Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in Developing Countries

Kurzfassung

In face of the continuous trend of urbanization, in combination with tightening environmental targets, transport systems in metropolitan areas are put under great pressure. In response, new mobility concepts have been introduced in recent years. In particular, Mobility as a Service (MaaS), which promotes a shift from private cars towards mobility being consumed as a service, gained a strong momentum. First insights from case studies on MaaS schemes and trials suggest that it enables a shift towards more sustainable transport modes. With MaaS being concentrated mostly in Europe, this PhD project explores MaaS’ potential in developing countries. The research, thereby, includes a view from the demand as well as the supply side and intends to quantify potential benefits. We first aimed to find evidence for the expected diffusion of MaaS in developing countries. In this context, we have studied international diffusion patterns of New Mobility Services (NMS) via internationalization of mobility start-ups. We show that NMS typically spring from developed lead markets (e.g., the USA and Europe) and from there diffuse globally including into the developing world, through market leader expansion or imitation. At the same time, it has been found that mobility start-ups increasingly aim to offer additional services and thus develop into MaaS providers and that the public sector strongly promotes the provision of integrated transport services. We also show that the corona pandemic has created a window of opportunity for a transition towards MaaS. Based on the results of our Metro Manila case study, we argue that MaaS harbors massive opportunities for the generation and utilization of much needed data – not only for informing time-sensitive decisions for responding to such pandemics, but also for long-term transport planning and strategy building. During a research visit at the University of the Philippines National Center for Transportation Studies (UP-NCTS), we analyzed the willingness to adopt MaaS through binary probit models. Our results show that the vast majority (84 %) of respondents of an online survey (N=238) would likely use a MaaS app and that the willingness to increase the usage of public transport under MaaS is very high (61 % of the total respondents which corresponds to 73 % of the potential MaaS users). It was found that MaaS can leverage multimodal travel behavior and the increased use of transport apps. The statistical models further indicate that the main reasons for adoption are users’ expectations of a cheaper and more reliable service. In another study, we aimed at identifying how users in Metro Manila can benefit from MaaS. Considering that one of the main components of MaaS relates to transport integration, we calculated how accessibility to transit may change under MaaS. The results indicate that the integration of paratransit (i.e., jeepneys) into the transit network could almost triple accessibility from 23.9 % to 65.0 %. The integration of micro-mobility (i.e., e-scooter and bicycles) as a feeder mode could further boost this share significantly (to 97.9 % and 99.9 %, respectively). This suggests that under MaaS, areas that are underserved by public transport could be connected to the transit network, which is a promising way to address latent demand and compensate for lacking transport infrastructure. This research work also sheds light on MaaS governance issues in global South context. Through a literature review and a two-round international expert survey, we identified a set of implementation barriers for MaaS in developing countries. We categorized these barriers according to the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework and the experts assessed the relevance of these barriers on a 5-point Likert scale. Based on the results, developing cities capabilities to establish MaaS and other transport innovations are discussed. In conclusion, this research project unfolds the existing demand for MaaS and highlights that MaaS is likely to gain traction in the global South, especially in dense urban areas. It identifies potential users and how they could benefit from an integrated transport system under MaaS. Furthermore, this work provides a comprehensive discussion on required policies and points out promising lines of future research. This PhD project has produced five peer-reviewed publications, while additional papers are currently under review. The work associated with this project has been presented at four international conferences (e.g., EWGT and ITS world congress) and three national conferences, and received recognitions from international organizations such as ITF/OECD and UITP.