The Business Ecosystem of Mobility-as-a-Service

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a new mobility model that aims to bridge the gap between public and private transport operators on a city, intercity and national level, and envisages the integration of the currently fragmented tools and services a traveller needs to conduct a trip (planning, booking, access to real time information, payment and ticketing). As MaaS gains wider acceptance, there are several misperceptions about what this model is. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to provide a preliminary definition for the MaaS concept, and propose the MaaS ecosystem where the role of each actor is described in details. The MaaS ecosystem is designed after personal interviews and focus groups with the involved actors. This holistic approach sets the ground for the MaaS concept and highlights the areas where research is needed in order to contribute to the materialisation of the concept

Investigating heterogeneity in preferences for Mobility-as-a-Service plans through a latent class choice model

The past decade has seen the introduction and widespread availability of a number of new mobility services. These have created a transport environment that is complex to navigate for passengers. The Mobility as a Service (MaaS) concept aims to provide a solution, by offering a single digital interface through which users can plan journeys, pay for and access a variety of transport modes. MaaS can also provide users with various products, including pay-per-use access to transport modes as well as MaaS packages. The latter are bundled mobility services that combine a variety of transport modes and are offered to customers in a one-stop-shop manner. The objective of this paper is to examine individual preferences for MaaS packages, specifically addressing the question of preference heterogeneity. In doing so, a Latent Class Choice Model (LCCM) is developed, allowing us to reveal variations in individuals’ preferences. The LCCM is estimated using data from a MaaS-related market research carried out in Greater Manchester. The results imply significant heterogeneity with regards to preferences. Three latent classes emerged through the analysis, all with different MaaS package preferences and individual characteristics. Age, gender, income, education and current travel behaviour all play an important role in determining an individual’s propensity to purchase MaaS packages. The results can provide valuable insights into the types of people that should and should not be initially targeted with MaaS packages to maximise uptake

An Integrated Choice and Latent Variable Model to Explore the Influence of Attitudinal and Perceptual Factors on Shared Mobility Choices and Their Value of Time Estimation

This work studies how the usage of shared mobility services could be influenced by latent factors. An integrated choice and latent variable model is adopted to explore the effects of three attitudinal and perceptual factors on bike- and car-sharing choices while simultaneously investigating the causes associated with each of the latent variables. A group of Chinese commuters’ stated preference mode choice data are collected. It is found that the probability to choose bike-sharing could be positively affected by “willingness to be a green traveler” and “satisfaction with cycling environment,” and car-sharing choice is positively correlated with “advocacy of car-sharing service.” By taking into account the interaction effects between the latent variables and travel time of the two services, a significant difference is discovered on the estimated value of travel time savings (VTTS) compared with other more restrictive model specifications. The finding highlights the importance to derive different VTTS for travelers with differentiated attitudes and perceptions as the tastes toward travel time spent could vary substantially. In other words, there would be different trade-off preferences across attitudinal groups, according to which transport service operators could customize their strategies on prices and levels of service offered

Policy Options to Promote Car-sharing while Suppressing Private Car Usage: An Analysis by Trip Distance

Car-sharing could have substantial benefits. However, there is a lack of evidence about if more people choosing car-sharing would reduce private car usage or, instead, shrink public transport demand. This work aims to bridge the gap by first studying car-sharing choice behavior via a mode choice analysis and then revealing the pattern of modal split changes via a scenario analysis. Policy implications are subsequently obtained on the possible measures that could effectively bring down private car usage. The case study is Taiyuan-China; stated and revealed preference data are both collected. Mixed nested logit models are developed to study the combined SP/RP data. The analysis is conducted separately for a shorter trip case (2km to 5km) and a longer trip case (more than 5km) to examine if results would differ by distance. It is found that raising the cost of private car usage (travel cost, parking cost) should be prioritized for shorter trips since car is more difficult to be substituted when trip distance increases. Shorter trips also need such direct measures to help suppress the demand for private car when promoting a car-sharing service; otherwise car-sharing would attract more bus users instead. Longer trips need a more effective solution to bring down private car usage and that is discovered as making car-sharing service more appealing so that it can serve as a practical substitute to private car. A number of informative indicators (e.g. value of travel time savings, direct and cross point elasticity) are also derived to enrich the findings

A Comprehensive Review of “Mobility as a Service” Systems

The objective of this paper is to comprehensively review the existing MaaS schemes and develop an index to evaluate the level of mobility integration for each MaaS scheme based on the assumption that higher level of integration is more appealing to travellers. The review presented in this paper allows a comparison among the existing schemes and provides the background and the key points of MaaS systems that the research community should take into account in designing surveys. It is also provides significant insights to transport operators and authorities on the components they should take into account to apply an attractive MaaS scheme that could potential shift demand away from private vehicles

Impact of women driving cars on the sustainable development and traffic safety in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - Phase 2 Survey Results -

The aim of this report is to provide the analysis of the descriptive statistics of the second phase of the She Drives KSA survey that took place one year after women started driving. The report first analyses transport-related aspects for the households of the participants. Next, it focuses on the privately employed drivers of the participants’ households. Driving license possession or not of women is analysed next, while information is also provided about the driving schools they attended. Women’s travel behaviour is analysed as well by particularly emphasizing and comparing the travel behaviour of women who drive to those who do not drive. The car preferences of the participant women who have or are about to have a driving license is analysed next. Women and men attitudes and perceptions towards the social, economic, environmental and traffic safety impact that women starting driving may have follows in the analysis. Finally, potential policies to support the transition to women driving in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are presented to conclude the report

Feasibility Study for “Mobility as a Service” concept in London

Novel mobility services that heavily rely on technological advances could contribute to seamless mobility. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is such a concept. The objective of the FS-MaaS project is to propose the design of a MaaS concept for London, the MaaS-London, and examine its feasibility. To work towards the concept of MaaS-London, first, the supply and the demand sides of the London transport market are analysed. There are a variety of mobility services supplied in London such as car clubs (car sharing), ride sharing, bike sharing, public transport, rail and taxi which altogether make London an ideal ground to exploit MaaS-London. The MaaS-London is an integrated platform that includes registration and package selection, intermodal journey planning, booking, smart ticketing and payment functions so that the entire chain of transport can be managed in this centralised platform. The most outstanding feature of MaaS-London is the provision of mobility packages, which consist of tailored bundles of mobility services customised to individual needs. The feasibility study indicates that the introduction of MaaS-London will benefit both the supply and the demand side. Transport operators will benefit by creating a larger market via the integrated platform. Travellers will also welcome the concept due to travel expense and time reduction, and better service experience. MaaS-London is a feasible product that can well serve London transport market and contribute to London’s 2020 vision

A Critical Review of New Mobility Services for Urban Transport

The growing pressure on urban passenger transport systems has increased the demand for new and innovative solutions to increase its efficiency. One approach to tackle this challenge has been the slow but steady shift towards shared mobility services (car-, bike-sharing etc.). Building on these new modes and the developments in information and communication technologies, the concept of “Mobility as a Service” (MaaS) has recently come to light and offers convenient door-to-door transport without the need to own a private vehicle. The term Mobility as a Service (MaaS) stands for buying mobility services based on consumer needs instead of buying the means of mobility. In recent years, various MaaS schemes have been arisen around the world. The objective of this paper is to review these newly existing mobility services and develop an index to evaluate the level of mobility integration for each based on the assumption that higher level of integration is more appealing to travellers. The review presented in this paper allows a comparison among the schemes and provides the background and the key points of MaaS systems that the research community could use for designing surveys. It also provides significant insights to transport operators and authorities on the elements they should take into account to apply an attractive MaaS scheme that could effectively shift demand away from private vehicles

Investigating UK consumers’ heterogeneous engagement in demand-side response

Demand-side response (DSR), the incentivised time-shifting of energy use by consumers away from peak times, is regarded as a potentially effective measure to balance electricity supply and demand. This will be even more important in the low-carbon energy system of the future, with a high share of non-dispatchable power, such as variable renewable energy and nuclear power. Most DSR programmes require consumers’ active engagement in shifting end-use activities. Previous studies have, however, rarely revealed socio-demographic factors influential for consumers’ willingness-to-shift specific end-use activities. This study thus aims to fill this research gap and, using a multinomial logistic model to analyse a nationwide survey, identify factors influential for DSR-related decisions. The nationwide survey for 1004 respondents was carried out to collect data about consumers’ willingness-to-shift their daily activities. We focused on the activities that constitute the major part of domestic energy consumption, i.e. cooking, dish-washing, entertainment, heating, laundry and showering. According to the results, consumers’ original timing of the end-use activities, socio-demographic factors, ownership of specific appliances and level of concern for energy-saving are influential for their willingness-to-shift activities. These findings can not only help policymakers make more targeted DSR promotion plans but also help to improve broader modelling tools to better consider consumers’ willingness-to-shift their demand

The Mobility as a Service Maturity Index: Preparing the Cities for the Mobility as a Service Era

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is the use of a “digital interface to source and manage the provision of transport related services” which meet peoples mobility requirements. The implementation of a MaaS based transport system is dependent on a city possessing a number of characteristics. Before planning for MaaS it is important for decision makers to understand how close a city is to fulfilling these characteristics. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop the ‘MaaS Maturity Index’. This measures a cit’s readiness for MaaS implementation based on characteristics across five dimensions: 1. Transport operators data sharing and openness, 2. Citizen familiarity and willingness, 3. Policy, regulation and legislation, 4. ICT infrastructure, and 5. Transport services and infrastructure. The index has been applied to two metropolitan areas in the UK; London and the West Midlands. The results indicate that, as expected, London is slightly more ready for MaaS than the West Midlands, but that both cities have lots of room for improvement