The project description

We live in a world where things get smarter. Our smartphones, computers and now our transportation. The urban transport infrastructure has fragmented over the past years, requiring several cards, applications and payment systems to get around the city. MaaS emerges as an answer to this problem, based on the interoperability of the various transport services, seeking to unify them on a single platform, and making them complement each other by optimizing travel in the city. After the covid-19 pandemic, it becomes a possible answer for the optimization of urban mobility, avoiding the large agglomerations and overcrowding of collective means of transport, which would be more intelligent and optimized according to demand.

Another important point is that with greater efficiency of means of transport, we would take one more step towards a sustainable city, since waste would be avoided, meeting the needs of contemporary society to reconcile human development with the health of the planet. In addition, the resource optimization, which would assist emerging countries that have difficulty in making big investments.

This system could also make it easier and more flexible for the user to pay for diverse means of transportation, sharing a common way of control over use, with pre or post paid methods or even a subscription, making it more comfortable for the citizen who enjoys the service in a simpler way, encouraging urban mobility, creating your routes according to your needs.

This whole system is based on data, and it is based on that that governments and companies would be able to identify the needs of the population and make more effective investments.

The MaaS system has a series of requirements to functionally work, such as a widespread of 3G, 4G or 5G networks, high quality and levels of connectivity and a well established urbans transport network and city planning. In order for these requirements to be met, cooperation from different agents is necessary, such as solid urban planning working on a transport network, collaboration between the public and private transport sectors, making the means of transport more structured, interconnected and efficient, enhancing collective modes.

This shift to smarter urban mobility is already happening across the globe. Carsharing, which had nearly 350,000 members in 2006, now has over 5 million members worldwide in 2014, and may exceed 23 million until 2024. Uber has expanded to over 70 countries, and bikeshare systems can be found in more than 50 countries, while in 2004 there were only 11 cities with this kind of service.

A technical overview of MaaS

Sparked by the increase of ride-sharing services, electrical cars and eventually autonomous vehicles, the transportation system is progressively trying sort of a complicated internet which will merge transportation services and infrastructure with mobile technology and massive information. This complex internet, referred to as MaaS has brought along transportation businesses, and therefore the services they supply, by mistreatment applications that do a range of things. Mistreatment MaaS might mean ordering a taxi or rideshare to the field, arrangement travel, getting a railroad ticket, and even booking a building through a series of mobile apps.

As we can see in the image below, the web of mobility decision-making has changed from a linear, simple and traditional format to a more complex and multi-environment demand, adapting the specific needs of individuals (and each context) to the best form of MaaS integration.

With the increase in congestion in the metropolises, the current use of private cars for door-to-door journeys has started to become an unviable and unsustainable solution for urban transport due to the cost, time spent, among several other factors. The main idea of MaaS, therefore, is to reverse this (and other) problems that have been created in transportation.

As we can see below, the MaaS delivery model has eight key attributes. Among them, part is due to the customer experience and the second part to enabling technologies and processes. In an environment where MaaS is possible, traditional ways of thinking about transportation infrastructure (for example, using only car, bus or train), is no longer be considered best practice. Understanding and planning demand, therefore, is about solving the transportation problem in an integrated manner with different modes of transport. Thus, we were able to bring a greater costumer experience and reduce (or cancel) all the problems of traditional transport.

Taking, for example, the pricing used from the simplest to the most advanced MaaS, we realize that the MaaS price structure is highly linked with customer lifestyle choices and is subscription based.

In the following image, we can see some examples of international MaaS success stories (such as Gothenburg and Montpellier) and their demonstration that a frictionless experience, strong branding and customer trust are crucial aspects of MaaS delivery.

Where can I study more about MaaS?

Referencial Links