Jitney-lite: a flexible-route feeder service for developing countries

•Novel feeder service is proposed for developing countries.•The flexible service does not require communication devices.•Cost models were formulated for drawing comparisons.•The strategy often generates lower cost than does traditional feeder service. The paper develops a novel strategy for delivering feeder service in support of trunk-line transit. The strategy is well suited to developing countries, where costs of emergent communication technologies often preclude their use. The strategy, termed Jitney-lite, is a form of collective transportation that provides a degree of flexibility. Patrons who board an outbound Jitney-lite vehicle at a transit station are delivered to their doorsteps. On the return trip to the station, the vehicle boards new patrons in the manner of traditional, fixed-route, fixed-stop feeder-bus service. Continuum approximation models are formulated, both for Jitney-lite and traditional services. The models are used to determine the conditions for which one service form imparts lower generalized costs than the other. A case study of the Bangkok Metropolitan Region reveals that Jitney-lite tends to generate lower costs in the city's periphery, where travel demands are relatively low. The service can be especially cost-effective where sidewalks and other pedestrian infrastructure are underdeveloped, and where residents earn middle-to-high incomes.