Can a new approach to moving people around be a ‘win, win’ for people, the economy and the environment all at the same time?

In a future carbon sustainable, net-zero world, people will still want, and probably need, to travel. This prompts the question, ‘how?’ From a Systems Engineering (SE) perspective, one answer would be Mobility as a Service (MaaS).

What is MaaS?

The UK’s Government Office for Science (citing the Transport Systems Catapult and UK Parliamentary records) describes MaaS as:

‘digital interface to source and manage the provision of a transport related service(s) which meets the mobility requirements of a customer’.

MaaS is a system that provides a single point of organisation for a journey, providing options to use any part of the existing array of transport services, modes, infrastructure, and vehicles. It is understood as a method of optimising  intermodal, vehicle-sharing/rental, metro, rail, bus, tram, bike sharing/hire, walking and taxi services to meet individuals’ travel needs. This is then accessed and paid for via a single device, such as a smart phone.  

Mobility as a Service is normally recognised as a journey-based, end- to-end travel management service. As such, it is not typically identified with any one, single provider. Instead, it is a mechanism for coordinating the services of different providers to meet individuals’ journey needs. This does not prevent transport service providers from delivering MaaS services, but the key requirement is to meet the needs of the individual traveller, rather than the needs of the service provider. If an entity is providing MaaS services, there is clearly an opportunity for a conflict of interest between maximising revenue and offering the best solution for the traveller.

This all suggests MaaS will rely on a complete understanding of the travellers’ needs, while providing access to the power of transport service providers: their journey planning, booking service and information.  The traveler will need  real-time information about all transport services relevant to a particular journey, protection of individuals’ personal data and agreements on the distribution of revenue.

This places the exchange of data as a key element of MaaS provision.

Woman boarding a bus Source: Tolu Olarewaju on Unsplash

It matters…

Productive Manufacturing

The gestation of MaaS as an idea is long and tortuous. Co-ordination of railway companies was believed to be important for business efficiency and national economic success since before the First World War. The performance of nationally coordinated railway companies during the war highlighted the economic benefits (for passengers, freight, and production). Co-ordination therefore became the dominant transport orthodoxy in Britain after the First World War. The efforts of Sir Eric Geddes (Britain’s first Minister of Transport), to achieve it were undermined by the peacetime growth of road transport, the desires of each mode for dominance, professional division along modal lines and the lack of a common view of transport. Subsequent transport legislation has focused on the commercial and organisational elements of different modes. Productive manufacturing is dependent on viable transport and integration of the different modes is essential to achieving the most efficient integrated solutions.

Digital Futures 

It is clear there has been a long-standing desire for co-ordination and integration of transport services that has waxed and waned under a range of external pressures (political, social, organisational, professional and commercial pressures). Whilst such pressures still exist, developments in digital and communications technologies now provide opportunities to reduce or remove them, enabling integration to progress. This provides the historical background to explain why MaaS is relevant today. The dependence on the exchange of data for MaaS to succeed highlights the significance of SE to co-ordinating and integrating transport services. Systems engineering also has a role in ensuring business models at the system of systems level are properly aligned to deliver the expected benefits. 

It is important that data is shared so MaaS solutions can create opportunities for business efficiencies by reducing congestion (estimated to be worth £4b a year by 2025) if they are realised in the UK. Alongside this, MaaS has the potential to develop the transport market by opening new journey opportunities and using data to maximise capacity through existing networks. Optimising network efficiency and improving resilience could also save the UK freight industry £0.5bn pa by 2025. SE will be a significant factor in delivering such MaaS solutions, which could include journey planners, payment and ticketing systems, control systems and connected vehicles.

Sustainable Planet

The reduction in congestion and improvements in the use of existing transport networks that is available from MaaS solutions can cut carbon emissions through system-wide optimisation that eliminates inefficiencies, reduces unnecessary journeys, encourages active travel and promotes sustainability. These benefits are likely to be maximised if a SE approach is used to identify all of the user needs and provide the best solution to meet them.

MaaS offers the ability to maximise the use of scare resources by better targeting the ‘whole journey’ needs of users. This supports a sustainability approach, applying to vehicles, infrastructure and energy and providing economic benefits.

Healthy Lives

The social and health benefits available from a MaaS approach can also be identified in the opportunities for accident reductions and associated deaths and injuries. This will be dependent on the future deployment of automation, for which SE is vital.

Health improvements can also be expected from the reduction in congestion and improvements in social inclusion that MaaS offers, including enhanced freedom of movement and access to public services for disadvantaged groups through access to tailored solutions.

Guard at an underground railway station Source: Liam Burnett-Blue on Unsplash

MaaS solutions can include autonomy, which provides the opportunity to improve safety for vulnerable road users, thus encouraging active travel. This creates the environment for improving health though individual fitness and reductions in the use of energy intensive (or poor air quality) modes. This is dependent on the support of legislation to ensure that travellers using active travel modes are not discouraged through poor vehicle deployment, infrastructure design or poorly regulated and enforced segregation. Cycling UK suggests that autonomous vehicles should only be introduced after a Road Accident Investigation Branch has been established to monitor them (similar to maritime, air and rail modes)¹⁰⁰. This implies that elements of MaaS should be subject to regulatory intervention. SE provides the mechanism for acquiring and managing all requirements from all stakeholders, including regulators. It also provides an approach for managing data security and balancing the data privacy requirements of users with the effective operation of the MaaS environment.

People Centric Infrastructure

Elements of MaaS will enable more efficient use of existing infrastructure, or a reduced demand for it, which could make it available to be repurposed for alternative uses (in a similar fashion to disused railway lines being used as cycleways). Alternatively, MaaS may reduce the need for new infrastructure, which will avoid the destruction of existing community assets and environments.

Share your thoughts!

How achievable, is Mobility-as-a-Service?

What other technological / engineering opportunities does a project like Mobility-as-a-Service project offer?

#thewholesystem