The prime of one innovation: 5 years of future thinking

Happy new year and welcome back! To kick off the new year, we think it's pivotal to look at the technological innovation that completely leapt forward in recent years: Mobility-as-a-Service. 2022 yielded remarkable progress for the MaaS as we witnessed it transform into a billion-dollar smart mobility sector. So, we are very curious about how different countries received this concept.

The Netherlands

Arriva, a Deutsche Bahn subsidiary running some of the trains, launched its MaaS app called Glimble for these pilot regions in August 2021. It is immediately available for the whole country, all public transport has been deeply integrated into the app, meaning Glimble can perform all the planning, booking and paying.?The traveller uses just this one app to access all the transport modes needed?for the journey.

Amaze, launched on October 1, 2021, is a MaaS app by a provider that doesn’t have its own mobility. “We don’t have wheels on the ground,” says Amaze’s Karin Sijbring. “Our goal is to make flexible travel as simple as possible. It allows you to directly buy tickets for trains, buses and trams; display the QR code on the screen and you're checked in. We also have a ‘Near me’-option: if your ride of choice has just left, you can quickly get an alternative,” says Sijbring.

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United States

In Texas, Uber has been working with Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) since 2019 to deliver complementary first last mile and DRT services. DART is a multimodal agency comprising 13 suburban and rural cities, and they partnered with Uber to provide riders with greater flexibility and more options to meet a diversity of transport needs.

Says Jonna Heikkinen, head of Transit Partnerships EMEA at Uber: “DART’s program has grown from a couple of zones to providing Uber as a first last mile solution to connect riders to key transport hubs in 32 geofenced zones. Riders can travel anywhere within the eligible zones or to and from eligible DART rail stations with just US$3 per Uber ride which has worked as an efficient extension for local public transport.?

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Italy

Earlier last year the Italian city of Genoa hit the headlines thanks to the deployment of a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) network that was not only ticketless but didn’t even require users to take their phones out of their pockets.?But how was it done?

In July 2022, in a move to revolutionize how people travel in towns and cities, Hitachi Rail digitally connected public and private hire transport across the entire city of Genoa, Italy. This world-first trail was achieved using technology from Hitachi’s new smart mobility suite called Lumada Intelligent Mobility Management.

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Hot topics this month you don't want to miss:

To give you complete knowledge on mobility overview, we also list below all the latest news on the sector from Intertraffic.

• A sustainable, safe, and pollution-free transport system sounds like a dream when living in big cities. Luckily, it won’t be a dream anymore, at least for Europeans.
• The Greek has a long history of innovative intellect. With the new EU's mobility program, could Greece transform its infrastructure into one of the smartest cities in Europe?
• Although the daily amount of car parks at the airport looks massive, it is actually the staff and workers that take up to half of the daily commuters to the airport. But why does it matter?

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for the next edition of Mobility Insights.

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