Mobility as a Service (Maas) – A Game Changing Concept for Future Mobility

There’s a lot of chatter across the industry about Mobility as a Service (MaaS) – but what does it actually mean, and how can it help?

The climate is in crisis. We all know that our reliance on the single-occupancy car, and the petrochemical industry that has fuelled it, has been a significant factor in getting us here. Weaning our dependency from fossil fuel will require a whole new way of thinking about how to get from A to B, and that has to include the ‘last mile’. Next generation transport plans aren’t about ditching the family car or switching to rail. There needs to be a deeper and more radical change in the way we conceptualise transport and how we build our towns and cities to reflect that. Transport needs to decarbonise urgently and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is the key concept to help drive that change.

Mobility as a Service means, on the most basic level, providing an integrated platform of all available transport modes including active, social and private modes of travel. That platform will be app-based and will allow the user to plan and organise travel that incorporates disparate transport modes – from bus, taxi and ride share, to e-scooter, bike hire or walking, with public and private modes seamlessly integrated. Practical and psychological barriers to low-cost, low-carbon travel alternatives are removed and travel is experienced as a seamless ecosystem, each part dependent on the health and interdependency of all the others, rather than just a series of separate competing modes with interconnections that are often awkward or worse.

MOBILITY AS A SERVICE (MaaS)

Mobility as a Service means, on the most basic level, providing an integrated platform of all available transport modes including active, social and private modes of travel.

But there is much more at play than simply integrating different transport modes into a single unified app. MaaS is fundamentally about health: for the user, for the community, for the climate. That implies accessibility for all, regardless of socio-economic factors or limits on personal mobility. It will not always be possible to simply map an app on to existing transport provision, but it will demand changes that increase access and opportunity.

If we’re going to deliver sustainable, liveable communities that encourage true freedom of movement, we’re going to need a clearer understanding of travel trends, deeper engagement with socio-demographic requirements by location, and a more profound understanding of travel choices through use cases that help clarify the limitations to change.