Essential Access Initiative



The Essential Access Initiative (Zhenian: 핵심교통계획), formerly known as the Rural Transit Initiative (Zhenian: 오지교통계획), is a program supported by the Zhenian Government with the purpose of providing and ensuring effective, needs-based road transit services to smaller communities throughout Zhenia that are not covered by other means of public transit. With the aim of providing efficient, end-to-end and demand-based transit service to communities and areas deemed unprofitable for larger means of public transit, it is handled by government-chartered companies and drivers that offer door-to-door rides akin to that of taxi services found in urban areas.

First proposed in the late 1580s when existing bus services through rural areas were ceasing operations amid concerns over inefficiency, it materialized nationwide as a governmental subsidization policy in 1593, following the passage of the Essential Access Initiative Act. Since its introduction, its core objective has been centered around providing quality, demand-based transit service to those areas without coverage of any other mode of public transport. Although there had been concerns over its seeming ineffectiveness as well as criticism of the initiative itself being a waste of capital, it is being re-evaluated as an alternative for the aging rural societies throughout the nation. It is widely regarded as a key example of welfare through, in which private assets are subsidized and incentivized to provide transit services to areas otherwise not served at all.