Women and Mobility as a Service: An exploration of the issues faced by women when using shared mobility and possible responses by providers

This White Paper reviews the latest knowledge on the relationship of women with Mobility as a Service (MaaS) and several measures that have been reported within the existing literature to address issues that women can encounter when using novel transport offerings, including technological, information-based and design-based solutions. The White Paper also presents the findings of research funded by the British Academy and conducted within the University of Hertfordshire’s Smart Mobility Unit (SMU). The research draws on interviews with mobility users, transport providers and local authorities in Hertfordshire. The interviews with female transport users in Hertfordshire provided insight into their relationships with use of private cars, shared cars, public transport and mobility apps, as well as their perceptions of MaaS. Additionally, the results of interviews carried out with both female and male transport users in Hertfordshire revealed the impact of gender on safety perceptions and the usage practicality of MaaS transport offerings for male and female users. Finally, this White Paper presents evidence from transport providers and local authorities in order to summarise best practice for the governance of MaaS. It also looks at MaaS design principles, the quality assurance of MaaS offers and delivering social value, and probes to what extent MaaS applications can reassure users as human service personnel can. Travel behaviours in the UK have changed over the last few years, with less travel now taking place for the purpose of commuting to work and more journeys being undertaken in order to engage in entertainment and holidays, as well as to accompany dependants, a category which disproportionately involves women. This White Paper notes that women have unequal access to mobility offerings and have differing transport needs and transport challenges to those of men, including factors related to safety concerns, convenience, cost and comfort. The research findings and literature evidence shared within this White Paper summarise the challenges that women encounter when using transport services and the safety precautions that they take while using those services and suggests potential solutions and recommended changes that will be needed to improve perceptions of safety for female users of MaaS mobility offers. The White Paper reviews the existing literature evidence on this topic and presents primary research findings in order to recommend solutions aimed at improving the gender inclusivity of transport offerings, including: improving infrastructure and app design; increasing public and stakeholder consultation; building networks of trust; enabling women and disadvantaged groups to participate in the design process of mobility offerings; improving investments in communication and infrastructure to enhance perceptions of safety and offer reassurance to users; and improving service delivery by taking a collaborative approach to how transport offerings are designed and implemented. This research is timely and consequential, as although central and local government authorities are increasingly implementing sustainable transport offers such as MaaS and are continuing to invest in improving the quality of transport means and applications for service users, this White Paper provides evidence of the challenges women still encounter when using these services. The paper highlights the fact that issues such as perceptions of risk and safety concerns persist and may be negatively affecting women’s access to transport services, including MaaS. Therefore, there is a pressing need to understand the challenges faced by women when using MaaS transport in order to ensure the following can be achieved: improvement of current and future transport offerings that takes these challenges into account; improved inclusivity of mobility offers; and reduction of the risk of liability for local authorities, MaaS transport providers and network partners in case of potential damages affecting service users, such as those caused by violence and harassment. It is hoped that sharing the evidence and research findings presented within this White Paper will better enable transport providers and policymakers to address the challenges women encounter when using MaaS transport offerings and will make them aware of the recommended solutions they can use to address these challenges

Consuming the million-mile electric car

Unlike for many consumer products, there has been no strong environmental case for extending the life of internal combustion engine cars as the majority of their environmental impact is fuel consumed in use and not the energy and materials involved in manufacturing. Indeed, with improving fuel efficiency, product life extension is environmentally undesirable; older, less fuel-efficient cars need to be replaced by newer more fuel-efficient models. Electric vehicles (EVs) are predominantly considered environmentally beneficial by using an increasingly decarbonised fuel – electricity. However, LCA analyses show that EVs have substantial environmental impacts in their materials, manufacturing and disposal. The high ‘embedded’ environmental impacts of EVs fundamentally change the case for product life extension. Thus, product life extension is desirable for EVs and they are suited to it. While petrol and diesel cars have an average lifetime mileage of 124,000 miles (200,000 Kilometres), the case for the million-mile (1.6 million Kilometre) electric car appears strong. Although it may be technically possible to produce a million-mile EV, how will such vehicles be consumed given that the car consumption is complex, involving, for example, extracting use and symbolic value? In this contribution we explore the nature of the relationship between cars and the consumer that moves beyond technical and functional value to understand what form of access consumers require to an EV across its entire 50-year life. If such consumption aspects are overlooked then, even if the million-mile car is technically viable, it is unlikely to be adopted and the environmental benefits they may yield will be lost.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

The Frankenstein Monster Syndrome: What holds sustainable Mobility as a Service from surviving in the open market

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a personalised, one-stop travel management platform, which digitally unifies trip purchase and delivery across all transport modes. MaaS promises to reduce the environmental impact of personal mobility, however most of its exemplars are “hopeful monstrosities,” small scale demonstrator projects established in protected strategic niches or “living labs.” Few MaaS offerings survive in the open market, a phenomenon that this paper dubs the Frankenstein monster syndrome. The paper claims that in addition to ordinary market pressures, MaaS experiments, supported by networks of providers, academia, policy makers and not-for-profit organizations, find it difficult to integrate in larger scale networks in the “real world.”The paper reports research on this phenomenon through the lens of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing group interaction approach, which offers analytical framework to investigate how MaaS providers may reproduce the experimental networks they based their pilot offering on larger scale. The research draws on data from nineteen interviews with stakeholders to MaaS offerings. The findings suggest that the challenges to establish networks include hard to establish trust, asymmetry of relationships and conflicting interests, and that Government intervention is indispensable to establish MaaS networks

Sustainability trade-offs in Climate Change Geographies in England

©2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/The evidence that climate change is the result of human actions becomes yet stronger, as does the need to take action to limit the worst effects of climate change on the planet. However, politicians continue to equivocate and fail to address the trade-offs which are needed to deliver effective action. In this paper we report on the potential of bottom-up approaches to transport planning to address the trade-offs between the need to reduce car-based travel and the social consequences of poor mobility options in rural areas. Using theories of Sustainable Communities and Communi-ties of Practices, we analyze the implementation of the Robin Demand Responsive Transport service in the West of England, presenting new data relating to the effectiveness of this service in providing low carbon transport alternatives to rural residents. We find that the Robin is indeed effective, and that it has worked better in one location, where engagement with potential new users of the service has been prioritized. We conclude that such bottom-up transport options can be transformative, subject to the support of key stakeholders and integration with top-down systems of governance.Peer reviewe

The case of Mobility as a Service: how the challenges of shared mobility shape its adoption by women

© 2023 RGS-IBG All rights reserved.This paper explores issues of inclusiveness and safety that women encounter when using Mobility as a Service (MaaS), a transport offering which enables users to book, manage and pay diverse modes of transport through smartphone apps. Personal mobility modes may include public transport, car, bicycle sharing, automated vehicles and more. The adoption of MaaS by women may contribute to decarbonisation of personal mobility and yet it suffers from implementation gap. The study draws on Practice Theory (PT), a theory which focused on social practices and Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), which focused on the interaction between consumers’ identities and their behaviour. Despite benefits, participants associate using MaaS with meanings of unsafety and apps with intrusiveness. Women seem disadvantaged compared to men when using MaaS. Suggested solutions include rigorous vetting of service personnel and whenever possible, recruit female personnel such as drivers. On board cameras, recording devices and safety features of apps may help women feel safe. MaaS providers could encourage the formation of communities around MaaS brands. Geography affects MaaS use as coverage of rural areas is poor, whilst women are more likely to use MaaS when on holiday. Changes are needed to the socio-technical landscape, including to social practices and infrastructure and this requires changes in policy, investment and governance

How to Consume a Product Service System : Antecedents and Consequences of the practice of Access

Published in The Centre of Research In Just Transitions at https://crijt.org/18-2/This study investigated the practice of access that consumers perform to gain temporary use of materials and its implications for Product Service System (PSS) consumption. A PSS is a combination of products and services designed to be resource efficient. The study, which drew on Practice Theory, was a socio-technical experiment where couples of users were encouraged to access infant mobility products via a PSS. Analysis of the data suggests a framework which can be used to explain consumers’ response to PSS. Despite safety concerns, more users selected safety car seats than strollers. In all cases, users and non-users were deterred from accessing the PSS by the extra work required by performing access practices. The results suggest that Practice Theory is useful to explain the difficulties consumers find in accessing PSS’ offerings, which may deter them from adopting them. However, it also highlights limitations in failing to account for the role of the diverse consumers’ profiles in engaging with PSS consumption

Resource-efficient business models in times of pandemics

Copyright © 2018 Environment UK. All Rights Reserved.Research in sustainable production and consumption focuses on sustainable business models, which describe how a firm provides value to customers, connects to suppliers and acquires resources in a profitable and environmentally sustainable manner. Business models configured for the circular economy receive particular attention, because of their potential to reduce resources consumption, generation of exhaust materials and plastic pollution. Examples of such business models are known as Product Service Systems (PSS), systems of products, services, networks of actors and supporting infrastructure developed to be more resource efficient that traditional business models. PSS types include car-sharing services such as car clubs and bicycle sharing offerings where customers use cars and bicycles sequentially. PSS feature tangible and intangible (service) elements, and often involve shared use of products by multiple users, who do not purchase them outright, which helps deliver resource efficiency. However, nascent sustainable business models such as PSS, which help mitigate environmental problems that lead to pandemics, are vulnerable to shocks to social systems caused by the same environmental issues. Whist various stakeholders research and even advocate sharing business models, researchers and policy makers have begun to question the safety of these sustainable business models because of the coronavirus pandemic that broke out in 2020

How can Shared Mobility as a Service offerings improve gender inclusivity to improve diffusion?

This paper explores issues of inclusiveness and safety that women encounter when using Mobility as a Service (MaaS), a transport offering which enables users to book, manage and pay diverse modes of transport through smartphone apps. Personal mobility modes may include public transport, car, bicycle sharing, automated vehicles and more. The diffusion of MaaS is desirable because it may contribute to the decarbonisation of personal mobility and yet it is finding resistance. The study draws on the cultural perspectives of Practice Theory (PT), a theory which focused on social practices as the main unit of analysis and Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), a multidisciplinary approach which studies the dynamic relationships between consumer actions, the marketplace, experiential aspects of consumption and cultural meanings. Despite benefits, participants associate using MaaS with meanings of unsafety and apps with intrusiveness. Women seem disadvantaged compared to men when using MaaS. Suggested solutions include rigorous vetting of service personnel and whenever possible, recruit female personnel such as drivers. On board cameras, recording devices and safety features of apps may help women feel safe. MaaS providers could encourage the formation of communities around MaaS brands, with women members to reassure women. Significant changes are needed to the socio-technical landscape, including to social practices and infrastructure and this requires changes in policy, investment and governance

Extending the Life of Infant Mobility Products: Implementing a Product Service System : Report on DEFRA ABR112 (Project EV0534)/ Re-engineering Business for Sustainability

In 2018, the UK Government published its Resources and Waste Strategy for England. That policy document identifies resource efficiency as a key strategy to reduce waste and rationalize the use of resources through the adoption of circular economy principles. Amongst the mix of strategies outlined in the document, there are examples that rely on innovative resource efficient business models. One example of such a business model is a Product Service System (PSS). This document reports the results of a project, DEFRA ABR112, which was aimed at exploring and developing ways to assist in extending the useful lives of products. The project implemented a pilot PSS, where infant care products such as car seats and pushchairs were supplied by way of renting rather than outright ownership. Action Research (AR) was adopted as a research strategy for the project. The pilot project involved the design and implementation of a PSS offering featuring new and refurbished car seats and pushchairs. The implementation of the pilot was preceded by a feasibility study, which included one to one and group interviews with industry experts along with focus groups involving parents of infants. The pilot commenced in January 2014 and the PSS offering was advertised on a parental charity’s web site. A variety of research methods were used within the AR framework, for example, in-depth interviews with consumers and business managers, expert workshops and surveys. Customers took up 1048 leases, with more car seats being rented than pushchairs. A total of 183 refurbished car seats and 21 refurbished pushchairs were supplied to users. Some car seats were used up to four times. The reason for the greater success of car seats when compared to pushchairs could be explained by participants’ rational economic thinking. Car seats are costly in respect to their potential duration of use and so participants may have regarded leasing them as a better option than purchasing. Pushchairs have a relatively longer duration of use, in addition to being used across multiple births. This suggests that products with a shorter duration of use in respect to their cost might be more suitable for access through PSS. A Pareto effect was observed in the leasing statistics in that only a small number of types of car seats and pushchairs were rented out. Participants demanded a great variety of products to accommodate their life styles. This has implications for the financial viability of the PSS, because the greater the range of products required the greater the risk that some products would not achieve multiple uses, which means that renting such products would not be commercially viable. Aside from rational economic considerations, other elements contributed to the difference in success of the PSS offerings of car seats and pushchairs. Car seats are not as visible a product as pushchairs, so their use may not necessarily be influenced by considerations of social approval or disapproval. In contrast, parents’ desire to have pushchairs that are fashionable as they can communicate prestige and are a means of communication, a “showcase” to display their infant. Parents seem to have health and safety concerns about leasing pre-used infant care equipment, as they might be damaged or unsafe. In order to address this, PSS providers should implement and certify a robust quality assurance process in order to eliminate these concerns. The reasons for the comparatively low take-up of pushchairs compared to car seats may also be due to conventions about outright ownership in western countries such as the UK. Parents are interested in the benefits associated with ownership, such as having the freedom to modify products and not having to comply with the responsibilities that the PSS brings about such as regular fee payments, keeping the product in standard specification, product maintenance and packaging stewardship. Participants were worried about being charged for damaged goods, especially if they entertained life styles that could risk damaging the product. Findings suggest that environmental benefits (which some of the PSS literature presents as an advantage of PSS), seem not to be of great importance to consumers when making decisions about acquisition of infant care products. This raises questions about whether marketing communications to promote PSS offerings should include statements about its environmental benefits. Parents are generally more interested in practical benefits such as access on demand and cost savings. Some consumer types, and possibly market segments (e.g. voluntary simplifiers ) may be more interested in environmental protection. The findings of the study suggest that PSS need to be evaluated from the regulatory point of view. An understanding of the consumer credit legislation is necessary for the design and implementation of PSS. Accordingly, there is a role for policy makers in disseminating knowledge on PSS and providing information in order to enhance businesses’ understanding of the relevant legislation and the possible need to acquire consumer credit licenses when they want to adopt PSS. The findings of the research suggest that legislation may also need amendments in order to accommodate PSS and provide the necessary quality assurance concerning specific standards covering PSS and other applications of refurbished products. PSS presents issues of product liability, quality assurance and responsibility, as well as whether the service is delivered or not by qualified personnel. The pilot study generated new knowledge but this was a low risk scenario within a small-scale protected experiment. Large-scale implementation by businesses may be risky. Scaling up the PSS faces a number of other challenges, such as financial viability due to attrition - the writing off of products due to damages or theft and the number of cycles of use that can be achieved Attrition, or products having to be written off due to damage or not being returned, can be a limitation of PSS. In this pilot, 8.8% of the products had to be written off due to damage or failure to return. Since they are pre-used, the condition the products were in and their safety were a main concern for the parents participating to the study. The success of the PSS pilot, especially as far as car seats are concerned, suggests that PSS deserves more attention and further research. Further studies could focus on types and brands of car seats and pushchairs which are specifically designed to be supplied through a PSS. Research in different contexts and with different products should also be conducted in order to compare the findings of this project with those in different contexts. This would indicate the transferability of the present study. The project also demonstrated the usefulness of combining Action Research with a variety of theoretical approaches. Whilst the effective consumption of car seats through the PSS in the action research was at odd with the findings from the RGT survey, the poor performance of the pushchairs confirmed the findings from the field research. At the end of the project, the manufacturer discontinued the leasing programme of the PSS, partly because of the costs of implementing it on large scale. However, the insights the project gained in the PSS project contributed to the design of a smaller scale rental program aimed at parents with the hip dysplasia condition. The parental charity elected to terminate their involvement with rentals of products. The actual resource efficiency and environmental benefits of the PSS were investigated through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. A separate report is available as an Annex

HOW CAN IMPROVING THE GENDER INCLUSIVITY OF MOBILITY AS A SERVICE FACILITATE ITS DIFFUSION?

© 2023 Association for European Transport Built on Zenario.This paper explores issues of inclusiveness and safety that women encounter when using Mobility as a Service (MaaS), a transport offering which enables users to book, manage and pay diverse modes of transport through smartphone apps. Personal mobility modes may include public transport, car, bicycle sharing, automated vehicles and more. The diffusion of MaaS is desirable because it may contribute to the decarbonisation of personal mobility and yet it is finding resistance. The study draws on the cultural perspectives of Practice Theory (PT), a theory which focuses on social practices as the main unit of analysis and Consumer Culture Theory (CCT), a multidisciplinary approach which studies the dynamic relationships between consumer actions, the marketplace, experiential aspects of consumption and cultural meanings. Despite benefits, participants associate using MaaS with meanings of unsafety and apps with intrusiveness. Women seem disadvantaged compared to men when using MaaS. Suggested solutions include rigorous vetting of service personnel and whenever possible, recruit female personnel such as drivers. On board cameras, recording devices and safety features of apps may help women feel safe. MaaS providers could encourage the formation of communities around MaaS brands, with female members to reassure women. Significant changes are needed to social practices and infrastructure, and this requires changes in policy, investment and governance