Can MaaS find a business model that works?
Everyone working in mobility talks about MaaS - Mobility-as-a-Service - even though what once seemed like the magical solution to all our (mobility) problems is now struggling to come true. Sure, there have been many interesting initiatives and new apps on the market, but did they find a sustainable way to make money and whose interest do they serve?
Is Paris the worst city for bikes?
Paris, capital of France — and supposedly of love — was a dense and vibrant city in pre-Covid19 times, which was not usually considered a haven for bikes, unlike its Dutch and Danish counterparts. The Deputy Mayor of Paris for transport even states on his Linkedin account that Paris is “the most beautiful city in the world. But not for cyclists… yet”.
How will we move tomorrow?
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken over most of the world in the last couple of months and has the majority of the world’s population confined at home or at least urged to respect social distancing, turning our priorities and our schedules upside down in a very short period of time.
NYC: the city that never moves
New York City, arguably still the capital of the world — if such a title exists — , suffers from a failing transit system that has all New Yorkers worrying and wondering whether it will threaten the Big Apple’s economic future.
Is Berlin still poor and sexy?
Klaus Wowereit, then Mayor of Berlin, famously declared 15 years ago that his city was “poor but sexy”, making it Berlin’s best known slogan since “Ich bin ein Berliner”. Now growing as a cosmopolitan city, attracting investors and start-ups and building luxury lofts along the banks of the Spree, is it still true?
Why is Australia doing it wrong?
After such a bold statement, I should clarify what Australia is doing wrong. Obviously not everything, and I won’t turn into the stereotypical French know-it-all. I’m clearly refering to transport policy and urban development.
From mass transit to MaaS transit
Since 2016, an app called Whim has been in use in Helsinki to plan and pay for every mode of public and private transportation within the city — whether it’s taxi, public transport, a car service or a bike share. Anyone with the app can enter a destination, select their preferred way of getting there and go. Users can either pay as they go using a payment account linked to the service, or get a better deal by suscribing to a monthly plan and pre-paying for the service. The target is to offer an alternative to car ownership so affordable, convenient and appealing that users choose to give up their personal vehicles for city commuting. Will Mobility-as-a-Service be the future of mobility?
Why making public transport free is a bad idea
The short answer would be: because it is not free. But let’s elaborate on that.
5 transport networks that tell you how cities operate
Cities are complex and getting more and more so as they’re more populated. They are in fact multi-layered and develop mostly in an organic way, even though we (try to) plan more and more their evolution today. Knowing how to move around a city is just one way to start understanding how they operate and grow and it’s been the angle I’ve chosen to start my career.