Sustainable Mobility in Smart Cities

MaaS, with its user-centric vision aiming at more flexible, personalized, and on-demand mobility services, has a perspective to address the key sustainability challenges of the mobility of the future: transport solutions that are integrated, inclusive, and time-efficient, while containing the economic, social, and environmental costs. Civic engagement is a key success factor towards this objective: to fully embrace MaaS transformation, citizens need to feel part of the process. Gamification proved to be effective to raise citizens' awareness, encourage their participation, and promote a gradual but profound behavior change. These characteristics can be exploited by MaaS solutions to attract users and encourage the acceptance of tailored mobility plans. The chapter presents two successful cases of gamified systems aiming at promoting a more sustainable mobility, Play&Go and Kids Go Green; investigates the potential of gamified systems, in combination with MaaS solutions, in terms of citizens' engagement and behavior change; and discusses current limitations and future challenges.

Innovative Mobility Solutions in Rural Areas With Case Studies

Rural areas still have some disadvantages in comparison to urban areas. Access to jobs, education, or health services provided for inhabitants in rural areas are limited. Another important topic is mobility, which is crucial to meet the travel expectations of inhabitants in rural areas. Finding new forms of mobility capable of covering all areas and meeting the requirements of rural inhabitants is the most important challenge. This chapter deals with mobility in rural areas from the perspective of demographics, social change, and accessibility to transport services. Moreover, this chapter offers various case studies dealing with innovative solutions for mobility in rural areas resulting from the RUMOBIL project.

Challenges and Implications of Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

This introductory chapter provides a synopsis of the underlying factors that enable the existence of the mobility as a service (MaaS) concept and its role regarding the improvement of the performance of transportation systems. Therefore, several considerations are made to contextualize MaaS in modern societies explaining not only its main functions and advantages but also the challenges facing its widespread implementation.

The Future of Mobility as a Service (MaaS)

The environmental concerns together with social inclusion issues and the need to promote economic equity in the society have profound implications regarding the sustainable mobility concept. This allied to a technological (r)evolution leads to the path of the internet of mobility (IoM). On the other hand, we are witnessing the prosperity of mobility associated with services, mobility as a service (MaaS), which also aims at the integration of different transport modes. Linking together IoM and MaaS, the internet of mobility as a service (IoMaaS) concept is introduced, which can learn from the end user experiences and behaviors, enabling the reduction of ease of use and sustainable mobility, while supporting a much-needed cultural shift regarding mobility habits.

Mobility on Demand

For as long as there have been cities, there have been suburbs. Shared mobility—the shared use of a vehicle, bicycle, or other travel mode—is an innovative transportation strategy that enables users to have short-term access to a transportation mode on an as-needed basis. Shared mobility can enhance access and reduce social exclusion in lower-density environments and provide transportation options to carless and public transit-dependent households, particularly in areas without high-quality, fixed-route public transportation service. This chapter discusses the design and evolution of suburbs and how this impacts the transportation network. Additionally, this chapter reviews suburban applications of shared mobility services and provides a case study of shared mobility service deployments in Northern Virginia. The chapter concludes with key takeaways and a discussion of the potential future of shared mobility services in lower-density built environments.

Challenge, Coordination, and Collaboration for Effective Rural Mobility Solutions

In this chapter, the author argues that mobility as a service (or MaaS) as a principal means of accessing transport may make it difficult to meet existing policy aims for sustainable mobility that addresses the climate change crisis and demographic trends. Strong governance will be needed to design MaaS for these challenges whilst addressing existing and future social injustices. Furthermore, without determined coordination, an inherent individualism at the heart of many current formulations of MaaS privileges urban areas with existing multimodal options and risks further excluding rural environments. Drawing on examples from Europe and beyond, concerns regarding the ability to assess unanticipated undesirable impacts of transport innovations that are MaaS-like in character are highlighted and discussed. How might authorities collaborate with each other and MaaS brokers to provide low carbon accessibility in rural areas?

Public Transport as a Provider of MaaS in Rural Areas

Mobility as a service (MaaS), in this case study, involves the integration of different travel modes into a mutual service that handles bookings and payments for individual trips. In this chapter, the authors discuss how a public transport authority has developed a MaaS for rural areas by integrating a public transport service with carpooling. The project's development, the platform's functionality, ideas for future development, and experiences of the service are analyzed from both a management and a user perspective. One overall conclusion reached is that public transport may very well develop and offer MaaS; however, there are a number of barriers to overcome concerning the legal aspects, changed travel behaviors, and density.

Potential User Groups of Mobility as a Service in Finland

With a mobility as a service (MaaS) offering, the transport needs of the end customer may be fulfilled in a way, which may challenge the car dominant mobility practices of today. Up to now, there has been few studies focusing on the interest of end users towards MaaS. This chapter presents results from a survey in Finland (N=1,176) and focuses on the interest towards MaaS services among 18-64 year olds and especially the potential of MaaS in different user groups. The authors found that particularly the respondents who currently use public transport, the respondents living in households without a car, the respondents aged 25-34, and the respondents with higher education were more interested to adopt MaaS services. They also found that people living in urban areas and in apartment houses indicated a higher interest towards MaaS. The same groups had also more often no need or will for car ownership if a competitive MaaS service would be available. Continuing urbanisation offers increasing potential for MaaS as there are many mobility services, which can be bundled into a MaaS offerings in cities.

Public-Private-People Partnership Networks and Stakeholder Roles Within MaaS Ecosystems

Mobility as a service (MaaS) is an emerging concept offering integrated mobility services. Combining different transport modes and services, as well as collaboration of stakeholders, are prerequisites for viable and attractive MaaS services. MaaS is expected to increase the sustainability and efficiency of transport. Public-private-people partnership (PPPP) networks are seen as a potential solution to meet these expectations, especially in rural areas. The purpose here is to present a PPPP network for MaaS, which integrates market-based mobility services and subsidized transportation. The chapter also describes the roles and responsibilities of primary and secondary MaaS stakeholders at different levels, including authority, service provider, MaaS operator, and user levels.