These 5 apps show how urban mobility can work without frustration – but the city has to play along
Plan trips, book tickets and pay for them in one app, no matter what modes of transport you need. Bus, bike, train – it’s all in one MaaS app. Here are five of the best platforms.
Mobility as a Service (Maas) is a recent concept and might be the future of urban transport. The idea is simple: Rather than owning a car in the city, a variety of modes of transport can be used as a service. In exchange for regular payments or per use, public transport, car and bike sharing, taxi, and other modes are offered. But the real innovation is that the service comes from a single platform – usually a mobile app, intended to cover everything from trip planning, over booking and ticketing to payment. Here are five of the best existing platforms out there.
# 1 Transit App
Founded in Canada in 2012, transit is the most widespread mobile MaaS application. It works in 148 cities around the world, amongst them metropolises such as New York City, Berlin, or London. Next to its huge number of included cities, it is the integration of the whole region (sometimes even neighbour cities) and transport modes that makes the app outstanding. The functions include real time info, trip planning, departure alarms and stop notifications. Regular and preferred routes can be stored, locations can be saved and the app offers a minimised walking option. Certain travel modes can be disabled. One downside is, that the in-app payment only works for bike rentals, although the booking works for shared modes (bike sharing, car sharing, taxi) as well.
# 2 Tuup
The Finnish app Tuup operates since 2015 in the Turku Region, including various transport modes: Next to the usual ones (public transport (PT), bike and car sharing, taxis), these are peer-to-peer car rentals, shared taxi and even parking rent and freight services. The in-app-payment includes PT, taxi and shared taxi and is charged per use. Other functions are trip planning, booking, real time info and the option to optimise travel plans based on the user’s daily agenda. Mode preferences can be set in order to minimise costs or CO2 footprint.
# 3 Whim
Whim operates since 2016 in Helsinki and includes PT, taxi and regional rail; bike sharing and car sharing will follow soon, according to the provider. Whim is the only service that offers three comprehensive monthly packages and pay-per-use with invoicing, beginning with a € 0 option that charges per trip. The “urban” option for € 49 includes all public transport rides and inexpensive flat fees for taxis and rental cars, which are covered by the unlimited option for € 499. Mode preferences can be set in order to minimise costs, CO2 footprint, or time.
# 4 moovel
The German App is available since 2016 and belongs to Daimler Financial Services, thus has its roots in the car industry. It operates in all of Germany for car sharing, taxi, rail, and even ferry (booking and payment). In Stuttgart and Hamburg, moovel includes PT. The service offers features such as personalised notifications on disruptions, storing of favourite routes, linking to social media or cancellation of bookings. It is charged per use. One interesting offer is the ticket lottery for Stuttgart: On particulate matter alert days, 50 per cent of all rides are free. The winners are selected by a random generator.
# 5 MyCicero
MyCicero operates in all of Italy since 2015 and includes PT, parking spaces, permits for urban congestion charging zones, regional rail and bus. Taxi is planned to be included soon. One unique feature the app includes are municipal services: notices of expiry, notifications, payments of administrative penalties and education services are displayed and Alerts and suggestions can be sent to the authority. Parts of the service can even be used without a smartphone, via SMS. Within Rome, the service gives the possibility of buying tickets for the entire city’s PT.
Keywords
Mobility as a Service, public transport, sustainability, urban transportation, bus, bike, cars, car sharing, bike sharing, sharing is caring, urban mobility, train, moovel, mycicero, whim, tuup, transitApp