4 Out of 10 Village Bus Users Ride for Cheap Fares

A survey found that 4 out of 10 village bus users choose the service because of its low fares.

By income level, low-income households earning less than 500,000 won used village buses (38.1%) more than city buses (28.6%), while higher-income groups preferred city buses.

Song Je-ryong, a senior researcher at the Gyeonggi Research Institute, disclosed these findings on the 24th in a research report titled "Measures to Improve Village Bus Operations."

Regarding reasons for using village buses, affordable fares ranked highest at 38.2%, followed by good accessibility at 37.1%, fast service speed at 10.4%, short waiting times at 5.7%, punctuality at 1.1%, and others at 7.5%.

Additionally, 32.6% of users said they use village buses to transfer to city buses, while 20.4% use them to transfer to subway lines.

The occupations of village bus passengers were mostly students (49.5%), followed by office workers (13.2%), housewives (10.1%), service industry workers (6.7%), professionals and technicians (6.5%), and salespeople (5.5%).

When asked about improvements needed, respondents cited overcrowding in vehicles (23.2%), rude drivers (15.4%), aging vehicles (14.9%), and reckless driving (13.5%).

The survey was conducted last May through one-on-one interviews with 1,069 village bus users across five cities: Suwon, Seongnam, Yongin, Goyang, and Icheon.

Gyeonggi Province currently operates 1,187 village buses on 365 routes across 23 cities and counties, with an average interval between buses of 29.2 minutes.

Based on the research results, Researcher Song proposed improvement measures including ▲relaxing restrictions on village bus stops ▲introducing transfer discounts between public transportation modes ▲simplifying registration for school commute village buses ▲establishing comprehensive development policies for village buses.