In the transport sector, ideas, experiments, and research studies have been around for a very long time, but their implementation has been particularly slow, especially in the case of “transport on demand” (TOD).
Number of new TOD services created between 1970 and 2005
N.B.: based on service launch dates.
Source: Castex Élodie, Le Transport à la demande (TAD) en France: de l’état des lieux à l’anticipation, Université d’Avignon et des pays de Vaucluse, doctoral thesis in geography, November 2007, p. 159.
Unlike taxis, transport on demand is a form of public transport (in France), and is therefore the responsibility of local authorities, whether the service is operated directly or subcontracted to specialist partners such as the private companies Keolis and Transdev. A TOD service is always triggered by a user placing a booking; the journey can be shared with other users, like a shared taxi, but can cover different sorts of services:
- a door-to-door service for people with reduced mobility;
- demand-led service lines, with predefined stops and routes, and with either fixed or variable/flexible timetables, often allowing users from suburban areas to connect with traditional urban public transport points;
- zone-based TOD services that can adapt the journey (both the departure and a