Transport on demand in sparsely populated areas

October 2023

Centre d’études et d’expertise sur les risques, l’environnement, la mobilité et l’aménagement (CEREMA)

To download : 2_tad-web.pdf (1.8 MiB)

1 OBJECTIVES OF A TRANSPORT ON DEMAND SERVICE

Demand-responsive transport (DRT) services are set up in areas where demand is unsuitable for a regular bus service (e.g. low and/or variable demand depending on the time of day or the day).

The introduction of a Dial-a-Ride service improves the accessibility of an area and makes it easier for residents and visitors to get around, particularly those who do not have a car or are unable or unwilling to drive.

Because of its characteristics, particularly its flexibility, the Dial-a-Ride service is a high-quality local service tailored to user demand. It is in fact interesting for users to be able to choose their itinerary or the timetable for the Dial-a-Ride service, rather than being constrained by an itinerary or timetable that is poorly suited to their needs.

A Dial-a-Ride service can, for example, be set up :

• to provide services, facilities and shops in town centres from isolated areas ;

• as a feeder service to transport hubs, serving rail or bus stations;

• to meet demand for journeys at ‘atypical’ times (at night, early in the morning or late at night), particularly for journeys between home and work.

On-demand transport services can be organised for specific categories of user. However, limiting access to a public service such as transport on demand must be based on objective differences in order to respect the principle of equal access to the public service. Transport on demand may, for example, be reserved for people with reduced mobility (known as TPMR).

2 ORGANISATION AND OPERATION OF A TAD SERVICE

A transport on demand service is organised by a mobility organising authority (AOM). In sparsely populated areas, the AOMs are either the communities of communes or the Region. However, article L.1231-4 of the Transport Code states that a Region may delegate the organisation of a mobility service, such as a transport-on-demand service, to a local authority or EPCI. In this way, a Region can delegate the organisation of a TAD to a community of communes that has not taken on the responsibility for mobility. In this case, the community of communes becomes a second-tier organising authority (AO2).

Article L. 3111-12 of the Transport Code also allows an AOM to use the services of an association or private individuals registered as transport operators to organise a public transport demand-responsive service using vehicles with fewer than 8 seats.

As with regular routes, a public transport service is operated either by a public authority or by a company that has signed an agreement to this effect with the organising authority2 (public service delegation, public contract, etc.). If a network of regular lines exists in the area, the operator may be the same for regular and on-demand services. The AOM may also use taxis to operate the service. The vehicles used for transport-on-demand services are vehicles with a capacity of at least four seats. The type of vehicle used depends on demand (recurrent transport of just one or two people, or transport of groups of people).

The vehicles may be, for example :

• private cars (saloons or MPVs), particularly in the case of services organised in conjunction with taxis ;

• minibuses

• vehicles fitted out for the transport of people with reduced mobility;

• standard buses.

To use the TAD service, users must reserve a seat. Depending on the service, reservations can be made :

• by telephone and/or by internet: telephone booking is more accessible for some people, particularly older people who are not very comfortable with IT tools. However, for reasons of cost and depending on the target audience, some local authorities choose to book by internet only;

• between 48 hours and less than an hour in advance. In some cases, users have to register before they can book the service.

It can be seen that the communities of communes often choose to serve all the communes in their area (not served by regular lines where they exist) with the Dial-A-Ride service. However, the AOM is not obliged to serve all the communes. It can also set up services with different characteristics for different areas of the territory.

3 TAD USERS

In rural areas, the majority of users of public transport services are non-motorised and elderly people. However, some public transport services meet the needs of working people or young people, depending on the areas served (feeder services to an interchange, business parks, etc.). Ridership on public transport services varies widely, depending on the characteristics of the service, its objectives and the density of the area served. It varies from 250 (for a TAD in a rural area) to 70,000 annual journeys (for a TAD in a suburban area, as a feeder service to an interchange).

4 FUNDING

The resources that can be mobilised to finance a demand-responsive transport service are :

• fare revenue: this only covers part of the operating costs. The fares offered to users are often attractive, ranging from €1 to €3 for a single ticket. Special fares may be offered for certain categories of population (according to age, status, etc.) as well as season tickets or books of 10 tickets. In some cases, particularly for door-to-door transport, the fare may be higher and depend on the distance travelled;

• the general budget of the AOM (local or regional).

Other more ad hoc sources of funding, such as calls for projects, may also be used. In addition, local AOMs can draw on the following resources:

• the mobility payment, which can only be levied by local AOMs (excluding the Region) organising a regular public passenger transport service (at least one regular bus service3, excluding school transport). It can finance any investment and operation of mobility services, such as a TAD service;

• the Regions may also contribute to the funding of public transport demand-responsive transport projects.

5 ORDER OF MAGNITUDE OF COSTS

Investment costs mainly concern :

• the rolling stock, which may belong to the AOM or be made available by the operator ;

• the management system, which is necessary for the organisation of most demand-responsive transport services (reservation management, route optimisation);

• the layout and equipment of stops;

• communication about the service: this is important, particularly as a Dial-a-Ride service is less visible than a regular service, which runs at a fixed time, more often and with signposted stops. Communication must be particularly strong when the service is launched. As the operation of each demand-responsive transport service is specific, depending on the characteristics chosen, users need to be well informed about how to use and book the service;

• studies, carried out to prepare for the launch of the service or to carry out an evaluation, for example (in the region of €20,000 to €30,000 in 2023).

Operating costs include

• staff costs (driving, booking management, premises maintenance, etc.) ;

• vehicle servicing and maintenance

• energy costs, etc. Approximately 1/3 to 1/2 full-time equivalent (FTE) are required for the organisation of the service by the AOM (definition of needs, launch and monitoring of the service, communication, etc.).

An analysis of the various experience feedbacks shows that costs vary according to the characteristics of the area and the service. Operating costs are around €10 to €40 per journey, i.e. between €20,000 and €60,000 per year per vehicle (access to the booking centre, vehicle operating costs, etc.).

6 STEPS TO IMPLEMENTING A TAD

The definition of the service to be introduced is based on an analysis of needs (collection and analysis of mobility data) and taking account of the AOM’s objectives. These studies are generally carried out by service providers recruited by the AOM following calls for tender. Once the Dial-a-Ride service is up and running, it is useful to monitor it and carry out a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the service. This helps to identify any changes that need to be made to the service in order to ensure that the offer matches user demand and the AOM’s objectives.

7 EXAMPLE OF THE T’LIB DOOR-TO-DOOR TAD SERVICE IN SAINT-POURÇAIN SIOULE LIMAGNE

The Saint-Pourçain Sioule Limagne community of communes, in the Allier department, organises a TAD service for all sixty communes in its area, on behalf of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. The community of communes has not taken over responsibility for mobility in 2021, and is therefore a second-tier organising authority (AO2). Operations are contracted out to Kéolis.

Historically, the Allier department (which was responsible for organising transport at the time) wanted to organise a service for all areas not served by a regular line. The community of communes on which Saint-Pourçain depended wanted to get involved in organising this service and became an AO2. It opted for a door-to-door TAD service, rather than the stop-to-stop system used in the rest of the department. Following the merger of three EPCIs in 2017, the two pre-existing TAD services have been harmonised and the door-to-door service has been retained.

The service operates door-to-door in all sixty communes in the area, Monday to Friday from 7am to 7pm and Saturday mornings from 8.30am to 1pm. It is open to everyone, with free prior registration. Bookings must be made by telephone in the morning, no earlier than 10 days before the journey, and no later than 2 days before the journey. The fare is €5 (€10 return).

If there are 2 people in the vehicle, the journey is optimised and the fare is €4 per passenger. The special feature of this service is that it can only be used once a week (return trip possible), except for exemptions for certain groups and for medical reasons. This restriction is a compromise reached during the merger and extension of the territorial jurisdiction in 2017, to limit the number of journeys and therefore the cost of the system, while maintaining a service open to all.

The service is provided by 3 ‘Kangoo’ vehicles, one of which has a space for a person with reduced mobility, and an 8-seater vehicle assigned in response to requests from families.

In 2022, the service counted 218 regular users, and more than 6,200 journeys were made, covering 57,800 km. The majority of users are elderly (35% are over 80), but their profiles are varied, with over a third (37%) aged under 60.

There is a dichotomy between moderate use in the more rural areas and greater use for short, intra-communal journeys in the two main centres.

Consideration is therefore being given to the possibility of a shared transport service and regular intra-municipal shuttles. The operating cost of the service was €93,600 in 2022, subsidised to the tune of €40,000 by the Region, with the remainder covered by the general budget of the communauté de communes.

8 EXAMPLE OF A STOP-TO-STOP TAD IN DRACÉNIE: TED PETIT BUS

The Dracénie Provence Verdon Agglomération community, located in the Var department, has been running a stop-to-stop public transport service called TED Petit Bus since 2004. The service is operated by a service provider. The service was initially set up for municipalities that were not served by regular bus routes, or where the frequency of regular bus services was low.

Since 2018, all 23 communes in the conurbation have been served. The area is divided into two independently managed geographical zones: a ‘north’ zone and a ‘south’ zone.

Travel from one zone to the other is not possible by direct route: a feeder service to the Draguignan urban network connects the two TAD zones. The town centre of Draguignan is located in the southern zone. From the northern zone, it is possible to access the multimodal interchange at Les Arcs/Draguignan station, from which it is possible to reach the centre of Draguignan.

There are between one and twenty stops in each commune, depending on the way the commune is organised (whether or not there are several hamlets) and the facilities available in the area. Intra-communal journeys (i.e. between two stops in the same commune) are not permitted. The service is open to all users, except schoolchildren during term time (for whom a school transport service exists). Pupils do, however, have access on Wednesday afternoons. The service operates from Monday to Saturday (excluding public holidays), with a fairly wide range of hours, from 6am to 8pm.

Bookings must be made by telephone, via the Tedbus website or by email, no later than 5pm the day before the journey (Friday for Mondays). There is no need to register specifically for the service beforehand. Users can cancel their journey up until the day before.

The service’s user charter specifies that users who fail to turn up at the agreed time are liable to a penalty of €2 per journey booked, not made and not cancelled, as well as the possibility of temporary exclusion from the service.

The fare is the same as for the 13 regular routes in the conurbation: €1.30 for a single ticket. There are also 10-trip cards and monthly and annual season tickets.

In 2021, 36,750 journeys and 15,500 trips were made (an average occupancy rate of 2.4 people/journey). The average distance per journey was 18 km. For a given origin-destination, the number of distinct users varied between 0 and 171 people, and the maximum number of journeys was 2,640, i.e. 15 journeys per user.

The TAD service was used in each of the territory’s 23 communes, with between 24 and 10,200 journeys departing from each commune. The cost of running the service was €860,000 in 2021. The service is financed by :

• fare revenues of €15,800 ;

• the mobility levy (which the agglomeration community can deduct as it also organises a network of regular routes);

• the intercommunal authority’s general budget and grants and subsidies.

9 - CONCLUSION

Transport-on-demand services can be an appropriate response for sparsely populated areas, complementing other mobility services integrated into a multimodal service package aimed at all local residents.

Sources

To go further