In a bid to encourage more patronage of public transportation, the Qatar Transportation and Traffic Safety Center (QTTSC) at Qatar University is carrying out research to explore the success of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in Qatar.
MaaS is a data-driven and consumer-centric model of people transportation. It can include any combination of transport methods such as car and bike sharing, taxis and car rentals/leases and provides everything for the consumer from travel planning to payments.
Speaking to The Peninsula, Dr. Mohammed Y Al Qaradawi, Director of QTTSC, said people usually find it challenging to change from driving their cars to using public transport.
“Cars provide convenience, flexibility, comfort, and independence. Public transport services need to match or come close to those attributes for people to consider it. However, in recent times, the pleasure of driving has been deteriorating due to congestion on the roads,” Dr. Al Qaradawi noted.
“Meanwhile, developments in transportation technologies and services enable access to different modes of travel (personal car, public bus, metro, E-scooter and bike rental, taxi ride, car rental, ride-hailing) whenever needed, from a single integrated platform. This is called Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). It is considered the future of transportation and in line with the Smart City initiative in Qatar,” he added.
MaaS aims to discourage the need for ownership of a car, motorcycle, or other mobility modes and instead empower users to access the most optimal methods of travel.
Big cities like Helsinki, Finland have shown that MaaS works, while in other major cities like Barcelona, Vienna, Los Angeles, Singapore etc, it's being run on a trial basis.
As Qatar’s infrastructure development expands, it is essential that the public transportation network is adequate and sustainable to deal with the mobility demands. Qatar offers several public transport options from the metro, buses, taxis and e-scooters. However, people still prefer to use their cars, of which ownership has grown exponentially in recent years and has prompted traffic congestion across the city – besides the road constructions.
According to a 2018 report on Business Wire, the global mobility as a service market is expected to reach $1.76 trillion, estimated to be one-fourth of the entire transportation industry by 2028. The MaaS market is expected to penetrate over 40% of the urban mobility requirement by 2028.
“QTTSC is currently developing a market demand study to determine the propensity of Qatar residents to subscribe to MaaS and use public transport. It is anticipated that implementing a properly designed MaaS may eventually improve the mode share of public transportation in Qatar considerably,” Dr. AlQaradawi stressed.
The public sector can play an indispensable part by implementing policies and regulations that will help improve the affordability of MaaS and expand its coverage. The United Nations estimates that by 2050, 66% of the global population will be living in urban areas. As population distribution gets denser in urban areas, fundamental sustainable changes are also needed in mobility with MaaS as a viable option.
