Understanding Mobility as a Service (MaaS): Past, Present and Future

The widespread adoption of smartphones, ridesharing and carsharing have disrupted the transport sector. In cities around the world, new mobility services are both welcomed and challenged by regulators and incumbent operators. Mobility as a Service (MaaS), an ecosystem designed to deliver collaborative and connected mobility services in a society increasingly embracing a sharing culture, is at the center of this disruption.

Understanding Mobility as a Service (MaaS): Past, Present and Future examines such topics as:

• How likely MaaS will be implemented in one digital platform app
• Whether MaaS will look the same in all countries
• The role multi-modal contract brokers play
• Mobility regulations and pricing models
• MaaS trials, their impacts and consequences

Written by the leading thinkers in the field for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers, Understanding Mobility as a Service (MaaS): Past, Present and Future serves as a single source on all the current and evolving developments, debates, and challenges.

Professor David Hensher is the Founding Director of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) at The University of Sydney. David is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences, Recipient of the 2009 International Association of Travel Behaviour Research (IATBR) Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition for his long-standing and exceptional contribution to IATBR as well as to the wider travel behaviour community; Recipient of the 2006 Engineers Australia Transport Medal for lifelong contribution to transportation, recipient of the Smart 2013 Premier Award for Excellence in Supply Chain Management, the 2014 Institute of Transportation Engineers (Australia and New Zealand) Transport Profession Award, and the 2016 Award for Outstanding Research as part of the inaugural University of Sydney Vice-Chancellor’s Awards for Excellence. David is also the recipient of the 2019 John Shaw Medal which honours an industry champion who has made a lasting contribution to Australia's roads. In 2018 David was selected as one of 25 academics at the University of Sydney who have made a significant impact through engaging with industry and government. He has published over 650 papers in leading international transport and economics journals as well as 16 books. He has over 54,000 citations of his contributions in Google scholar and a Scopus H-index of 65.

Professor Emerita Corinne Mulley was the inaugural Chair of Public Transport at the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies at The University of Sydney. Corinne is a transport economist, active in transport research at the interface of transport policy and economics, concentrating on specific issues relating to public transport. She has provided both practical and strategic advice to local and national governments on transport evaluation, including economic impact analysis, benchmarking, rural transport issues, public transport management and on Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Professor Mulley's research is motivated by a need to provide evidence for policy initiatives and, whilst in Sydney, created links with the federal government, for example serving as an expert on the Public Transport Committee, the National Infrastructure Audit for Infrastructure Australia and the Long Term Master Plan for the NSW state government. Corinne continues to be engaged in research looking widely at BRT issues, value capture, regional transport flexible transport services with Transport for NSW, studies understanding travel behaviour and studies involving Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in different contexts.

Chinh Ho is Senior Lecturer in Applied Spatial Data Analytics in the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) at University of Sydney. He has a research track record with 28 journal articles, five book chapters and 12 fully refereed conference papers (three winning the best paper award) in the areas of logistics and transport, statistical modelling and big data. Acting as a member of scientific and technical committee, Chinh has provided strategic and operational advice on urban and regional planning, including economic analysis of transport infrastructure projects in Vietnam, urban mobility for developing world, and public transport and demand modelling issues in Australia. His research interests cover four main areas: (1) integrated land use and transport planning (ILUT), (2) spatial analysis of big data, (3) emerging transport technologies such as mobility as a service (MaaS) and driverless vehicles, (4) modelling group decisions.

Yale Wong is Doctoral Candidate and Research Analyst at the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) at The University of Sydney Business School. Yale’s research focus encompasses three core facets in future mobility, transport contracts and bus operations. A major area of work for Yale is to market test the mobility as a service (MaaS) proposition with the aim to understand what the community demands and businesses are willing to provide. As part of this, Yale won the David Willis prize (2018) for pioneering work using stated choice methods to identify the structure of broker/aggregator mobility contracts. In addition, Yale undertakes a range of advisory and consultancy work with clients ranging from bus operators to industry bodies, vehicle suppliers and local government. Having previously worked in bus operations with experience in network planning and service development, Yale continues to be called upon regularly by the bus industry in his now strategic capacity looking to the future of the bus industry in an era of disruption and change.

Göran Smith is a regional developer at Region Västra Götaland (Sweden) and industrial Ph.D. candidate at Chalmers University of Technology. Additionally, he holds a position as honorary research associate at the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies at University of Sydney. In his doctoral project, which is tied to K2 – the Swedish Knowledge Centre for Public Transport, he studies the development and diffusion of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in the Nordic countries. The main objectives are to create better understanding of disruptive and collaborative innovation processes, and of how the public sector can govern such processes so that they bring value to involved actors as well as to society. Beyond theoretical contributions, Göran's research will create a basis for long-term strategic decisions regarding Region Västra Götaland's future roles in MaaS.