Bus Systems, Rural

Rural poverty can have a particularly debilitating effect compared to urban poverty in that it also leads to personal isolation and the inability to access public services. Those who are not poor can also suffer from these problems when they do not have personal transportation, which might occur because of health or age issues or personal preference. There is a need, therefore, for low-cost transportation to serve people in these categories and to make small-town living practical for many communities—people cannot buy products from local businesses if they need to visit the premises and are unable to do so. Rural bus systems are important in sustaining the populations in these areas and, to common with all public transportation systems, have a role to play in reducing carbon emissions and air and noise pollution.

Since speed is rarely a major factor in such services, rural bus systems can be a safer means of transportation while also being suitable for use of vehicles using renewable or low-oil sources. The problem posed for such services is, of course, the cost issue. The numbers of people wishing to use the service tends to be small and so the revenue that can be raised is limited. Further, there is a [Page 337]tendency for most customers to wish to travel from their homes to a local center and back again. However, routing logistics mean that buses customarily move from stop to stop in a geographically coherent manner rather than repeatedly to and from the central point. This means journeys tend to be lengthy and meandering and makes timing problematic because the distance between stops is directly related to the overall length of the journey; if passengers at every stop are to reach the central point at a time when they can access public services conveniently, then at least some of them will have to leave early or return home late.

In an era in which private wealth is preferred to public solidarity in most of the Western world, bus services of this sort tend to be starved of funds and the level of satisfaction suffers, leading to lower usage and then more cutbacks.