Jitney-Lite: A Flexible-Route Feeder Service for Developing Countries

The paper develops a novel strategy for delivering feeder service in support of trunk-line transit. The strategy is well suited to developing countries, where costs of emergent communication technologies often preclude their use. The strategy, termed Jitney-lite, is a form of collective transportation that provides a degree of flexibility. Patrons who board an outbound Jitney-lite vehicle at a transit station are delivered to their doorsteps. On the return trip to the station, the vehicle boards new patrons in the manner of traditional, fixed-route, fixed-stop feeder-bus service. Continuum approximation models are formulated, both for Jitney-lite and traditional services. The models are used to determine the conditions for which one service form imparts lower generalized costs than the other. A case study of the Bangkok Metropolitan Region reveals that Jitney-lite tends to generate lower costs in the city's periphery, where travel demands are relatively low. The service can be especially cost-effective where sidewalks and other pedestrian infrastructure are underdeveloped, and where residents earn middle-to-high incomes.