Problems in Urban Mobility
Urban mobility is defined by the full set of trips people living in a city make each day, together with the methods and conditions of those trips (mode choice, trip length and duration, etc.). The trip types that make up urban mobility can broadly be divided into private-vehicle trips, public transport, and freight transport (urban logistics).
In our country, where urban areas are growing rapidly, the urban population — and consequently travel demand — is also increasing. The absence of the transport infrastructure and services needed to meet this demand negatively affects mobility. According to TomTom's 2019 Traffic Index data, in an assessment covering 416 cities, Istanbul ranked 9th. In the list — where Ankara ranked 100th and İzmir 134th — there are a total of 10 cities from Türkiye.
While local authorities make their investments in private and public transport, the applications launched by private entrepreneurs are also becoming widespread with advancing technology. Ride-hailing / ride-sharing systems such as Uber and Lyft — which were also on the agenda in our country for a time — have added a new dimension to taxi services, while micromobility solutions such as shared bikes and shared scooters are spreading worldwide. The services offered by private ventures have caused various debates in the public sphere, and the relevant public institutions have taken steps toward the necessary regulations for these services. All these developments indicate that users may be offered more options for urban mobility solutions in the near future.
The Emergence of MaaS
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) took its place for the first time under the heading "Mobility as a Service" in the National Intelligent Transportation Systems Strategy Document and 2020-2023 Action Plan published by the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure (Figure 1). The idea, first put forward in 2006 by Finnish Sampo Hietanen, was implemented in Helsinki in 2016 through the Whim app of MaaS Global, the company he founded.
MaaS is a platform that integrates public transport services such as buses, metro and trams together with ride-sharing, bike and scooter sharing, taxi and car-rental services (Figure 1). From point A to point B, a trip can be planned and booked using various combinations of these transport modes. In the system, which can also be used for navigation, payment transactions can be carried out digitally (Figure 2). In this way, dependence on private vehicles in urban mobility is expected to decrease.
What Does MaaS Change?
Trip Planning
Today, when there are already map applications that provide navigation services and include different modes such as private vehicle, public transport and walking, what difference does MaaS make? As seen in Figure 3, map applications such as Google Maps offer different trip-planning options depending on the region. In a sample search made in Istanbul, the public transport modes offered by the local authority appear, but shared bike or scooter options are not included. This is exactly where an integrated, city-specific MaaS solution comes into play. All public and private-sector organizations providing mobility services are offered as options in trip planning.
Payment Methods
Currently, cash, card, electronic payment options, or combinations thereof are enabled for city systems such as public transport, taxis, ride-sharing, and bike and scooter sharing. However, an electronic payment method valid for ride-sharing may not be valid for another system. On the other hand, the city cards valid in urban public transport systems have not yet been integrated into bike- and scooter-sharing systems. An integrated MaaS platform brings all of these into a single app and turns them into a common payment system (Figure 4).
Data Analytics
The trip-planning, booking and payment data run through the mobile app becomes an important treasure for analyzing urban mobility problems. Moovit — known for its public-transport mobile app and acquired by Intel last May for USD 900 million — does more than provide information to users; it processes the data it collects to turn it into more meaningful analyses. The big data obtained in real time can help urban transport planners make future decisions based on more detailed analyses.
Examples from Around the World
Among the world cities where MaaS applications are used, one should first mention Helsinki, the capital of the country where MaaS was born. Since 2016, MaaS Global's "Whim" app has brought together different mobility companies to offer Helsinki residents public transport, shared bikes, shared electric scooters, taxi and car-rental services through various subscription packages. In addition to a monthly subscription, a pay-as-you-go option is also available.
Another company that has recently shown an active presence in MaaS activities is Trafi. Having partnered with the Berlin local authority in 2019 to launch a MaaS app called "Jelbi", Trafi also reached an agreement with the Munich local authority in early 2020 and plans to launch an app called "MVGO". In August 2020, the first "regional MaaS" application covering Zurich, Bern and Basel, "yumuv", went live. All of these applications include various combinations of public transport, ride-sharing, bike and scooter sharing, and taxi services.
Moovit, acquired by Intel, and Cubic announced in July 2020 that they would develop a joint MaaS platform. In the MaaS world, besides business-to-consumer (B2C) ventures that address users directly, there are also business-to-business (B2B) MaaS applications. Among the companies that enable businesses to provide MaaS services to their own employees are Vaigo and Skipr. The company iomob, which enables different stakeholders in the MaaS ecosystem to come together, gives clues about the industry's expansion.
On the other hand, there are also critical views on MaaS applications. In his article in Bloomberg CityLab, David Zipper emphasizes that MaaS applications have not gained enough popularity in society and that MaaS companies earn very low profits. He argues that the fact that investment decisions on the transport infrastructure needed for bikes and scooters, and on public transport, lie with local authorities is a limiting factor for MaaS companies to reach broad user bases. Boyd Cohen, co-founder of iomob, argues that it is not right to pit MaaS and car ownership against each other, and that private vehicles and other transport modes can be used together in trip planning.
The Future of MaaS in Türkiye
Recently, scooter-sharing systems such as Martı, HOP, Palm and BinBin that have emerged in the major cities of our country, along with bike-sharing systems mostly offered by local authorities, are becoming widespread. In addition, car-rental applications such as Moov, TikTak and zipcar are being introduced alongside taxi services such as biTaksi and iTaksi. In most of the major cities in our country, card-based payment systems such as İstanbulkart and Ankarakart are already widespread in public transport systems, and in-app payment systems are gradually being introduced. If common platforms emerge that bring together local authorities with the private ventures appearing, it is possible that we will also see MaaS applications in Türkiye in the near future. Drawing up a roadmap by including as many companies in the mobility ecosystem as possible in a common platform to be established in Türkiye — like the MaaS Alliance — could be beneficial for all stakeholders in the sector.