Explorative analysis of potential MaaS customers: An agent-based scenario

Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is a user-centered service that combines different mobility services offered to the users by means of different packages. The users fulfil their daily mobility needs using a subscription-based smartphone application, which gives them access to the services within their mobility budget. Various surveys on MaaS have been run in the last years to capture which transport mode can be more suitable within a package and the user’s willingness to pay. Moreover, pilot projects have been employed to figure out potential MaaS users’ characteristics and inclination. Results among stated preference scenarios differ due to the different characteristics of the demand and supply. Hence, there is not a general consensus around the potential of MaaS membership choice. This study embraces an agent-based modeling approach which allows to maximize the user’s utility of performing activities and account for travel costs to simulate two scenarios. The first one considers carsharing systems and public transport as a basic MaaS package. We further employ an economic approach which assumes MaaS services costs to be perceived as fixed costs by the customers. We assume the same MaaS package to be accessible to the generated population of the city of Berlin. The second is a Pay-as-you-go (NoMaaS) scenario where users pay the service experiencing trip-based costs. Evaluating the differential of users’ utility when comparing the two scenarios this study aims to explore the characteristics of the potential MaaS customers. The results indicate a higher propension to subscribe among public transport and two-way car-sharers, whereas MaaS seems to capture new free-floating customers. The potential users employ both carsharing services longer in their daily trip chain in the MaaS scenario, because the new mobility system allows users to do not consider marginal cost in their daily travel pattern. Outcomes also indicate that MaaS will not be a direct substitute to private car, and it’s likely to extend rental time of car sharing systems.