Gimcheon City Introduces "Call Instead of Waiting" DRT Buses

Hopes to Resolve the Chronic Problem of Empty Bus Operations

Pilot Program to Launch in Yulgok, Jirye, and Buhang in the Second Half of the Year

On March 13, Gimcheon City, North Gyeongsang Province, held the 'Final Report Meeting on the Establishment of Basic Plan for Introduction of Demand-Responsive Transport (DRT) in Gimcheon City' at the City Hall's second-floor conference room. The meeting was attended by the mayor, city council members, transportation company representatives, and around 70 local residents.

Demand Responsive Transit (DRT) is a flexible public transportation service that operates according to passenger requests rather than a fixed timetable. Its main feature is improving mobility in transportation-vulnerable areas by reducing unnecessary waiting times.

Held the 'Final Report Meeting on the Establishment of the Basic Plan for the Introduction of Kimcheon City DRT (Demand-Responsive Transport) Bus' / Photo by Kim Ihwan

This meeting was organized to address the challenges of an aging population and declining ridership in Gimcheon City, which is a city with both urban and rural characteristics, and to solve the problem of empty large city buses during off-peak daytime hours and after 6 p.m. The city has been carrying out this research project to reorganize inefficient bus routes and introduce citizen-centered customized services.

The study identified improving accessibility in transportation-vulnerable areas and optimizing inefficient routes as key tasks. Simulation analyses were conducted by selecting Yulgok-dong and the Jirye and Buhang regions as priority targets for the introduction of DRT.

The analysis showed that operating two DRT vehicles within Yulgok-dong would result in an average waiting time of about 12 minutes and a call success rate of 94.7%, significantly reducing the interval between rides compared to existing circular bus routes. In addition, deploying three vehicles in rural areas such as Jirye-myeon and Buhang-myeon could achieve a 100% call success rate, making it possible to establish a system where residents can travel to key points at their desired time and then transfer to city buses.

Based on these findings, the city plans to launch a DRT pilot operation in these areas starting in the second half of this year. To improve accessibility for the elderly, who may have difficulty using smart devices, the city will offer multiple reservation methods, including not only a dedicated app but also call center phone reservations and installation of offline calling devices.

Furthermore, the city will consider the impact of these transportation system changes on the existing taxi industry and will devise measures to ensure that DRT serves as a complementary means of transportation to support mobility in underserved areas, rather than replacing taxis. Plans for mutual growth between the sectors will also be established.

Gimcheon Mayor Bae Nakho stated, "This research project is a meaningful process for exploring new directions in Gimcheon’s public transportation. I hope the various opinions presented today will lead to improvements in transportation services that citizens can truly feel," adding, "Gimcheon City will do its utmost to ensure that the Gimcheon-style DRT, based on mutual prosperity with the existing transportation sector, can become an efficient transportation system."

Meanwhile, starting with this phase one pilot operation, the city plans to gradually convert inefficient routes to DRT by 2030, thereby implementing a mid- to long-term roadmap to establish a denser public transportation network throughout Gimcheon.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.