operated on an ad hoc basis but also do not have fixed routes or times and change their route and frequency depending on demand. [18]
Some DRT systems operate as a service that can deviate from a fixed route. These operate along a fixed alignment or path at specific times but may deviate to collect or drop off passengers who have requested the deviation. [1] [19]
DRT services are restricted to a defined operating zone, within which journeys must start and finish. Journeys may be completely free form, or following skeleton routes and schedules, [11] varied as required, with users given a specified pick-up point and a time window for collection. [11] Some DRT systems may have defined termini, at one or both ends of a route, such as an urban centre, airport or transport interchange, for onward connections.
DRT systems require passengers to request a journey in advance. They may do this by booking with a central dispatcher [11] [17] who determines the journey options available given the user's location and destination. Increasingly, the booking is via an app, which provides the interface to software that creates a schedule in real time; adjusting the schedule to accept (or reject) bookings as they come in. This provides an instant decision for the potential user, but at the cost of efficiency: each individual travel need is considered individually, potentially resulting in higher levels of idle time (when the schedule has gaps that are too short to allow an additional journey to be added) and "dead mileage" (driving empty between one drop-off and the next pickup) than might be expected from a schedule built by an experienced human operator.
DRT systems take advantage of fleet telematics technology in the form of vehicle location systems, scheduling and dispatching software and hand-held/in vehicle computing. [11] [20]
Vehicles used for DRT services are typically small minibuses sufficient for low ridership, which allow the service to provide as near a door-to-door service as practical by using narrower residential streets. [11] In some cases taxicabs are hired by the DRT provider to serve their routes on request.
DRT schemes may be fully or partially funded by the local transit authority, with operators selected by public tendering or other methods. Other schemes may be partially or fully self-funded as community centred not for profit social enterprises (such as a community interest company in the UK). They may also be provided by private companies for commercial reasons; some conventional bus operating companies have set up DRT-style airport bus services, which compete with larger private hire airport shuttle companies.[ citation needed ]
DRT can potentially reduce the number of vehicles on the road, and hence pollution and congestion, if many people are persuaded to use it instead of private cars or taxis. [10]
For a model of a hypothetical large-scale demand-responsive public transport system for the Helsinki metropolitan area, simulation results published in 2005 demonstrated that "in an urban area with one million inhabitants, trip aggregation could reduce the health, environmental, and other detrimental impacts of car traffic typically by 50–70%, and if implemented could attract about half of the car passengers, and within a broad operational range would require no public subsidies". [21]
DRT schemes may require new or amended legislation, or special dispensation, to operate, as they do not meet the traditional licensing model of authorised bus transport providers or licensed taxicab operators. The status has caused controversy between bus and taxi operators when the DRT service picks up passengers without pre-booking, due to the licensing issues. [22] [23] Issues may also arise surrounding tax and fuel subsidy for DRT services.
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Ridership on DRT services is usually quite low (less than ten passengers per hour), but DRT can provide coverage effectively. [24] [25]
Analysis of the Yorbus DRT scheme in a rural area of the UK showed very little combination of individual travel needs. Of the 35% of operating hours when the vehicles were carrying passengers, there was just one passenger (or a couple travelling together) for 74% of the time, and two passengers (or couples travelling together) for a further 20% of the time. The 15-seat minibuses could have been replaced by small taxis without capacity problems for 97% of the operating hours. [26]
Since the mid-2010s several DRT projects started up but failed.
In the US several DRT operators appeared and promptly failed, due to either lack of customers or health and safety issues. 2019 trials in London found that "satisfaction was really high"; users scored the service at 4.8/5 and praised ease of use, safety, cleanliness and accessibility. But low take-up, misunderstandings about who the service was for, and safety concerns about unlit stops—together with problems due to the covid pandemic from 2020—caused the trials to fail. [10]
Lukas Foljanty, a shared-mobility enthusiast and market expert, keeps track of the different DRT schemes around the world and thinks a tipping point may have been reached in 2022. There were at least 450 schemes around the world, and in 2021 fifty-four new projects started within a three-month period. [10]
David Carnero of Europe-wide DRT technology company Padam said that successful DRT requires subsidies, must be delivered at scale, and must be part of an integrated, rather than competitive, transport policy. [10]
All 5 major Public Transit Authorities in Denmark provide door-to-door DRT services in different variants and degree.
Flextur is public transport, but with smaller vehicles that run on demand. Plustur is flexible transport that can be used in cases where the bus or train does not run all the way. Flexrute is public transport on demand - without a fixed timetable, which drives from stop to stop within a defined geographical area. There are also special needs school transport and paratransit services.
The DRT-services in Denmark are maintained as a collaboration between the PTAs in a joint venture, FlexDanmark, thus providing nationwide DRT-services (excluding some islands). There are three major operational areas:
There is paratransit service (palvelulinja, palveluliikenne) in many cities and municipalities in Finland. It is mainly aimed at those who find it difficult to use other public transport, but often anyone who wants to can order a trip.
Red minibuses which serve non-franchised routes across the country, depending on routes, allow passengers to reserve their seats by phone such that operators and drivers are able to know where passengers are and how many there are in deploying their vehicles. [61] [62]
Public transport authority in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik and the surrounding municipalities. Manages public bus transport and disabled transport, but does not have its own vehicles. About 1,300 enquiries and thousand trips a day. Uses 60 vehicles and 10–20 more for school transport for children with special needs. [63]
A network of over 1,000 demand responsive transport routes are provided across rural Ireland under the TFI Local Link brand. Many of these routes are once a week services which operate a door-to-door pickup from a rural area into a nearby large town, where people can access shopping and other services, followed by a return service a few hours later with a door-to-door drop off back to the same rural area. Other routes include daily return services to/from colleges or employment centres, weekend evening services to/from a night-time activity centre, weekly services to attend Mass, feeder services to connect with scheduled bus and train services, and services on off-shore islands to connect with ferry departures and arrivals. [64]
Services are managed by 15 regional TFI Local Link offices across the country on behalf of the National Transport Authority (NTA), and usually require prebooking by phoning the relevant office in advance. As of June 2023, there are no real-time app-based demand responsive transport services operating in Ireland, but in April 2023 the NTA informed suppliers that they intended "to procure a trial of and, if successful a roll out of, Smart Demand Responsive Transport services (SDRT), using app based products to secure services and routing algorithms to match vehicles with capacity to users". [65]
Following some pioneering DRT schemes implemented in the 1980s, a second wave of systems were launched from the mid-1990s. There are now DRT schemes in urban and peri-urban areas as well as in rural communities. Operated by both public transport companies and private service providers, the DRT schemes are offered either as intermediate collective transport services for generic users or as schemes for specific user groups. DRT schemes operate in major cities including Rome, Milan, Genoa, Florence, and in several mid- to small-size towns including Alessandria, Aosta, Cremona, Livorno, Mantova, Parma, Empoli, Siena, and Sarzana.
More than 200 of the 1,700 local governments in Japan have introduced DRT public transport services.
The first ever demand-responsive transport scheme in Poland – called Tele-Bus – has been operated since 2007 in Kraków by MPK, the local public transport company (see also Tramways in Kraków). [73] [74]
Regional transport authority in Västra Götaland in southwestern Sweden is responsible for all public transport and for transport offers to citizens with special needs. This is an example of DRT used for people with special needs (paratransit). [80]
DRT services have operated in some sparsely populated areas (under 100 p/km2) since 1995. PostBus Switzerland Ltd, the national post company, has operated a DRT service called PubliCar, formerly also Casa Car. [81]
Some DRT schemes were operating under the UK bus-operating regulations of 1986, allowed by having core start and finish points and a published schedule. [82] Regulations concerning bus service registration and application of bus-operating grants for England and Wales were amended in 2004 to allow registration of fully flexible pre-booked DRT services. [82] Some services, such as LinkUp, only pick up passengers at 'meeting points', but can set down at the passenger's destination.
The Greenwich Association of the Disabled had earlier developed a prototype service, GAD-About, which offered pre-booked door-to-door transport for its members, inspired by similar minibus usage in church and youth clubs. That was then cloned as an easily scalable module, under the aegis of London Transport, to become the Dial-a-Ride service launched as part the general services of Transport for London (TfL), rather than as a bus service.
Examples of UK schemes include:
The large majority of 1,500 rural systems in the US provide demand-response service; there are also about 400 urban DRT systems. [86]
As of 2022, at least 30 transit agencies in Florida have demand-response trips. [88]
Paratransit or intermediate public transport, is a type of transportation services that supplement fixed-route mass transit by providing individualized rides without fixed routes or timetables. Paratransit services may vary considerably on the degree of flexibility they provide their customers. At their simplest they may consist of a taxi or small bus that will run along a more or less defined route and then stop to pick up or discharge passengers on request. At the other end of the spectrum—fully demand-responsive transport—the most flexible paratransit systems offer on-demand call-up door-to-door service from any origin to any destination in a service area. In addition to public transit agencies, paratransit services may be operated by community groups or not-for-profit organizations, and for-profit private companies or operators.
The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) provides public transportation, primarily buses, in the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The main hub of the RIPTA system is Kennedy Plaza, a large bus terminal in downtown Providence, Rhode Island. Average daily ridership as of the second quarter of 2024 is 43,400. The agency operates 59 fixed-route bus routes and 7 demand-responsive routes, together serving 37 out of 39 Rhode Island municipalities.
StarMetro is the city-owned and operated public bus service for Tallahassee, Florida, and was previously known as TalTran.
The Lehigh and Northampton Transportation Authority (LANTA) is a regional public transportation authority that provides public bus and rapid transit service throughout the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, including Allentown, Bethlehem, Easton, and their respective suburbs.
Cape Cod Regional Transit Authority (CCRTA) operates a bus transit system of fixed and flexible routes, seasonal rail service to Boston, and a paratransit service in the Cape Cod region of Massachusetts. The CCRTA was created under the provisions of Chapter 161B of the Massachusetts General Laws in 1976. Its main hub and base of operations is the Hyannis Transportation Center on Main Street in Hyannis, Massachusetts.
The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority (SORTA) is the public transport agency serving Cincinnati and its Ohio suburbs. SORTA operates Metro fixed-route buses, bus rapid transit, microtransit, and paratransit services. SORTA's headquarters are located at the Huntington Building in Cincinnati’s Central Business District. The agency is managed by CEO and General Manager Darryl Haley along with a 13-member board of trustees. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 13,091,500, or about 42,900 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2024.
The Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART) is the public transit operator serving the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Beginning operations in 1967 as the Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA), the agency was reorganized and renamed SMART in 1989. SMART operates 45 bus routes, plus paratransit and microtransit services.
Chapel Hill Transit operates public bus and van transportation services within the contiguous municipalities of Chapel Hill and Carrboro and the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the southeast corner of Orange County in the Research Triangle metropolitan region of North Carolina. Chapel Hill Transit operates its fixed route system fare free due to a contractual agreement with the two towns and the university to share annual operating and capital costs. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 3,855,400, or about 11,400 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2024.
VINE Transit is a public transportation service in Napa County, California, United States; it is managed under the Napa Valley Transportation Authority and operated by Transdev. The system offers extensive service throughout the county along with providing connections to other public transportation systems in adjacent counties. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 498,600, or about 1,800 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2024.
Santa Rosa CityBus is a public transportation agency providing bus service in the northern California city of Santa Rosa. It provides service for over 2.8 million passenger trips annually.
Marin Transit is a public bus agency in Marin County, California, in the United States. Originally formed in 1964 as Marin County Transit District (MCTD), Marin Transit was re-branded on July 30, 2007 and now provides a variety of fixed-route and demand-response public transportation services. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 2,814,700, or about 9,000 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2024.
A Telebus, Dial-a-bus, or Dial-a-ride service is a bus service that operates in a mode partway between a normal scheduled bus service and a taxi; it is a form of demand responsive transport. Telebuses typically have a scheduled route, but passengers can ring and book a pick-up within an area served by the route, and the bus route is modified to make the pick-up. Drop offs anywhere within the area can also be accommodated. The aim is to extend public transport services to the front door of all residences, or from any place to any place.
Needles Area Transit (NAT) is the public transportation system, including a Dial-a-Ride program for seniors and persons with disabilities, serving residents of the City of Needles in San Bernardino County, California. The NAT system transports approximately 34,000 riders each year.
Clermont Transportation Connection (CTC) is a public transportation agency serving Clermont County, Ohio, United States. It operates two fixed transit bus routes, the Dial-A-Ride demand responsive transport service, and paratransit service. The two fixed routes are express routes from suburban areas to Downtown Cincinnati. Three Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority bus routes also extend into the county with funding from CTC.
The COMET, officially the Central Midlands Regional Transit Authority (CMRTA), is a regional transportation authority formed by Richland County, City of Columbia, and Lexington County on April 24, 2000, by the Central Midlands Council of Governments. The COMET consists of an intergovernmental agreement signed by Richland County, the City of Columbia, the City of Forest Acres, and Lexington County to fund, operate and maintain public transit services and mass transportation in Richland and Lexington counties in the Columbia metropolitan area of South Carolina.
BRIDJ is a SaaS platform designed to support 'demand responsive' or 'on demand' public transport providers. The platform allows a user to optimise an on-road service and digitise work processes, and includes an optimisation engine, traveller app, driver app and client portal. The traveller app allows passengers to book, pay and track a service between two locations within a service area. The optimisation engine consumes pre-planned and real-time bookings and then allocates passengers to the available vehicles to create the optimal trips for the given service objectives. The optimisation engine is designed to handle large numbers of passengers and vehicles of both small capacities and high capacity (6-50+). BRIDJ technology is currently deployed on public transport services in both Sydney and Adelaide, Australia and for transfer services Singapore.
RideKC is the brand for public transportation systems in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
Via Transportation, Inc. is a technology company that provides software as a service (SaaS) and operations to improve public transportation networks for cities, transit agencies, schools and universities, healthcare providers, and corporations around the world. Via offers fully managed transit services as well as transportation planning tools, consulting services, operational support, and navigation.
Microtransit is a form of bus demand responsive transport vehicle for hire. This transit service offers a highly flexible routing and/or highly flexible scheduling of minibus vehicles shared with other passengers. Microtransit providers build routes ad-hoc exclusively to match only each demand (trip) and supply and to extend the efficiency and accessibility of the transit service. Possible pick-up/drop-off stops are restricted, and transit can be provided as a stop-to-stop service or a curb-to-curb service.