The Ws of MaaS: Understanding mobility as a service from a literature review

Abstract

Transport integration has evolved into Mobility as a service (MaaS), and as a recent topic, MaaS-literature is rapidly growing. This study analyses 57 MaaS-focused documents (the majority being peer-reviewed articles) from Scopus in January 2019. The aim is to comprehensively answer MaaS basic W-questions: 1) What is MaaS? 2), When and where did the term appear? 3), Who are the main actors in MaaS? 4), How can MaaS be implemented? and 5) Why should it be implemented? Future research lines are also offered. Our findings show that MaaS is an ongoing topical subject; there are still many contributions under development to reach a definition. In order to succeed in implementing it, key stakeholders, such as transport authorities and transport operators, must cooperate to achieve the predicted sustainable effects envisioned. New data on user travel behaviour and their preferences should be obtained through MaaS pilots, helping transport planners and policy makers when evaluating MaaS impacts and its feasibility to be the next transport paradigm.