Drivers and barriers of Mobility-as-a-Service: insights from stakeholders of a middle-size Italian city

Over the past decade, the concept of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) has been gaining popularity as a transportation system able to reduce dependence on private car use. Nevertheless, implementing MaaS may be challenging because its success requires the involvement of various actors and stakeholders, each with distinct goals and constraints. While MaaS has recently captured the attention of Italian policymakers, the roles of different stakeholders and the factors driving or hindering its implementation remain unclear. Hence, in this study, we explore the key elements facilitating the adoption of MaaS in a medium-sized Italian city. To achieve this, a workshop and an online survey were conducted involving representatives of local public administrations, public and private transport operators, and mobility service providers in the metropolitan city of Cagliari. The following themes emerged from the workshop and questionnaire: 1) the problems associated with MaaS governance and regulation, aiming to provide citizens with a reliable service and avoid the formation of an oligopoly of large international companies and agencies. A governance solution based on an open platform was believed to be the most suitable for making information services, ticketing, data infrastructure, and APIs accessible to all. 2) The importance of cooperation among public and private operators. 3) The need to develop a flexible technological platform capable of integrating different modes of transportation and proposing personalized ticket bundles.