Inventing
mobility services

Conducted under the aegis of the MaaS Observatory, the survey on digital services conducted among 22 local authorities and mobility operators in France has delivered its results in 2022. Its objective? To gain a better understanding of travelers' practices in order to better adapt the services provided by MaaS.

Imagined in 2019 at the initiative of the Ministry of Ecological Transition, Cerema (Center for Studies and Expertise on Risks, Environment, Mobility and Planning) and its partners to facilitate knowledge sharing, the MaaS Observatory is a platform offering documentary resources, news, information on working groups as well as descriptions of multimodal initiatives. In 2022, this Observatory conducted a survey on digital services with 22 local authorities and mobility operators in the metropolitan area in order to report on their uses in mobility assistance (and therefore on user satisfaction), and on the way data is collected. In addition, the report was able to measure the impact of the health crisis and outline the outlook for the evolution of services.

About the current offer

Digital mobility aids exist in various forms (website or mobile application, proprietary or shared, etc.) and their initial raison d'être is closely linked to public transport networks: of the 22 respondents, 100%* include buses, coaches, metros and streetcars in their mode of transport. Only 65%* include parking (or self-service bikes and scooters) and 57%* include trains. However, very few offers go as far as they can: less than 70%* of them include several modes of transportation in the same trip (i.e., intermodality).

Another surprising finding is that only half of the managers surveyed say they analyze data from mobile sites and/or applications for audience measurement. And only 40% are interested in user satisfaction. Yet, digital tools can enable operators and local authorities to adapt their mobility offer in real time using the data collected.

However, the data shows that since the COVID crisis, the share of digital purchases has jumped from 4% to 8%* in some major cities and up to 40%* in some urban areas for single tickets - at the same time, a drop in the number of people visiting physical sales outlets has been recorded. While 60%* of those surveyed noted an increase in the use of digital services and 73.9%* said they had added features to their MaaS application in the last year, operators and local authorities nevertheless noted that there are still obstacles to their systematic use: either related to the nature of the digital tool itself, or to problems of interoperability between digital solutions. It is therefore appropriate to maintain an alternative for the time being.

About the future

The scalability of MaaS applications is their main advantage: 91%* of respondents plan to add new services or features to their digital services within two years, the majority of which will be sales on new modes and information on new modes. In conclusion, the report states that "in line with the LOM law, local authorities can allow private operators to provide MaaS in their territory, provided they have a viable economic model. These will pursue their own objectives, seeking to achieve economic profitability, but they can also share certain overall objectives with the communities."

This reinforces the Moov'Hub offer developed by Mobility by Colas, a real mobility observatory for territories and a unique interface for users for a chosen multimodality!

Sources: *Observatoire du MaaS