Mobility as a Service (MaaS) can have a positive impact on a city by making it easier for people to ditch their cars, a new analysis shows.
Digital MaaS platforms enable people to plan, book and pay for a range of public, shared and private transport services.
Engineering and design consultancy Ramboll conducted an impact study which looked at the first operating year of Whim, a MaaS service in Helsinki, Finland.
Based on data from 70,000 registered users, the study found that public transport is the backbone of MaaS. Whim users make 73% of their trips on public transport services such as rail, bus and tram compared to 48% trips made by the average citizen of Helsinki.
Whim users are “steeped into multimodalism“, the researchers said.
They use both bicycles and taxis to solve the first mile/last mile problem. For example, 42% of all Whim users’ city bike trips are combined with public transport.
Customers use a wide range of transport services, and are “clearly shifting to sustainable mobility patterns, which will have a major impact on city congestion and car dependency“, Ramboll reported.
“Whim users seem to be more open to combine different mobility options and to try out new mobility services such as city bikes. They are using taxis as a first and last mile service three times more than the average Helsinki citizens,” said Jukka-Pekka Pitkänen, director of Ramboll’s smart mobility division.
“Should this behaviour become even more common trend, it will help cities to solve their congestion problems, make urban areas more pedestrian friendly and help cities to meet their sustainability goals.”
A report by ABI Research predicted that MaaS will be a trillion-dollar market by 2030.
Reliable and widespread connectivity will support the growth of MaaS and other ‘as a service’ business models. Download our Next-generation connectivity report to learn more!
Tags: mobility services, city bikes
