Policy Research For Rural Highway Passenger Transport In China

Based on government policy for rural area development aimed at the comprehensive improvement of the people's living standards in the rural areas by better transport service system, the author analyzes the current status and the development trend of the demand and supply of road passenger transport in the rural area in China and sum up the experiences and lessons from different rural areas in terms of the bus service network formation, bus terminal and bus stop layout, fleet structure, market operation, organizational arrangement, financial and institutional system. It is pointed that although an overall passenger transport service system has been preliminarily in shape, there are still a number of problems need to be solved, taking into consideration of the increasing demand for quality service and insufficient financial and organizational support from the government. In-depth study of the key issues of the rural passenger transport development is made by use of public economics theory and SWOT analysis. The author demonstrates and expounds the quasi-public goods nature of the rural passenger transport service with evident positive externalities, so that it is up to the government to provide adequate financial support to the rural passenger transport. Detailed analysis of the present strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges are presented as well as policy recommendations for institutional capacity building necessary for the implementation of further institutional reform for the materialize the objectives of the rural passenger transport development. Concrete measures for the policy reform are also proposed covering rural area transport planning, service network building, market operation, safety and quality performance monitoring and evaluation.