Potential uptake and willingness-to-pay for Mobility as a Service (MaaS): A stated choice study

Mobility as a Service (MaaS), which uses a digital platform to bring all modes of travel into a single on-demand service, has received great attention and research interest. Different business models have emerged in which travellers can either pre-pay for their mobility services bundled into a MaaS plan, or pay-as-they-go using a smart app linked to the service. This study aims to understand how large the potential market of MaaS would be if travellers are offered this one-stop access to a range of mobility services, and how much potential users might value each item included in a MaaS plan. A stated choice survey of 252 individuals administered via a face-to-face method is conducted in Sydney, Australia and a state of the art preference model is estimated to address the research questions. Results indicate that almost half of the sampled respondents would take MaaS offerings, and the potential uptake levels vary significantly across population segments, with infrequent car users being the most likely adopters, and car non-users the least. On average, Sydney travellers are willing to pay $6.40 for an hour of access to car-share, with one-way car-share valued more than station-based car-share. Estimated willingness-to-pay for unlimited use of public transport is $5.90 per day which is much lower than the current daily cap. These findings suggest a careful segmentation of the market and a cross-subsidy strategy is likely to be required by MaaS suppliers to obtain a commercially viable uptake level.