Mobility-as-a-Service

Mobility as a Service ( MaaS ) is an approach to replace transport with your own vehicles with a range of different mobility services tailored to customer needs. These mobility services can include, for example, the following transport options:

• air traffic
• Public transport (bus, train, tram, underground, ferries, ...)
• Taxis and ride-hailing services
• Shuttle services
• car sharing
• Carpooling
• Bike sharing and scooter sharing
• Foot traffic

Mobility services can be provided by different providers and should be offered and billed as a combined, multimodal service. This requires both a joint route planning for the individual mobility services and their joint billing.

The term Mobility-as-a-Service is based on Software-as-a-Service , was coined by Sonja Heikkilä and introduced to a wider audience by MaaS Global founder Sampo Hietanen.

Opportunities and risks of Mobility as a Service

opportunities

The aim of MaaS is to offer users means of transport that are optimally tailored to their requirements, thereby reducing transport efficiency and the need to own vehicles. This is intended to reduce the need for parking spaces and reduce the overall volume of traffic through ride sharing . With the expected emergence of autonomous vehicles, new possibilities will arise to supplement scheduled and line-bound mass transport with so-called on-demand mobility .

Risks

So far, MaaS concepts seem to only work in cities with highly developed local public transport if this is coordinated by the established transport companies. Helsinki, London and Singapore can be named as examples. It is also questionable whether MaaS leads to a reduction in overall traffic or whether high-availability and inexpensive shuttles lead to the cannibalization of local public transport and whether more efficient and cheaper transport leads to a rebound effect and thus to higher traffic volumes and the associated environmental pollution.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Sonja Heikkilä: Mobility as a Service - A Proposal for Action for the Public Administration, Case Helsinki .
2. ^ Sampo Hietanen's profile on Crunchbase .
3. ↑ Holger Holzer: Zeit Online - App instead of a car .
4. ↑ Deutsche Bahn is integrating on-demand mobility into existing local public transport for the first time .
5. ^ Klaus Köllinger: How Helsinki became a 'Mobility as a Service' leader .
6. ^ Future transport - How is London responding to technological innovation? .
7. ^ Smart Urban Mobility: The Case of Singapore .
8. ↑ Faiz Siddiqui: As ride hailing booms in DC, it's not just eating into the taxi market - it's increasing vehicle trips .
9. ^ Subway Ridership Dropped Again in New York as Passengers Flee to Uber .