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Description
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In rural areas, traditional mass transit is often ineffective due to low and sparse demand, leading to a reliance on private cars that limits mobility for non-car users (e.g., elderly and children). While on-demand shared services could be a viable alternative, private providers may hesitate to invest due to profitability concerns. We propose a community-owned on-demand shared service (CST) as a viable alternative. In this paper, we define CST as a means of transport that is established by sharing resources for mobility within a community. Achieving CST solely through a residents’ initiative requires strong communication and consensus, which can be challenging. While it’s feasible if a group aligns on a cost-sharing scheme, organizing community discussions to agree on cost distribution is often time-consuming and complex. Given the difficulty to establish an agreement within the community prior to commencing CST, it is likely that CST will need to begin operating, with the hope that patronage will subsequently increase. However, with this approach, the initial number of users might be small and hence user fares will not cover the costs of CST. Therefore, it may be necessary to allow the CST to accrue some debt in its early stages, to be repaid once sufficient patronage is established. To achieve this goal, this study aims at developing rules that encourage CST usage assuming that users make myopic decisions with no coalition or agreement among them. Specifically, the study emphasises the establishment of pricing rules that meet the following criteria; 1) It should allow for initial deficit, with the potential to achieve profitability over time. 2) It must converge to a level where income and costs balance out to maximize the social welfare. 3) It should be applicable without knowing the details about personal traits of potential users. 4) It should be easy for public to understand so that everyone can agree with the rule. These criteria are selected with the goal of integrating such pricing rules into a web-based service that could facilitate the organic emergence of CST, especially if implemented by the public sector or representatives of rural communities. In the present study, we propose an example of a rule that fulfils these criteria, and demonstrate its effectiveness applied to a simple traffic system via numerical simulation. (2025-06-04)
***This entry has been automatically imported via Infodoc(ASO) CSV by LIST harvest scripts. *** (2025-09-03)
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