Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MaaS4EU (End-to-End Approach for Mobility-as-a-Service tools, business models, enabling framework and evidence for European seamless mobility)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2018-12-01 al 2020-10-31
With the projected growth in transport demand, the current modus operandi in transport supply is deemed unsustainable and generates the need for innovative services that could support seamless mobility and a shift from car ownership to usership. An emerging trend towards this direction is the integration of on-demand modes in conjunction with public transport, leading to the Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) concept. MaaS is a user-centric, intelligent mobility distribution model, in which users' needs are met via a single platform and are offered by a service provider, the mobility operator. Although activities in this field are ongoing, at present there are no established frameworks and quantifiable evidence about MaaS costs and benefits, users’ needs, as well as its influence on travel patterns and car ownership of various user groups. Against this background the main goal of MaaS4EU is to provide evidence, frameworks and tools, to remove the barriers and enable a cooperative and interconnected EU single transport market for the MaaS concept, by addressing challenges at 4 levels, (1) business, (2) end-users, (3) technology and (4) policy. This is achieved by defining sustainable business models that support the cooperation across transport stakeholders, understanding user needs and choices, implementing the required technological infrastructure and identifying the enabling policy and regulatory frameworks.
A set of eight project objectives has been defined and the work performed is presented below.
O1: Three different organizational structures for MaaS have been explored describing different frameworks through which a MaaS system can be arranged, operated and developed. The analysis focuses on the MaaS operator, taking into consideration different types of ownership models, and how these translate into different organizational structures and distribution of responsibilities. Business models for the three pilot areas have been developed and the respective MaaS4EU products demonstrated in the pilots were designed, priced and positioned.
O2: The diversity of private-public collaborations in the proof-of-concepts demonstrations we tackled in the project, removed where possible, mobility services operators’ silos and enabled the in-depth understanding of the dynamics between partnerships in different levels (operational, business, regulatory and technological). Based on elicited user requirements, we developed use cases to describe the processes and actors involved in the technological approach for the MaaS4EU platform. In addition, we established the MaaS4EU reference architecture composed of 12 components split over 3 layers.
O3: MaaS4EU undertook a state of the art literature review regarding among others transport behavioural models and the mobility behaviour of end users. This helped MaaS4EU to understand personal/internal and external factors affecting users’ mobility behaviour as well as assess potential travel behaviour changes. In respect to this the potential impact of MaaS4EU app on travel behaviour choices in the three pilots was investigated as also recommendations about how MaaS can be designed within and after the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure transport systems sustainability were prepared.
O4: MaaS4EU finalised the requirements gathering, the setting of needs, as also the documentation of the design of the MaaS4EU service integration framework and the final version of the MaaS4EU integrated platform was delivered. The Maas4EU platform includes generic but also pilot specific functionality, based on the specific requirements of the operators integrated in each city. MaaS4EU has also defined and implemented the City Aware MaaS Plans Designer, a web-based dashboard that supports MaaS operators to select MaaS plans that make sense to travellers and potentially have the greatest acceptance, relying on city characteristics that affect the use of mobility modes by its inhabitants.
O5: The User Information Model of MaaS4EU platform stores, mines, and extracts the required user information from data sources. Moreover, MaaS4EU develops models and algorithms that augment MaaS services with dynamicity and personalization (MaaS Plans Recommender, MaaS Route Recommender, dynamic journey planner).
O6: MaaS4EU prepared the final version of the MaaS Policy Framework which includes among others a review of the EU legal and regulatory frameworks as also evidences on regulatory issues and policy implications from the real-world activities carried within the MaaS4EU project.
O7: The progress includes the execution of the pilot activities from the setup to the successful final implementation in the three pilot areas.
O8: Dissemination activities were finalised. During the project the MaaS4EU consortium attended 61 events, was presented 25 times during events and published 21 papers and academic articles.
O1: Three different organizational structures for MaaS have been explored describing different frameworks through which a MaaS system can be arranged, operated and developed. The analysis focuses on the MaaS operator, taking into consideration different types of ownership models, and how these translate into different organizational structures and distribution of responsibilities. Business models for the three pilot areas have been developed and the respective MaaS4EU products demonstrated in the pilots were designed, priced and positioned.
O2: The diversity of private-public collaborations in the proof-of-concepts demonstrations we tackled in the project, removed where possible, mobility services operators’ silos and enabled the in-depth understanding of the dynamics between partnerships in different levels (operational, business, regulatory and technological). Based on elicited user requirements, we developed use cases to describe the processes and actors involved in the technological approach for the MaaS4EU platform. In addition, we established the MaaS4EU reference architecture composed of 12 components split over 3 layers.
O3: MaaS4EU undertook a state of the art literature review regarding among others transport behavioural models and the mobility behaviour of end users. This helped MaaS4EU to understand personal/internal and external factors affecting users’ mobility behaviour as well as assess potential travel behaviour changes. In respect to this the potential impact of MaaS4EU app on travel behaviour choices in the three pilots was investigated as also recommendations about how MaaS can be designed within and after the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure transport systems sustainability were prepared.
O4: MaaS4EU finalised the requirements gathering, the setting of needs, as also the documentation of the design of the MaaS4EU service integration framework and the final version of the MaaS4EU integrated platform was delivered. The Maas4EU platform includes generic but also pilot specific functionality, based on the specific requirements of the operators integrated in each city. MaaS4EU has also defined and implemented the City Aware MaaS Plans Designer, a web-based dashboard that supports MaaS operators to select MaaS plans that make sense to travellers and potentially have the greatest acceptance, relying on city characteristics that affect the use of mobility modes by its inhabitants.
O5: The User Information Model of MaaS4EU platform stores, mines, and extracts the required user information from data sources. Moreover, MaaS4EU develops models and algorithms that augment MaaS services with dynamicity and personalization (MaaS Plans Recommender, MaaS Route Recommender, dynamic journey planner).
O6: MaaS4EU prepared the final version of the MaaS Policy Framework which includes among others a review of the EU legal and regulatory frameworks as also evidences on regulatory issues and policy implications from the real-world activities carried within the MaaS4EU project.
O7: The progress includes the execution of the pilot activities from the setup to the successful final implementation in the three pilot areas.
O8: Dissemination activities were finalised. During the project the MaaS4EU consortium attended 61 events, was presented 25 times during events and published 21 papers and academic articles.
As seen in our vision for the MaaS4EU project, the MaaS operator acts as an intermediary between transport operators and users. The customers can configure and buy a bundle of services (composed of different modes) and can make informed decisions about which one (or combination) to use for each of their trips by using a single interface. In addition, the MaaS operator can propose the ideal combination of transport modes to them for each trip by knowing the network conditions in real time (supply side) and the preferences of users (demand side) thus optimizing the supply and the demand. Our research work is clustered in research directions which interact with each other, namely: business aspects, user aspects, and technology aspects.
Transport Business Models
The business models which are developed within MaaS4EU consider different building blocks, such as value proposition, customer segments and relationships etc. MaaS4EU aims to fill the research gaps by exploring different MaaS business models, where the services offered and the type of MaaS operators differs.
Travel Surveys and Travel Behavior Models
Research in travel surveys and transport modelling, focuses mainly on traditional transport modes leaving a gap regarding new mobility services and MaaS. MaaS4EU fills this gap by advancing methodologies both in the travel data collection and travel behaviour modelling.
Data fusion and ITS interoperability
MaaS4EU aims to solve research questions related to several technological areas in order to provide seamless mobility in the urban context. The goal is to homogenize and use mobility-related data in a unified manner, by introducing a common format to facilitate the consolidation of all available data structures and semantics.
Dynamic Travel services
Novel information services, that allow the seamless integration of modes (on informational and physical levels) has been investigated to enable inclusion of different types of mobility services, with different functional and physical characteristics. MaaS4EU has developed:
1. a dynamic multi-service journey planner
2. a supply and demand optimizer
Personalization for Adaptive Travel Services
Our analysis of personalized product selection approaches reveals that the transportation domain and MaaS is an untapped area. Small scale MaaS initiatives commonly use one size fits all approaches and provide a limited set of packages or options. In MaaS4EU we provide personalized, timely and context specific information to users in order to maximize the MaaS usage satisfaction, leading to wider adoption.
Transport Business Models
The business models which are developed within MaaS4EU consider different building blocks, such as value proposition, customer segments and relationships etc. MaaS4EU aims to fill the research gaps by exploring different MaaS business models, where the services offered and the type of MaaS operators differs.
Travel Surveys and Travel Behavior Models
Research in travel surveys and transport modelling, focuses mainly on traditional transport modes leaving a gap regarding new mobility services and MaaS. MaaS4EU fills this gap by advancing methodologies both in the travel data collection and travel behaviour modelling.
Data fusion and ITS interoperability
MaaS4EU aims to solve research questions related to several technological areas in order to provide seamless mobility in the urban context. The goal is to homogenize and use mobility-related data in a unified manner, by introducing a common format to facilitate the consolidation of all available data structures and semantics.
Dynamic Travel services
Novel information services, that allow the seamless integration of modes (on informational and physical levels) has been investigated to enable inclusion of different types of mobility services, with different functional and physical characteristics. MaaS4EU has developed:
1. a dynamic multi-service journey planner
2. a supply and demand optimizer
Personalization for Adaptive Travel Services
Our analysis of personalized product selection approaches reveals that the transportation domain and MaaS is an untapped area. Small scale MaaS initiatives commonly use one size fits all approaches and provide a limited set of packages or options. In MaaS4EU we provide personalized, timely and context specific information to users in order to maximize the MaaS usage satisfaction, leading to wider adoption.