Mobility services, such as apps for shared cars, shared bicycles or electric scooters, do not pose a threat to private car ownership for the time being.
This is the conclusion of the Knowledge Institute for Mobility Policy (KiM) on Thursday in a study to Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). The fact that mobility services are not necessarily replacing car ownership is mainly because the people most likely to use MaaS live in cities. Car ownership is lower there anyway. After all, in cities people more often use other forms of transport than the car. Public transport and shared scooters are frequently used alternatives there, so the car plays a smaller role there.
This also means that MaaS has the best chance of success in urban areas, KiM writes. According to the institute, MaaS is not the transport itself, but rather the access to it by means of, for example, an app or its integration into an app. This also makes the urban environment the most promising for MaaS, since, according to KiM, there is “a rich supply of public transport and modalities at this location.” This also causes many people to travel there on a regular basis, referred to by the Institute as “routine journeys”. MaaS could help with this as a so-called ‘planning assistant’, writes KiM. If MaaS users deviate from the usual modes of transport, it is most likely at the expense of public transport rather than at the expense of private car ownership, according to the institute.