استراتژی کسب و کار و فن آوری برای دسترسی به حمل و نقل در محیط های کم تراکم

Providing access via public transport in relatively low density suburban environments has been a difficult business challenge for transit operators for the past 40 years. A family of services approach to this problem, a key element of which is providing demand-responsive services, has proven effective for some metropolitan public transport authorities in the USA, of which the Denver authority is notable. The Denver agency has devised innovative service delivery modalities for its DRT services—which range from many to many dial-a-ride operations to structured DRT services to flex-route services—and has also sponsored the development of a technology platform that enables these services to be delivered with appropriate levels of automation and functionality. A set of business principles that linked technology enablement to cost-effective flexible transport services guided these developments. The Denver public transport authority's experiences are used to illustrate the relevance and viability of this approach to supporting transit accessibility.

Providing access via public transport in lower density—usually suburban—environments has been a difficult business challenge for transit operators in the USA for the past 40 years. Such service environments are typically unfriendly for conventional fixed route public transportation, characterized as they are by dispersed travel patterns, poor street connectivity, and high levels of automobile availability, resulting in much lower levels of public transport demand than in areas closer to the metropolitan region's core. Substantial public subsidies are typically required for any public transport service to be provided in these environments, and often there is no “economic” level of service—except no service whatsoever. But that is rarely an option for the public transport authority, as there are strong political imperatives to provide suburban service, since the local public financing system for metropolitan public transport typically relies in important part on taxes paid by suburban residents. Moreover, there is a core group of residents who require public transport services, transit dependent persons comprised of those who lack routine automobile access or cannot drive, primarily the low income, older residents, and the young. Hence there is a further policy imperative to provide service in these environments. From one perspective, the business challenge for public transport is similar to that confronting any passenger transportation service, namely to supply those services that most economically meet passenger demand, taking into account both the supply attributes of particular service options and the nature of passenger demands. Such demands are of two types, with some passengers in lower density travel markets making purely local trips, whereas others need to connect to a regional scale, line-haul transit service in order to access their ultimate destination—but with the local access element representing an essential part of their overall trip. Complicating the business aspects of these service provision decisions, however, is the reality that virtually all public transport service within lower density environments will generate ridership at levels that will be insufficient to cover service costs—and the gap between costs and fare revenues is likely to be quite large—although regional scale line-haul services traversing lower density environments may generate substantial patronage at the access points to those services. Hence the problem facing public transport authorities is to determine how much, and what type, of service to provide given the limited public subsidies available. In this paper, we first consider how other transportation operators have approached the problem of service provision under financially constraining circumstances, and the generic lessons that can be derived from these experiences. We then discuss the application of these lessons to public transport provision in low density environments, using as a specific example the Denver metropolitan region in the USA. The use of demand-responsive/flexible services as a strategic solution approach is then examined, including how such services have been used to achieve the Denver public transport agency's business objectives. The use of technology has been a key element in this business strategy, and we describe how the technology platform that supported the demand-responsive services was designed and implemented in a fashion aligned with business objectives. We conclude with implications for managerial practices.

It has been difficult for public transport agencies to identify approaches to providing relatively cost-effective services in low density environments of metropolitan areas. Traditional fixed route services typically perform poorly, and service levels are often reduced to the bare minimum to avoid unsustainable financial performance, but the resulting services are even less attractive to prospective users. The public transport agencies in Denver and Dallas, in contrast, have adopted a strategy of carefully targeting customer-friendly flexible services to specific market segments while maintaining strict control of capacity. They have also competitively contracted these services to private operators—thereby keeping production costs at a low level—which would have been institutionally difficult if the services had been fixed route in nature. A key area for further research is to determine whether flexible services—albeit structured flexible services—can be successfully implemented on a much wider scale. In the USA, such services have only rarely been considered as an alternative to fixed route services in lower density metropolitan area environments, and thus there is little operational experience available for assessment. Studies of a more conceptual and/or model-based nature, grounded in actual service environments, are one possible research strategy for improving knowledge about the efficacy of this approach. The contribution of technology to this management strategy is also a key area for future research. While a strategy of targeted, integrated, flexible services can conceivably be viable on a limited scale in low density environments without a strong technological component, the technology platform developed specifically for the Denver RTD's call-n-Ride program has been a major factor in the agency's ability to manage and scale these services. Research is needed on what are the necessary technological components and functional characteristics of the overall technology system that will provide a public transport agency's management with the ability to successfully execute this non-traditional strategy for service planning and delivery.