Trying Out Mobility as a Service: Experiences from a Field Trial and Implications for Understanding Demand
Paper in proceeding, 2016

The concept of Mobility as a Service or MaaS has been proposed as feasible way to achieve more sustainable transport. One example of such a service is UbiGo, a broker service for everyday urban travel developed and evaluated within the Go:Smart project in Gothenburg, Sweden. This paper presents evidence of travel behavior and related changes from a six-month field operational test (FOT), during which 195 participants tested the new service. Based on participant questionnaires, interviews, and travel diaries, change-enabling service attributes are identified, including the ‘transportation smorgasbord’ concept, simplicity, improved access and flexibility, and economy. Although not a service attribute per se, the FOT also enabled the trialability of new behaviors and a reevaluation of convenience. Additionally, the broader implications of the FOT findings on understanding travelers’ new choices and behaviors are discussed in terms of the future design of MaaS. Service design and demand are not independent of each other, and if a mobility service is to change behavior (i.e. achieve impact) as well as create added value, these goals need to drive design decisions and a deliberate and conscious development of service dimensions such as customization, bundling, and range of the offer. Based on the experiences gained, the authors emphasize a more holistic and flexible perspective on mobility (and design perspective on mobility services) that is focused on serving users’ needs, and that involves capitalizing on synergies between public and private actors, in order to develop the MaaS ‘offer’ and better meet the urban mobility challenge ahead.

user

mobility as a service (MaaS)

travel broker

travel behavior

demand

transport mode

UbiGo

multimodality

Author

Jana Sochor

Chalmers, Product and Production Development, Design and Human Factors

MariAnne Karlsson

Chalmers, Product and Production Development, Design and Human Factors

Helena Strömberg

Chalmers, Product and Production Development, Design and Human Factors

Proceedings of the 95th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C. January 10-14, 2016

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Areas of Advance

Transport

Subject Categories

Transport Systems and Logistics

Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified

More information

Created

10/8/2017