Integration of ridesharing with public transport in rural Switzerland: Practice and outcomes

Abstract

Using advanced technologies, ridesharing has transformed transportation in many cities. The effective integration of ridesharing into public transport systems can provide an opportunity for public transport authorities to solve the common problem of rural transport, namely poor accessibility due to the dispersal of the population. However, literature on the integration of ridesharing with public transport is rather scant. At the same time, while ridesharing has been extended to rural communities, so far this has attracted little research. To fill in these gaps, this paper seeks to explore the practice and outcomes of integrating ridesharing with public transport. The analysis is based on a case study of a community-based ridesharing scheme in four rural municipalities in central Switzerland. Using a mixed methods approach, the key findings show the public transport authority designing the integration with a goal to complementing public transport with ridesharing. To achieve this goal, three crucial approaches were adopted: the provision of information on the ridesharing scheme, the integration of ridesharing notice boards into the local bus stop and regional railway station networks; and the price strategies as a means to signify a contractual relationship between rider and driver and to reduce a potential competition. Even though ridesharing use is still only moderate, the authorities are satisfied with the outcome and do not consider cost-effectiveness to be important.