Mobility as a service or mobility as commons?

Abstract

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a relatively fast-growing emerging technology based on a vision of integration and user-friendliness in mobility systems, based on a “mobility platform” approach. Considering that most of the literature so far does not take an explicitly critical attitude towards this emerging technology, this paper considers the great uncertainties and implications for the socio-technical domains in and out of everyday mobility. The analysed implications also refer to the set of innovation actors, as well as the institutions and patterns of interaction between them. The conclusion is that the technological transition of MaaS from a niche to a mobility regime requires the convergence of several socio-technical factors of societal digitalization, the development of a wider infrastructure, and a regulatory system change. To avoid the potential undesired effects of MaaS, transport policy and institutions for managing technological development will need to recognize the underlying problems at the root of further activities, ranging from depoliticization to fundamental theoretical questions about the essence of the mobility commons.