Shared mobility and MaaS: Regulatory challenges of urban mobility

Urban mobility is a daily challenge. People are increasingly faced with significant time and money costs to access their workplaces and other urban amenities (school, shopping, leisure activities, etc.). The external costs of road transport (i.e. accidents, congestion, noise, air pollution, and CO2 emissions) are an important area of concern. The Paris Agreement (United Nations, 2015) commits all signatories to reducing CO2 emissions with the aim of keeping the global temperature rise this century below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Efforts are being made at national, state/provincial and local government levels. The road transport sector, which is responsible for 19% of total GHG emissions in Europe, will play an especially important role in this respect. The external costs of road transport have been scrutinised and measured for decades, and the idea of encouraging car drivers to switch to public transport has also been embedded in local transport policies across countries for a long time. Although some progress has been made, the missing piece in the puzzle has typically been linked to the disutility of changing mode, foregoing the convenience that the private car brings, and the financial problems linked to public transport provision in areas of dispersed and low demand. An answer to these problems may come via the concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS), which today is gaining momentum in a number of countries.