Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS): Analyzing activity-travel behavior and its application to on-demand multi-modal mobility solutions in cities

Mobility-as-a-Service (Maas) has emerged as a concept in response to the need for integrated mobility solutions, which combine transportation services across different modes allowing people to travel by combining available transport options in the city. For example, from a unified service booking and payment platform, an individual, based on their travel needs, would be able to seamlessly choose a combination of bicycling, car-sharing and public transport to complete a single trip. The concept of MaaS presents several challenges for its implementation and operation in urban areas, the most significant of which is how to create realistic MaaS plans to cater for the heterogeneous mobility needs of distinct groups of would-be users. Meeting traveler needs in a MaaS system requires an understanding of individuals' activity-travel patterns and their underlying complex decision-making processes. This study will use activity-travel analysis to consider the need to travel as derived from a person's desire to participate in various activities distributed across the city and provides a framework to capture and analyze the complex decision-making process by which an individual schedules and implements their transport choices. This project will use data about activity-travel patterns gathered using a travel-diary and GPS tracking equipment as part of the iMCD project to capture the characteristics of an individual's travel for a single day or multiple days. From this large dataset, attributes of trips including purpose and duration, origin and destination and travel mode choice, and route choice which will enable us to examine which factors are of paramount importance in determining an individuals' transport behaviour, develop a typology of transport users and their openess to different models of MaaS and support cities and transport agencies in developing their emerging MaaS systems based on the needs and preferences of their residents.