Mobility as a Service comes to Brisbane
Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is an approach to providing an integrated multi-modal transport service to customers that provides high levels flexibility and choice, while removing the need for personal ownership of a vehicle. In mid-2021 the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, the University of Queensland and iMOVE launched their joint venture to deliver a 12-month MaaS trial project for students and staff in their Brisbane campuses. At our October seminar we heard from Dr Maisie Rahbar on some early findings of UQ's MaaS trial project.
The UQ trial is using the ODIN Pass technology platform and provides a journey-planning application and access to the following services for a monthly subscription fee:
unlimited public transport use in South East Queensland
unlimited use of Brisbane's shared e-scooters and e-bikes
post-paid discounts on taxi and ride share
post-paid discounts on car-share and car-hire
The trial has been enthusiastically embraced by UQ staff and students with over 1,000 subscribers signing up within 3 months of the trial starting, despite the COVID related lock down that started the week after the program launch.
As the trial is in its early stages Dr Rahbar couldn't provide research results. However early analysis of data is showing interesting trends. The six weeks of data from shared bicycle and scooters show an interesting distribution of usage with high levels of use on the UQ St Lucia campus, through West End through to the CBD. This would seem to support the provision of an active transport bridge linking St Lucia and West End to better connect these areas of high active transport use. It is surprising that those high levels of usage are not mirrored on the other side of the river along the Bicentennial Bikeway.
The monthly subscription cost makes public transport a very attractive option, especially for student and staff travelling longer distances to access the campus. The data shows a strong use of e-scooter use for moving between the bus interchanges on campus and lecture theatres on campus.
PedBikeTrans will be following this trial as it progresses as the research will be very informative about the integration of public transport and shared e-mobility solutions, and people's willingness to pay for the convenience of this service. The usage shared e-mobility data will also show how well our active transport network serves the travel needs of bicycle and scooter users.
