Attitudinal Study on a Reciprocal Community Transport System in Japan

In Japan, some mass transit companies were withdrawn from bus services in local municipalities after the deregulation in 2002. Elderly people who do not have a driver's license cannot help depending on transport services provided by family members or a municipality or on the remaining public transportation whose stations might be too far from their residences. To establish a new sustainable community transport, we propose a reciprocal community transport system that consists of volunteer ride-sharing transport services provided by residents who own private cars. Naganuma Town, Hokkaido, was applied as a case study, and a questionnaire survey was conducted. It was identified that there were enough potential transport service providers to cover the transport demand of potential service users. However, sufficient countermeasures against traffic accidents was found to be an issue to be overcome to secure the positive participation of residents in the transport system.