How to Promote and Implement Mobility as a Service? An Italian Survey to Learn About the Propensity of Users

To discourage private vehicle use and promote multimodality, Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) has been developed in recent years. The idea is to combine different types of transportation, including active transportation, on-demand cab services, shared vehicles, and emerging micromobility technologies (such as e-bikes and electric scooters), with well-known modes of public transport, such as rail, tram, bus, and ferry. In this way, users can plan and book their trips using a single platform and user account. This study aims to investigate the needs and desires of travelers from a real perspective of Integrated Mobility as a Service. To achieve this goal, a survey was performed in the Italian context to understand the profiles and needs of potential MaaS users. The structure of the survey includes 33 questions divided into seven sections: i) Introduction and Language, ii) Daily Travel and Transportation, iii) MaaS and Sharing Mobility, iv) Travel Behavior and Technology, v) MaaS Platform, vi) MaaS Platform Travel Functions, and vii) Socio-demographic Information. A total of 301 responses were collected. Analysis of the results allows us to: i) understand whether there is a correlation between user profiling and the daily transportation mode chosen by travelers, ii) identify representative clusters that include the characteristics of travelers that are most closely related to transportation modal choice. Three clusters of users were identified by considering the following criteria: a) occupation, b) residence, and c) reason for travel. Finally, iii) the interest in MaaS was evaluated. The results can be used to implement representative mobility scenarios that reflect user needs and provide valuable insights for designing MaaS products in different spatial areas.