Integrated mobility and Mobility as a Service

From this webinar, we can highlight some key insights for local and regional policy-makers:

• Improving regional mobility and reducing carbon emissions are pressing issues for policymakers across Europe as we seek to meet our carbon emissions targets and improve the quality of life for growing populations. New solutions are needed to provide equitable, convenient, and clean transportation options.
• Many approaches are available for increasing the convenience of transport, including integrated ticketing across modes, integrated route planning applications, and platforms. For many regions, such approaches are a first step towards MaaS.

• The benefits of MaaS include better information and planning for citizens, improved interoperability, easy booking and payment, personalised service, and optimised networks. However, MaaS is not inherently sustainable. While it can contribute to fewer vehicles on the roads and greener mobility, it can also see greater us of taxis and car rental or may encourage people to shift away from active transport. Overall system sustainability must be monitored and considered.
• MaaS integration needs to be part of an overall reconsideration of mobility and should go hand-in-hand with measures to reduce single occupancy vehicles and private cars, such as congestion charges. The system as a whole should be refocused on low-carbon modes.
• A successful MaaS system is built on several different building blocks, including a good transport network, efficient public transport, access to open data, a clear regulatory framework, and stakeholder agreement, working to integrate private and public mobility providers.
• Users expect MaaS to include public transport as the main building block, as demonstrated by a recent survey related to the eMaas pilot in Thessaloniki that was built around e-mobility but without the local bus and metro lines on board.
• Stockholm’s example of single-ticket transport across modes and across the entire region is an excellent example of integrated ticketing, designed with low-carbon development in mind. When a single zone with one price was introduced, the region abolished different price zones, thus reducing prices for long distances and increasing prices in the centre. The changes ended up being cost-neutral for the region. As result, commuters had better motivations to drop the car for journeys into Stockholm, which also benefitted inner-city residents.
• However, there are several challenges to overcome including economic barriers such as viability, end-user acceptance, revenue sharing, and how to ensure equal access for small companies. Operational issues can include technological issues and administrative challenges, including data control, security, and management of providers. Finally, sustainability and social inclusion must be considered, as MaaS systems can often prioritise profit rather than reduced emissions and can lock out people without digital technologies and internet access.
• The PriMaaS project has developed a multidimensional indicator of MaaS systems; there is a need to understand the coverage, scale, services and societal benefits, but also to understand the sustainability of systems. More information can be found on the PriMaaS website.
• Getting individual companies to work together can be a major challenge. Public authorities can act as neutral intermediaries, building trust and leading the integration process. Authorities can also legislate to require actors to open their data for MaaS integration. Barcelona metropolitan area has introduced regulations for e-scooters to get these to comply with public interest better and not only privilege profit-maximisation. As result, better parking and a better presence of e-scooters in the outskirts have been achieved.
• Data is another major challenge; it is difficult to get private companies to share data, which may require legislation and frameworks to make this mandatory. Many new models are being introduced in regions (shared bikes, scooters, etc.), which need to be regulated to prevent inconvenience and ensure safety for citizens. This regulation also offers a chance to require data provision, and to bring private providers closer to centralised mobility planners.

• Additional information in MaaS and integration with SUMPs can be found in the Eltis topic guidelines, ‘Mobility as a Service and Sustainable Urban Mobility Planning’.
• Public authorities should take advantage of opportunities to learn from other regions which have already begun the transition, through Interreg Europe projects and the Policy Learning Platform which can offer on-demand expert support through peer reviews and matchmakings.

Download the presentations of this event below.