Report: UK MaaS Schemes Need Government’s Support
A committee scrutinizing the UK’s Department for Transport says the government needs to support new mobility-as-a-service platforms.
The House of Commons Transport Select Committee’s report says such platforms could “transform how people travel” but the government must support them “to ensure the widest possible benefits”. It claims such benefits could include “reduced road congestion, improved air quality, healthier travel choices, increased efficiency in transport networks, and more effective management of transport demand”.
However, the committee has warned that if mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) were to take hold in an “uncontrolled” fashion, then traffic congestion could actually increase and poor and remote communities’ existing lack of access to transportation could worsen. It called for mobility-as-a-service to be supported by the government in tandem with the electric and autonomous vehicle planks of its industrial strategy.
The report warned the government it had a responsibility to ensure consumers using a number of mobility services for a single journey had their “interests … protected … in case of accident or failure”. It added service users’ “financial interests” should be protected “as the MaaS market grows”. The report also said service providers would have to share data with transport operators effectively so their “respective commercial interests” would not be harmed but service users’ confidential data was protected also.
Committee chairperson Lilian Greenwood said: “MaaS should now feature more prominently in the Department for Transport’s future plans. This can be done by supporting and funding a variety of MaaS projects.”
