Mobility as a Service (MaaS)
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a model for supplying a wide range of passenger transport services through a single digital customer interface. In its most ambitious form, MaaS integrates different transport, information and payment services into a smooth and reliable customer experience. It can include traditional public transport, newer mobility services and demand-responsive modes, allowing multi-modal, door-to-door travel using a single platform.
A fully functional MaaS platform has integrated ticketing and payment systems across modes. Legislative, commercial, governance and technological changes are likely needed to establish MaaS successfully. There are several organisational models for a MaaS market, involving varying levels of involvement by public authorities.
MaaS is an emerging feature of transport systems, and none of the identified models of MaaS organisation has yet demonstrated long-term commercial viability. If MaaS is to fulfil its potential, a light-handed, flexible and pro-competitive regulatory approach, which enables different models to compete and the most viable to emerge, is essential.
MaaS has the potential to reduce transport CO2 emissions but will only do so if it encourages modal shift to more sustainable modes. Public transport should play a central role in MaaS offerings. To ensure that this happens, governments should require public transport authorities/operators to engage positively with MaaS providers, offering access to the full range of services on flexible terms.
Ensuring MaaS contributes to reduced CO2 emissions also requires that it is developed in the context of a set of broader sustainable mobility policies. MaaS can make it more convenient to choose sustainable travel options, notably by providing users with better information and readier access to a range of travel options, thus enabling more efficient, multi-modal journeys. On the other hand, the availability of on-demand modes, such as ridesourcing, could entice users to switch from walking or from using public transport to cars. MaaS will only contribute effectively to more sustainable mobility if it is developed in a context of broader policies that contain private car use and encourage sustainable choices, while managing public space equitably and efficiently.
Concrete evidence for the impact of MaaS on CO2 emissions is so far limited, with the available studies being mostly small-scale, and based on modelling, rather than empirical evidence. However, the impact assessment modelled for the MAASiFiE project concludes that MaaS should contribute to emissions reductions through reduced vehicle-kilometres and private car use. The study, for Ulm (Germany), shows that in the most plausible scenario the CO2 emissions per average car2go user would be reduced by around 8.5 per cent due to modal shifts.
The costs to government associated with the development and adoption of private-sector led MaaS models should be modest: They essentially relate to the development of an appropriate regulatory structure, including data sharing and reporting standards. Public transport authorities can be expected to contract with MaaS platform providers on terms that imply an expected improvement to their net revenues, through enhanced passenger numbers and innovative pricing models. Thus, there should be no net cost in terms of increased public transport subsidies.
Governments may decide to adopt public sector led MaaS models, in the interests of speeding the adoption of MaaS and exercising greater direct control over its direction. This necessarily implies significantly higher costs, both directly and in terms of a risk that the development of competing models will be impeded, with longer-term efficiency costs, and even dangers to the sustained viability of MaaS.
A successful MaaS model can also contribute to the achievement of other urban policy objectives. By reducing private car use, it can contribute to reduced air and noise pollution and accident costs, improve urban liveability and facilitate the reallocation of road space to other uses.
By increasing the efficiency of multi-modal journeys using means other than private cars, it can also improve accessibility, particularly for those without access to private cars, such as low income groups, the young, the aged, and people with disabilities.
As noted, MaaS entails a risk of facilitating a mode shift from already sustainable modes, such as walking, and cycling, to car-based modes, such as taxis or car sharing. To minimise this risk, MaaS policy should seek to ensure the widest possible range of sustainable mobility options is available as part of MaaS offers. This includes, for example, micromobility options such as e-scooters and shared bikes. Governments should ensure that policy settings encourage the entry of service providers in these sectors and that regulatory settings are facilitative, while effectively addressing negative externalities.
ITF (2021) Transport Climate Action Directory – Mobility as a service (MaaS)
https://www.itf-oecd.org/policy/mobility-as-a-service
ITF (2019) Regulating App-Based Mobility Services. ISBN: 9789282116678 (PDF) [Available online: https://doi.org/10.1787/94d27a3a-en]
ITF (2021), The Innovative Mobility Landscape: The Case of Mobility as a Service, International Transport Forum Policy Papers, No. 92, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://www.itf-oecd.org/innovative-mobility- landscape-maas.
ITF (2021), Integrating Public Transport into Mobility as a Service: Summary and Conclusions, ITF Roundtable Reports, No. 184, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://www.itf-oecd.org/public-transport-mobility-service
ITF (2021) Developing Innovative Mobility Services in the Brussels-Capital Region, Case Specific Policy Analysis. https://www.itf-oecd.org/developing-innovative-mobility-solutions-brussels-capital-region-0
Firnkorn, J and Müller, M. (2011) What will be the environmental effects of new free-floating car-sharing systems? The case of car2go in Ulm., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.03.014
Kamargianni, M., Matyas, M., Li, W., and Muscat, J. (2018) Londoners’ attitudes towards car-ownership and Mobility-as-a-Service: impact assessment and opportunities that lie ahead, https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/16813a_67c78a2209954ccdaf1cc5b5a0d8836c.pdf
Karlsson, M. et al. (2017), Deliverable 4: Impact Assessment, Mobility as a Service for Linking Europe (MAASiFiE) project funded by CEDR, https://publications.lib.chalmers.se/records/fulltext/248829/ local_248829.pdf
Storme, T., et al. (2019) Limitations to the car-substitution effect of MaaS. Findings from a Belgian pilot study. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2019.09.032
Strömberg, H., Karlsson, M.A. and Sochor, J. (2018) Inviting travelers to the smorgasbord of sustainable urban transport: evidence from a MaaS field trial, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-018-9946-8
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