Jurassic Coast Transport Infrastructure Gap Analysis Study

4.14 Summary an d Recommen dations4.14.1 Both Fare Car and Door to Dorset services are available to visitors as well asresidents. However, there are very few good practice examples in the UK ofDRT services being promoted to visitors and, in general, various barriers existin attracting visitors onto them. DRT is by its very nature complex and thiscontrasts with the demands of most public transport users, particularlyvisitors, who require services that are easy to understand and simple to use.DRT is best suited to rural areas of low population where potential users arescattered over a relatively wide area. DRT services are expensive to run and anumber of schemes in the UK have been discontinued in recent years due tolack of sufficient ongoing subsidy. Destinations that are known to have to haveregular demand, such as popular visitor destinations, are better served bynon-bookable services.4.14.2 It is our recommendation that, in general, conventional bus services withfixed routes are a better way of serving the needs of visitors than DRTservices as they are easier to understand and simpler to use. However, inareas where DRT services are operating, the services can be made visitorfriendlyby ensuring that popular visitor destinations are fixed stops ratherthan bookable stops, by ensuring that less busy visitor destinations/locationshave clear information about how the DRT aspect of the service can be used,and by appropriate use of the different mechanisms of DRT (flexible busservice or taxibus/shared car services) to reflect passenger numbers. Otherchanges can be made to the way DRT services are organised and promoted tovisitors to make them more visitor friendly. DRT services that successfullyattract visitors in addition to residents will increase overall passengernumbers and help reduce the service’s operating cost per passenger journey.This will bolster the medium to long term viability of the service.4.14.3 It is important to highlight that the transport needs of different areas - andthe services required to meet them - should be assessed on a case-by-casebasis. The public transport solution implemented should be the mostappropriate one, whether it be DRT or conventional, fixed route service.4.14.4 In terms of assessing the effectiveness of existing DRT service in serving theneeds of both local residents and visitors, North Dorset Community Accessib leTransport (NORDCAT) and DoCC need to be more readily able to provide anaudit trail and breakdown of DRT bookings.Doc No 3 Rev: B Date: November 2008 81G:\Final Report Web version\CTR-ADA Study Report Rev9.4. doc