Methodology for the study of the demand of public transportation in rural areas

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology to identify the demand for public passenger transportation in rural areas and the results of its application in a Municipality of Colombia. This methodology is summarized in the analysis of the Land Management Plan and studies of mobility and transportation, realization of traffic studies such as demand rotation, rising and falling passenger, journey times and delays, state of roads and vehicles. Furthermore, the transportation costs should be reviewed. In order to support the recommendations and decisions, service indicators and routing options are analyzed, and alternatives to establish the type of vehicle, frequency and fares, are offered. Some relevant results of the case studied are the deficit in the service frequency in formal transportation what makes the users prefer informal transportation, this unsatisfied demand is approximately 15% of the total demand, there is the need to change some vehicles (by capacity) used for providing the service. At the end, the paper presents recommendations for the transportation service improvement and optimization in the rural municipality under study.

Keywords

• rural transportation
• transportation fares
• unsatisfied demand