The “Minibus” Contribution

Paratransit is an informal, market-oriented, self-organizing public transport system. Despite the signi cance of this transport mode, it is mainly unsubsidized, relying on collected fares. Paratransit systems can be categorized by route pattern and function, by driver organization, type of stops and fare type. Most case studies covered by the Neumann (2014) thesis indicate that paratransit services are mainly organized as route associations operating 8-15 seater vans on xed routes. Most of the services run in direct competition to a public transport system belonging to a public transit authority. Such a service—minibuses with xed routes, but without xed schedule—is o en called a jitney service. The minibus module of MATSim is based on the most common characteristics, with the understanding that the jitney/minibus service is only one of many possible paratransit services.