Ready for Mobility as a Service? Insights from stakeholders and end-users

• Published in: Travel, behaviour & society behaviour & society, 2020-10, Vol.21, p.295-306
• Main Authors: Polydoropoulou, Amalia, Pagoni, Ioanna, Tsirimpa, Athena
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Barriers; End-users; Focus groups; Mobility as a Service; Qualitative cluster analysis; Stakeholders; Workshops
• ISSN: 2214-367X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tbs.2018.11.003

•Stakeholders’ and end-users’ expectations, perceptions and concerns for MaaS are investigated.•Data from Budapest and Manchester are collected via workshops, focus groups and a survey.•Potential benefits and barriers, partnership issues, and end-users concerns are analyzed.•Stakeholders are highly motivated to join MaaS for increasing market shares and revenues.•Variations in the stakeholders’ viewpoints were identified via a qualitative cluster analysis. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a relatively recent mobility concept, which has the potential to contribute to a more sustainable transport system. The starting point for its success is to acquire a deeper understanding of the key actors’ motives, expectations, perceptions and concerns. To this end, this paper applies a mixed-methods approach, using qualitative and quantitative research to collect and analyze data from key MaaS-related stakeholders and end-users. In particular, workshops with stakeholders and focus groups with end-users were conducted in two European metropolitan areas, Budapest in Hungary and Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom. In addition, an on-line questionnaire survey was launched to collect quantitative data from end-users. Stakeholders’ and end-users’ perspectives on different MaaS-related aspects are collected and analyzed. Our analysis indicates that stakeholders are highly motivated to join a MaaS partnership for receiving better quality demand data and increasing their market shares and revenues. In addition, lack of data and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) was identified as a significant operational/technical barrier, while the strong reliance of people on their private vehicles was indicated as the strongest social barrier. A qualitative cluster analysis was conducted revealing significant variations in the stakeholders’ viewpoints depending on the business domain they represented. The findings of this paper provide useful insights for the decision-making processes of policy makers, local authorities, transport operators and other MaaS actors, helping them to make informed decisions when implementing MaaS schemes in their cities.