Tag Archives: MAAS

MaaS, EV Charging, Cashless Payments Top Trends for 2021

Transportation and technology concept. ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems). Mobility as a service.Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), electric vehicle (EV) charging, and cashless parking payments are the three top trends we’ll see in transportation this year, according to Global Banking & Finance Review.

“The biggest challenge on all businesses into 2021 will be how they continue to adapt and react to the ever changing new normal we are all experiencing,” says the article published earlier this morning. It goes on to say the top three transportation trends will be:

  • MaaS: With habit changes thanks to COVID lockdowns, better technology, and a desire for simpler planning, MaaS–the ability to plan a journey from start to finish in one place–has found its footing. The development of apps that let people plug in a start and a finish to get a list of transportation options and pay for them all in one place is a big boost.
  • EV charging: More EVs are being sold than ever and forecasts say there will be 42 million charging points worldwide by 2030. Demand for charging plus faster, easier to pay for systems mean chargers are becoming a necessary part of infrastructure.
  • Cashless payment for parking: “Drivers are more self-reliant and empowered than ever before, having adopted technologies that work to make their life increasingly efficient,” says the article–and COVID-19 accelerated a push for contactless on top of cashless. This trend will continue to grow.

Read the whole article here.

 

Lime Pushes for Mobility-as-a-Service Status

Lime, once known for its huge fleet of ubiquitous green bikes, announced it will allow third-party transportation service providers to offer their services inside its app, growing from a bike and scooter booking service to a MaaS provider.

Wheels, which offers pedal-free e-bikes, will be the first to join Lime inside its app. Users will be able to find and reserve Wheels bikes and Lime scooters and bikes in the app, with more partners expected later this year. The MaaS platform will launch in Austin, Texas; Miami, Fla.; and Seattle, Wash. in the U.S., and Berlin, Germany in Europe. Lime scooters are already part of the Uber app, along with other modes of transportation, in a similar evolution.

Read more here.

Ford Acquires Tech Companies as Part of Mobility Strategy

In what many believe is a step toward a greater role in mobility, automaker Ford this week acquired Journey Holding Corporation, which develops intelligent transportation software, and Quantum Signal AI, which develops robotics–notably a testing simulator for artificial intelligence (AI) systems; it develops systems for the U.S. military. Ford said the buys will help advance its Transportation as a Service (TaaS) platform.

Journey Holding will be merged with TransLoc, which was bought by Ford earlier this year and develops technology for transit operations. Together, the entity will provide micro-transit on demand services. Analysts say this week’s acquisitions will help Ford get closer to its goal of launching autonomous vehicles by 2021.

Read the whole story here. 

MaaS Initiative Launched

By L. Dennis Burns, CAPP

The Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) has established a mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) initiative to raise awareness of new and emerging issues/technologies.

“The proliferation of ride-hailing, bike-sharing, and most recently electric scooters has expanded the availability of transportation choices and is addressing some of the first- and last-mile issues that exist with traditional transit. They have the potential to affect housing and car-ownership decisions and can provide new travel options for the young, the old, and the disabled,” says an article about the initiative. It goes on to elaborate about challenges, such as curb-space demand, safety concerns, congestion, and accessibility concerns, that come with increased shared-mobility options, right alongside the pluses.

Read the full story here.

L. Dennis Burns, CAPP, is regional vice president with Kimley-Horn.

L.A. Metro Unveils Multi-mode Service

The Los Angeles Metro has added bike-share options to its Transit Access Pass (TAP) card accounts and plans to branch out to scooter-share, transportation network company (TNC) options, and even reserving a parking space with the card in the not-too-distant future.

TAP card users can reserve a bike at 90 train stations in the program, which was designed to let commuters move seamlessly from train to bike to travel their last mile or beyond. With the new program, L.A. joins several other major metro areas, including Chicago, Ill., and Portland, Ore., to add different mobility options to systems that have traditionally been train-only. L.A. Metro officials say they’re in talks with about nine other mobility providers to add those systems to the TAP card, and they’re unveiling an app next spring to pull it all together into a mobile-device-based system.

Read the whole story here.