Demand-responsive transport
The provision of public transport in this manner emphasises one of its functions as a social service rather than creating a viable movement network.
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.
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 schemes may be fully or partially funded by the local transit authority, with operators selected by public tendering or other methods.
[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".
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.
[24][25] Analysis of the Yorbus DRT scheme in a rural area of the UK showed very little combination of individual travel needs.
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.
[63] A network of over 1,000 demand responsive transport routes are provided across rural Ireland under the TFI Local Link brand.
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.
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.
