Survey and Interview Data From Rural Areas With Demand Responsive Transit Services, 2024-2025

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‘The Role of Demand Responsive Transport in Connecting People to Opportunities in Less Densely Populated Areas’ project (or ‘DRT-CPO’ for short) was funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and conducted between May 2024 and April 2025 by the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol) and the University of Leeds. Demand Responsive Transport (or DRT) is a flexible public transportation service that adjusts routes and schedules based on passenger demand, rather than following fixed routes and timetables. DRT has been viewed as having the potential to better meet the needs of local communities than fixed timetable bus services where demand is dispersed. The overall aim of the project was to assess DRT’s impact in unlocking educational, employment, social and other opportunities for residents in rural areas. In partnership with the county councils of Essex, Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire, the project looked at the impact of DRT services in three rural case study areas, each including pockets of deprivation. The project sought outcome data for residents living both in DRT service areas and comparator areas, aimed at establishing differences in perceptions of transport availability and local area satisfaction. The project also sought detailed information on DRT use from DRT users in each of the three study areas.

The Government's National Bus Strategy 'Bus Back Better' seeks to arrest the decline in bus provision and use. It sees an important role for Demand Responsive Transport (or DRT) in lower-density areas not served well by conventional buses. Past evaluations of DRT have focused on transport and financial performance. However, DRT schemes, as with other subsidised public transport, are intended to serve social and economic needs and there has been a lack of studies investigating the extent to which DRT schemes provide social value. The Rural Mobility Fund (RMF) has awarded funding to 15 local authority areas in England to trial 17 DRT schemes between 2021 and 2025. An evaluation is being conducted of the fund for the Department for Transport (DfT) which is focused on assessing transport outcomes such as costs of running the schemes and passenger miles travelled. The aim of this proposed project is to assess DRT's impact in unlocking educational, employment, social and other opportunities for residents in rural areas. It will focus on areas exhibiting multiple dimensions of deprivation, such as low employment rates, low income, prolonged health problems and low life expectancies. The project has three objectives: To apply an innovative, participatory methodological framework to measure the impact of public transport on life-defining economic, social and health outcomes. To estimate the social value of DRT schemes and bus services more generally in areas of rural deprivation and their contribution to reducing place-based inequalities. To inform policy in relation to the future of DRT and broader public transport services. The evaluation will be conducted for three DRT schemes in Essex, Gloucestershire and Nottinghamshire. The impact evaluation will be conducted using a quasi-experimental approach, considering outcomes both in DRT scheme areas and comparator areas. The evaluation will draw upon two sources of quantitative outcome data: Residents' surveys in deprived sub-areas of DRT operating areas and comparator areas which will include questions on (i) the contribution of DRT and other public transport for participating in different economic and social activities; and (ii) the values placed on having a public transport service that is available to others in the community, distinct from the value they place on personal use. Routinely collected administrative data on economic and social activity participation relevant to DRT operating areas and comparator areas. Quantitative data will be accompanied by in-depth interviews to understand how DRT has enabled its users to make journeys otherwise not possible and the wider impact on their lives of being able to access opportunities. The survey and administrative data will be analysed to establish whether there is a 'treatment' effect of DRT discernible for the different outcomes measured. Social value analysis will be carried out to obtain monetary estimates of measured economic and health outcomes. This will help DfT, LAs, service providers and other interested parties to understand the potential contribution of DRT, and public transport more generally, to their objectives and will enable them to make better informed funding decisions. It will also make a major methodological contribution to valuing the social impacts of public transport.