COVID-19 : an opportunity to redesign mobility towards greater sustainability and resilience?

Abstract

The Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) concept has recently attracted considerable interest among policy makers and the industry for its potential to improve the overall efficiency of the transport system and to reduce reliance on private cars in urban centers. By doing so, MaaS can contribute to the reduction of both CO2 emissions and pollution, thereby supporting the advancement of the European Green Deal agenda. While the Covid-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented challenges for the whole transport sector, it has also highlighted the importance of an agile and resilient transport system in ensuring an uninterrupted supply of goods and people. This, in turn, may present important opportunities for accelerating the rollout of MaaS. As a direct result of the crisis, we have seen transport users adapt their travel and working habits, companies expand their functions beyond the transport of people to deliver medicine and food, as well as a more systematic effort by companies to share data to help inform governments’ response to the pandemic. Building upon this momentum, by means of a rethinking of public authorities’ governing approaches, can help to translate these innovative practices into long-lasting and disruptive changes for the sector.