Research On Supply Mechanism And Implementation Method Of Rural Passenger Transport Service In China

Rural passenger transport service(RPTS),fundamental supporting for economic and social development,played a significant role in guarantee for residents' transport justice,as well as satisfying daily journey needs and promoting rural rejuvenation strategy in rural areas of China.In history,China's RPTS experienced four stages of development,planned supply,liberalized supply,standardized supply and optimized supply.Currently,the coverage and service level of RPTS had been continuously raised and RPTS were increasingly diversified and personalized.However,problems,related to coverage and service quality of RPTS,still existed in many rural areas.For example,the route in some areas had not yet opened due to lack of transport infrastructure or poor economic efficiency.The service of the passenger line was with poor services and security risks prominently,even though the operation was maintained sometimes.Meanwhile,functional attributes and supply entities of RPTS were debate.Experienced from aboard,the developed countries had paid increasing attention to basic traffic right.The United States had begun to supply more flexible transport operation as well as Britain,Japan,and South Korea.Therefore,some questions related to RPTS,were discussed as follow in this paper:the basic properties,the government's obligation,the mechanism resulting in difference of supply effect and the supply mode suitable for China.By summarizing of the current domestic and international research,the facts were found that the above problems had not been well resolved.Firstly,most of the research,on RPTS,focused on the aspects of transport organization,operation mode,route and station planning,but few on attributes definition and government administration.Secondly,the development issues of RPTS was studied from the perspectives of economics,such as system theory and resource allocation theory,but few studies had analyzed the inherent supply mechanism of RPTS,from the aspects of multiple governance,power balance and behavior game.Thirdly,the RPTS in China,was supplied either by the state-owned enterprises or by marketization of the private-owned enterprises.However,the analysis was insufficient from the perspectives of the cooperation mode between government and market and the adaptability of different mode.Regarding the issue above,a three-dimensional framework of government-market-society was constructed,on a basis of a combination of analysis methods,including multiple governance,power balance and evolutionary game behavior.Inherent supply mechanism of RPTS was interpreted,both in theoretical and mathematical way,as well as feedback conduction mechanism of government,acted as“domination governance" to market and society.In addition,this paper put forward the pedigree and adaptability measurement method of RPTS supply mode,and identified the key factors that affect the satisfaction of RPTS.Furthermore,the application of demand responsive transit(DRT)service and voucher system in RPTS was discussed.Focusing on the supply mechanism,supply mode and implementation methods of RPTS,the main conclusions are summarized as follows:Firstly,the paper emphasized that RPTS was the main guarantee means of basic traffic right for the residents in rural areas of China.Residents' basic traffic right had three levels of performance patterns.Essential attributes,was kind of the traffic right recognized on a basis of transport justice.Implementation method was form of public service.External features were presented as quasi-public goods,positive externalities and public welfare.Thus,on a basis of transport justice,the government should provide RPTS to guarantee the basic traffic right,by using certain public resources if necessary.Secondly,to determine the supply mechanism of RPTS,three-dimensional framework of government-market-society was constructed.From the theoretical level,the paper analyzed the interaction in the supply of RPTS,among the political power represented by the government,the economic power represented by the market and the social power represented by the society.The supply of RPTS was comprehensively influenced,by equity-oriented relation between government and society,efficiency-oriented relation between government and market and effectiveness-oriented relation between society and market.The government-society relationship had determined the nature of traffic right in RPTS and the government's obligations in the supply of RPTS;the government-market relationship had determined that the government should adopt appropriate supply mode to improve the supply efficiency of RPTS on a basis of transport justice;the society-market relationship had determined that enterprises should adopt more flexible transport organizations and service methods,to achieve the objectives of the public's individual utility maximization and corporate profit maximization.The government and the political power it represents,acted as“dominance governance”in the provision of RPTS,undertaken the role of organizers,coordinators,and suppliers.Because of basic traffic right promised by government,the government had taken the responsibility for the provision of RPTS.Thirdly,choice strategy and dynamic game equilibrium of the game behavior were discussed,among government,enterprises and the public in the supply of RPTS,under the following scenarios of government behavior:social welfare maximization,self-interest maximization by rent-seeking behavior and social welfare and self-interest maximization simultaneously.The results presented evidently that the government played a leading role in promoting the balance of power game and its decision-making behavior would have a significant impact on the production behavior of enterprises and public travel behavior.However,rent-seeking behavior could lead to over-supply of enterprises and selective distortion of supply.For enterprises,seeking the profit maximization as nature,its choices strategy was responded to government incentives positively,and production willing raise with the expected earnings increased.For public,travel mode was selected by own utility,which was judged subjectively from identification to measurement.In China,to establish an excellent responsible government,was a fundamental system guarantee to achieve that the effect of RPTS approached social welfare maximization.Fourthly,the pedagogical system and adaptability measurement method of supply mode were put forward.The pedagogical system of supply mode was composed of direct government supply,completely market-oriented and contract,franchises,subsidies and vouchers which lied between government and market.Adaptability measurement index was establishes,consisting of technical and economic indicators,government indicators,market indicators and society indicators.Analyzed by the adaptability measurement method,on one hand,the result indicated that the measurement weight are affected by the power of political,economic and social,which led to the difference in adaptability of different supply modes.On the other hand,market-oriented supply modes were increasingly favored by stakeholders,such as franchises and vouchers.The conclusions were validated empirically,in case of Changping District,Beijing and Qiannan,Guizhou Province.Different modes of supply were the results of the dynamic game of stakeholders in a given time and space.Establishing a scientifically standardized selection mechanism for the supply of RPTS,would help to dictate the game rules and decision-making process.Fifthly,the paper analyzed the ways to improve the service quality of rural passenger transport under the three-dimensional framework of government-market-society.From the perspective of government-society relationship,the key influencing factors were indentified,based on the extent to satisfaction level of RPTS.The paper found out empirically that the residential in developed areas,was relatively sensitive to the time and the fare factor of RPTS,while those in underdeveloped areas was the coverage,which indicated different regions have different focus on RPTS.From the government-market relation,as a demand-oriented flexible transport service,DRT was better to achieve efficient match between demand and supply in terms of information,time,space and scale,which was beneficial to improve the supply efficiency of RPTS.From the society-market relation,on one hand,the voucher system could provide more options on demand-side of RPTS and supply-side can compete to obtain government subsidies attached to the vouchers.On the other hand,the voucher system could effectively control the government's expenditure level,which would help improve the efficiency of RPTS.Introduction of market-oriented competition mechanism in RPTS was an effective way to improve its supply quality.The contribution of this paper was mainly reflected in the following three aspects:(1)It was clear that the RPTS was an important means to guarantee the basic traffic right of residents in rural areas,and to determine the supply mechanism of RPTS,the three-dimensional framework of government-market-society was constructed to analyze the supply decision mechanism of RPTS.Further,this paper discussed,under three scenarios,strategic choices among government,enterprises and the public,as well as payment level and consequences of social welfare.(2)The pedagogical system of supply mode was clarified,composing of direct government supply,contracts,franchises,subsidies,vouchers and completely market-oriented supply.In addition,the adaptive measurement method was put forward.(3)The key influencing factors were indentified,based on the extent to satisfaction level of RPTS.Meanwhile,the paper analyzed the necessity and main measures of DRT service in RPTS,and conducted a system design of voucher applied in RPTS.