Mobility-as-a-Service: Tentative on Users, Use and Effects

Paper in proceeding, 2020

Mobility-as-a-Service has been argued to lead to more sustainable mobility, but dissemination has hitherto been slow. Private and public actors have raised concerns as to the actual ‘market’ for MaaS as well as the desired effects. Based on an analysis of an excerpt of available literature, the paper attempts to provide tentative answers to the following questions: Who are the (potential) users of MaaS? And Does MaaS lead to any changes in users’ travel behaviour? Prospective studies propose that some user categories (e.g. urban, digitally mature) are more positive than others. The same studies indicate that the services should not be offered as packages but customised to the individual’s or household’s particular needs for transport and their present travel patterns. Evaluations of pilots reveal a slightly broader user profile. Changes in travel behaviours are reported but also imply that MaaS must offer a higher level of multimodal integration in order for the service to result in noticeable changes in users’ travel behaviours.