The Bus that Brings Happiness to Elderly Women in Rural Areas

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LEAP - Voices of Youth

5 min readAug 31, 2023

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The Luchang Village is an indigenous village 900 meters above sea level in central Taiwan where it takes a 3-hour walk to get to the nearest convenience store. To residents who do not have a scooter or a driver’s license, this is very inconvenient. When local residents wish to travel down the mountain to more urban areas, they have to carpool with family or neighbors.

“If no one can take us grocery shopping, the only thing we can do is take a taxi. However, it costs NT$1200 round trip, so we wouldn’t have any money left to buy groceries,” one tribal woman said.

The Luchang Village is a place where it is very inconvenient to get supplies or see a doctor, however, since the commencement of the “Happy Bus” project last year, things have begun to change. Villagers who want to return to the village or go to the nearby town can reserve a spot on a nine-seater bus driven by a professional driver. The cost for a round-trip adult ticket is only NT$100, and NT$50 for the elderly and children. The Happy Bus service is provided mainly for elderly people and students, among whom over 80% are women.

▲ The “Happy Bus” is a nine-seater bus that travels between the village in the mountains to the town below. (Photo by Si-Hou Lin)

Mobility issues and solutions for elderly women from rural areas

As of the end of May 2023, women accounted for 43.77% of people in Taiwan with car and scooter licenses, a slightly lower proportion than that of men. However, women above the age of 65 only account for 32.48% of these women. According to statistics, if a family only has one car, the primary user would be a man. Women, especially elderly women, have a greater need for public transportation to ensure mobility.

“Even though I have a driver’s license, I’m too old and my reflexes are slow. My eyesight is also poor, so I don’t want to drive,“ said one elderly woman of the Luchang Village.

Many of the mountain roads in Taiwan are narrow and twisting. Even if elderly people in rural villages have licenses and their own cars, they often do not want to take the risk. “Last month an elderly person, 80 or 90 years old, drove. Then a fatal accident happened,” said an elderly woman of the Luchang Village.

Despite their age, these elderly women still need to take on many family responsibilities. “Women still need to shop for groceries, pay phone bills, etc. The Happy Bus allows us to make daily trips down the mountain and handle family matters,” the village pastor Amuy Taway stated.

Many elderly people take the Happy Bus down the mountain to go see doctors or get medicine from the pharmacy. Some village grandmothers also use the Happy Bus to go to their children’s homes to take care of their grandchildren, then take the bus back home at night. Some young women who moved down the mountain into towns also take the Happy Bus back to the village to plant fruit trees. Some women live deeper in the mountains and the Happy Bus allows them to participate in courses and activities held by the village’s cultural and health station.

Some people go up the mountain, while others go down. The Happy Bus travels along the 20 km mountain road to make the lives of the elderly much more convenient.

▲ Most Happy Bus passengers are elderly women and children. (Photo by Si-Hou Lin)

“I Hope the bus can drive to more distant places”

Currently, the Happy Bus uses a reservation system. Residents that need to use the Happy Bus must use their mobile phone or communication software to reserve the time and location to get on and off the bus two days prior. Many elderly people do not know how to use such technology. This is when “younger elderly” come to the aid of the “older elderly”, which also adds to the burden of the “younger elderly”.

Many elderly village women state that if they suddenly need to get down the mountain and cannot reserve ahead of time, they still need to call a taxi. “Or, we call and ask around to see if someone happened to have a reservation. If there is space, then we go down together“ a village woman said. Also, the pre-set time of return trips makes all activities down the mountain rushed.“ Sometimes the line at the clinic is very long, forcing them to go home before even seeing the doctor. Sometimes they lose track of time after shopping for groceries, and they have to take their half-eaten lunch to go “ Amuy Taway said.

On the day of the interview, a few village women gathered in front of the village grocery store to discuss their thoughts on the Happy Bus. Although it was not perfect, the village women generally appreciated the Happy Bus, expressing its importance in their lives. One village woman told me of her wish for the Happy Bus at the end of the interview:

“I hope that the bus can drive to more distant places, to more prosperous cities, so that we can go shopping at department stores, buy clothes, watch movies, or eat sushi. Just once a month! Just let us feel what it is like to be a rich woman once in a while…haha!”