Mobility-as-a-service platforms and services are changing the approach to mobility, especially in urban areas, providing integration between different stakeholders and a more sustainable transport ecosystem.
Mobility as a service (MaaS), electric cars and buses, autonomous vehicles, on-demand responsive transit, micromobility, and ride-hailing services are some examples of the smart-mobility technologies that have appeared in many cities and countries around the world in recent years.
There are many reasons that smart-mobility services and technologies are gaining traction everywhere. Some of those are primarily commercial and convenient, such as ride-hailing services and micromobility. Other technologies, such as electrification of the automobile industry and public transport, aim to reduce emissions. At the same time, autonomous vehicles could also provide cost reductions and allow people with disabilities to enjoy a practical and convenient mobility experience.
Fifteen years ago, the arrival of the smartphone opened a new platform, unimaginable at the time, for new startups and existing stakeholders to offer new mobility services. The current big providers of ride-hailing services, such as Uber, Lyft, and Cabify, to name a few, could not exist without the apps, location technologies, connectivity, and payment platforms that are needed for their services to operate.
For public transport operators, payment technologies such as NXP’s Mifare introduced smartcards and NFC ticketing solutions, now in use worldwide. Without it, cities like London, New York, Paris, Lisbon, and many others wouldn’t process the millions of payment transactions that occur daily in their lines.
Currently, the same technology is used on contactless credit cards and mobile payments such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. In most cities, the original transit cards are no longer necessary: Passengers can use their smartphones or bank cards to access the services without purchasing tickets.
Ride-hailing services and autonomous vehicles can’t replace public transit
A few years ago, ride-hailing service operators argued that most public transport could be replaced mainly by their platforms. They claimed that while most private vehicles, such as cars in cities, are in use for less than 5% of the time, their on-demand services could replace millions of personal journeys with a fraction of the number of vehicles.
While the argument is valid for replacing private vehicles, it is impossible to transfer most mobility to individual cars.
“The proportion of public transport journeys in the world’s cities must double [from pre-pandemic levels] in this decade to bring global emissions down, in line with keeping the temperature rise to 1.5˚C,” according to a recent report from the Cities Climate Leadership Group (C40), which connects 97 of the world’s greatest cities. “Without this action, it will simply not be possible for countries to deliver on the global goal to at least halve emissions within this decade.”
While the electrification of the automotive industry could offer significant reductions in atmospheric emissions and noise pollution in cities, adding more cars increases traffic congestion and, conversely, the pollution caused by the rest of the vehicles on the road.
Today, when we watch popular TV shows, it is common to see some characters ordering an Uber or Lyft and quickly arriving at their destination (a classic example of product placement). Ride-hailing is an attractive option for many people, and it is a convenient option for those that can’t drive themselves or do not own a private vehicle.
However, over the past several years, many studies have demonstrated that ride-hailing causes more damage than good.
A study published last year by the Union of Concerned Scientists shows that “ride-hailing trips today result in an estimated 69% more climate pollution on average than the trips they displace.” The authors recommend that ride-hailing companies “move rapidly to electrify vehicles, increase pooled trips, and complement mass transit.”
Some people also argue that autonomous cars could offer a more sustainable solution, as more people could ditch car ownership. In 2014, Uber’s then-CEO Travis Kalanick argued during the Code Conference in Palo Verdes, California, “When there is no other dude [driver] in the car, the cost of taking an Uber anywhere becomes cheaper than owning a vehicle…bringing the cost of Uber rides below the cost of car ownership for everybody, and then car ownership goes away.”
Most experts agree that the argument is flawed, as most drivers, while they want to enjoy some of the advanced automation technologies that new cars offer, will use those technologies to enjoy autonomous driving trips — people like to drive, not to commute — and continue to purchase their own vehicles. Additionally, the infrastructure and regulations to allow private autonomous driving in cities would not be ready for several years.
Demand-responsive and autonomous public transit are excellent solutions as part of MaaS services
There is no doubt that, in most places, public transport is not available for everyone with the same level of service. It is common in metropolitan areas to have underserved locations and, in rural areas, have only a daily bus or no service.
Of course, over the last century, municipalities and operators have claimed that car ownership, which is obviously higher in those areas, solves the problem. Nowadays, we know that that is not a solution but adds more problems. First, not everyone can own a car, and many people can’t drive.
Additionally, while some park-and-ride programs are popular in big metropolitan cities, on many occasions, people who start a journey in their own cars decide to drive to their destination.
Recently, during the Tomorrow Mobility conference in Barcelona, several public transit operators discussed the concept of demand-responsive transport (DRT). DRT is a transport service wherein day-to-day operation is determined by the requirements of its users.
By using an app or phone call, residents can request a ride from predetermined stops, usually provided by a minibus, to reach their destination.
Costs per passenger are high because of low ridership, thus the need to be subsidized by public funding. As the service gets more passengers, applying algorithms and data science, the operator optimizes the routes getting more users along the way, and costs go down.
DRT can help make rural areas attractive, preventing the need to move to urban areas for employment opportunities. It can also provide a solution for linking rural tourist destinations with existing transport infrastructure, supporting rural businesses and rural development.
The next steps are implementing fully electric buses and autonomous DRT
It is unlikely that underserved areas will reach the level of DRT ridership to make it profitable or achieve breakeven. In fact, almost all European cities subsidize public transport to make it affordable.
The economic benefits of public transport, including DRT services for cities and regions, could not be calculated only by costs and revenue. However, while providing a good service that encourages public transport usage, cities and municipalities need to consider advanced technologies to reduce costs and emissions.
The first step is full electrification of public transport. Subways (Metropolitan) and light rail are already fully electrified in most cities, but the current fleets of public transport buses aren’t. In many cities, a limited number of electric buses have joined their fleets — except for China, which has over 99% of the number of electric buses operating worldwide.
The second, and critical, step is starting to happen in limited locations: autonomous buses. While those, especially minibuses, have been around for some time in controlled areas such as university campuses, airports, and harbors, very few operate on public roads.
Some companies, governments, and research institutions are now trying to bring autonomous buses to small cities and underserved areas. One initiative is the European Union FABULOS (Future Automated Bus Urban Level Operation Systems) project.
One of the participants in the project is Estonian startup Auvetech, originally from a team of students at Tallinn University of Technology. Their autonomous minibus, which can carry up to eight passengers and operate for eight hours, is currently serving different cities in Europe, including their hometown of Tallinn, Gdańsk (Poland), and Lamia (Greece).
According to Paula Johanna Adamson, co-founder of Auvetech, “We can operate a fleet of vehicles and exchange 10 drivers for one safety operator who remotely looks over the fleet, so we can bring down the work costs and make the service more flexible while also making it more cost-effective.”
The future of the car is unclear, but we can’t continue to depend on it for commuting
Anyone who has listened to the speeches of C-level executives of major car companies in recent years has heard that these businesses are transforming from selling individual cars to individual drivers to becoming MaaS companies.
That claim, however, is constantly debunked by their actions and advertisement. While there is clear evidence of the transition to full electrification of the automotive industry, their plans and investments are clearly aimed at the continuity of their existing business models.
Smaller vendors, especially those arising from the tech sector, are investing heavily in autonomous vehicle research and development, intending to provide MaaS, integrated with other operators.
Those companies realize that, while people will continue to use cars, car ownership has to decline. Offering a comprehensive mobility solution is convenient and necessary to achieve our society’s sustainable goals and our planet’s needs.
