我國公路汽車（市區）客運偏遠或服務性路線市場之發展回顧與探討

UNDERSTANDING THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIGHWAY AND CITY BUS SERVICES AT RURAL OR LOW DENSITY AREAS IN TAIWAN AND FINDING IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES

臺灣公路汽車（市區）客運業之發展可追溯自日據時代，迄今已逾100年，其經營方式及型態亦隨之不斷演進。近20年隨著政府退出經營的角色，市場走向開放，私人經營在大部分地區取代了公營。在此同時，以往同一區域內由一家公司經營為原則的型態也被打破，在私有企業追求利潤的前提下，人們注意到如果沒有政府補貼的保證，偏遠或服務性路線市場將無人願意經營。但是隨著公共運輸使用率持續下滑，許多人對於補貼的效益產生懷疑，並要求政府檢討其政策。人們相信公路汽車（市區）客運就像是水電等公用事業一樣，不應以獲利為主要目標，但是卻忽略了水電等公用事業仍然是以公營機構為主體，而公路汽車（市區）客運則幾乎都已轉為私人企業，而私人企業追求獲利的動機則無可質疑，我們沒有理由可以要求這些私人企業去承擔政府的責任。這篇文章的目的，希望回顧我國過去公路汽車（市區）客運之發展與探討該事業的本質，藉此釐清部分重要爭議性課題的本質，繼而探討政府應該重新找回的角色，及提出公路汽車（市區）客運未來路線經營型態之改革方向建議。希望重新定位後之市場，政府與私人經營者可以釐清其責任，並扮演好其應該承擔的角色。

The history of the public highway and city bus operations in Taiwan is over 100 years long. As time goes by, public highway bus operations have changed. Over the past 20 years, the government has changed their policy on public highway and city bus operations by opening markets in order to allow private operators to take over services in most regions. At the same time, the concept of monopoly operations in a single market region has been changed. The public notice that it becomes an issue if there is no subsidy guarantee no operators would like to continue their services at most rural areas. However, as public transportation ridership continues to decline, some question the effectiveness of subsidies and request central government to examine policy. People believe that highway and city bus services are like water or electricity services (so called public utilities). Profit is not the only motivation for public utility operators and most of them are publicly owned. However, this is not the case for most of the highway and city bus operators who need to survive and have no shame in profit making. There is no reason to ask those private operators to take responsibility for the government. Understanding such controversial issues and facing challenges of the market environment, this paper aims to reestablish the role of the government and propose a new concept to restructure markets. After market restructuring, government and private operators should have clearer roles and responsibility for different sectors.