3.1. Challenges of Sustainable Urban Mobility
One of the most cited definitions of sustainability is described in the Brundtland Report [14] (p.50), where the authors state that "sustainable development seeks to meet the needs and aspirations of the present without compromising the ability to meet the needs of the future." However, the report acknowledges that the problems of poverty and underdevelopment cannot be solved without economic growth, which, in turn, carries risks of environmental damage. Aligned with this concept, the three pillars of sustainability [15] - economic, environmental, and social - serve as indicators of sustainable development.
In the context of Mobility, Lam and Head [16] (p.339) define sustainable urban mobility as "the ease, convenience, and accessibility of traveling to a destination with minimal impact on the environment among others." They highlight the social aspect of mobility usability, related to the availability of necessary means for citizens of all social classes to have convenient and easy access to their destination [17], whether for daily activities or leisure.
Another aspect presented by Lam and Head [16] is the environmental aspect, which relates to the consequences caused by urban mobility activity on the environment, such as environmental pollution, CO2 emissions, the use of non-renewable energy resources, and interference in the natural environment through excessive use of public spaces [18,19]. In this sense, private automobiles, despite being the preferred mode of transportation for their convenience in point-to-point travel, have been blamed for the majority of environmental pollution and congestion in urban mobility [20]. In response, several cities are planning to ban the use of this mode of transportation in various urban environments as a way to mitigate the problem [21].
Chakroborty [22] emphasizes the economic aspect of the word sustainable, which presents characteristics supporting the processes of collecting the necessary resources for the maintenance of activity and habitat. According to the authors, this aspect determines the efficiency of the system, and in this context, it is worth noting the dissociation between urban planning and mobility, which needs to adapt to the growing spatial dispersion that has formed in urban areas [21].
Therefore, the development of sustainable urban mobility must consider the economic, environmental, and social aspects of sustainability, and their implications, aiming to promote "social and economic well-being in a safe and efficient manner, without damaging the environment or depleting environmental resources" [1] (p.21).
3.2 Information Technology Applied to Urban Mobility
“Mobility is a fundamental aspect of the economic and social life of every community" [23] (p.1). Because it is involved in a diversity of activities related to its exercise, urban mobility encompasses multiple areas of research, each with its specific characteristics. Therefore, with the purpose of identifying theoretical frameworks for the application of IT in urban mobility in a broad way, an exploratory study was conducted to map the distinct approaches that academic literature has used to study and promote the development of its applications in urban mobility. The documents resulting from this study were grouped based on the main content and specific focus of each research. The selection was made through the analysis of the abstract and introduction of each article, allowing the mapping of the various areas of study with a broad, albeit superficial, view of the role of Information Technology in the development of sustainable urban mobility.
Classification of Approaches in Study Groups
Table 1 - Classification of Addressed Themes - Author's Source
Table 1 presents the identified study groups, indicating the quantity of documents related to each category (shown in the Doc. column) and the number of subcategories into which each category unfolded (related in the Sub. Cat. column). Within some study categories, several subgroups were found, classified according to the similarity of their research objects. In turn, Table 2 provides a detailed list of the subcategories identified in the classification of documents. Below the presentation of the tables, there follows a brief description of the approaches that each category indicated in Table 2 represents. This clarifies the criteria adopted by the research for mapping the studies developed by the scientific community in recent years.
Subgroups of IT Studies Applied in Sustainable Urban Mobility
Table 2 - Approaches in IT for Urban Mobility - Author's Source
Group 01 - BIG DATA encompasses studies dedicated to collecting multiple sources of data with the aim of creating insights and supporting decision-making, as well as developing strategies and planning for mobility [24-32].
Group 02 - Passengers and Information, is one of the groups that presented the third highest number of associated studies and unfolded into the largest number of subgroups. It addresses the exchange of information between management platforms and passengers, both in terms of informing and interacting with users and in terms of collecting direct, voluntary, or involuntary information to apply in the management and planning of urban mobility. Within this group, we find studies that deal with delivering mobility information to passengers [33-37], studies on the accessibility of specific groups such as the elderly [38-44], children [45], people with special needs [46-48], studies related to travel decision-making [49-51], tools to encourage passengers to use more sustainable modes of transportation [52-65], systems to stimulate passenger awareness with gamification-focused apps [66-71], apps to encourage walking [72-75] and user behavior change towards more sustainable modes of mobility [76-81]. Additionally, the group also includes studies related to behavioral analysis based on social networks [82-84], creation of density maps using cell phone data [85,86], studies on population participation in mobility management decisions [87-89], and the development of crowdsourcing and crowdsensing practices [90-100].
Group 03 - Non-Mobility, addresses mobility only as an accessibility problem [7-9], where studies present solutions for users to access desired locations without the need to physically move to them. Group 04 - Different Modes, encompasses studies related to IT applications focused on different public mobility options than conventional public mass transit, such as urban buses, trains, and subways. In this group, IT applications for modalities in differentiated mobility concepts are explored, such as in the case of the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) concept, which will be detailed more specifically in this study in the section below. Additionally, studies are presented on demand-responsive public transportation, a way to enhance the quality of the conventional public transportation model [101-107], ride-sharing systems [108-112], micro-mobility [113], including electric scooters [114], scooters [115,116], and bicycles [117-125], as well as car-sharing [126-129], taxis [130,131], cycle rickshaws [132], autonomous vehicles [133-136], and unmanned aerial vehicles [137].
Groups 05, 06, 07, and 08 are interconnected as they address aspects that complement each other in applications related to urban mobility. Group 05 - GIS (Geographic Information Systems), focuses on IT applications with a georeferencing focus, used for planning [138-142], public transportation route planning [143], stop sizing [144,145], and travel time analysis [146]. Group 06 - ICT presents studies that use the approach of Information and Communication Technology to qualify the management and planning of mobility and electric fleets [147-151], creating information to facilitate travel decision-making [3,152-157], incentives and promotion of multimodality [4-158-167], and improvements in passengers' relationship with public transportation through management resources [22,23,168-174], planning [1,2,5,10,175-183], and the integration of various distinct systems as a solution [184-191].
Group 07 - ITS presents studies related to Intelligent Transportation Systems, a reference concept for conventional public transportation management. It addresses topics such as technological implementation barriers of ITS [192], ITS planning [193-195], traffic light control based on ITS [196,197], and traffic monitoring using ITS [198-203]. On the other hand, Group 08 - IoT, covers studies on the application of the Internet of Things in urban mobility management [204]. This includes the concept of AVL (Automatic Vehicle Location), which involves fleet tracking for management purposes [205-211], applications of people flow sensors [212-214], fleet traffic monitoring [215-219], and the use of low-power networks for local data collection [220].
Group 09 - Artificial Intelligence encompasses studies that explore the application of AI in sustainable mobility management processes [221-227], including data mining for decision support [226,227], and decentralized intelligence in data fog on vehicle interconnection networks [228,229]. On the other hand, Group 10 - Smart Cities, is the group with the largest number of related studies, but most broadly address aspects of Smart Cities, with partial emphasis on mobility. However, 12 of the studies identified in this group focus specifically on the use of IT to solve problems related to sustainable urban mobility [11,230-240]. This group also addresses studies on the application of digital technologies in the urban context.
Group 11 - Multiple Approaches does not have a specific application focus. It encompasses studies on consulting, training, and specific research, such as identifying drivers with the greatest potential to increase urban mobility intelligence, identifying appropriate policies and methods for sustainable mobility development, and the relationship between citizens and car usage [241-249]. Group 12 - Prospecting, presents studies related to future projections regarding sustainable urban mobility [250-255]. Group 13 - focuses on studies on infrastructure for Electric Vehicles - EV [256-267]. Group 14 - deals with parking-related studies [268], and Group 15 - addresses studies on IT applied to the railway sector [269,270]. Group 16 - Goods Mobility, presents studies on the use of IT for goods mobility logistics considering sustainable urban mobility [271-274].
A MaaS approach is detailed in Group 4, item 4.2 Mobility as a Service. Being the central theme of the present study, it is important to emphasize that MaaS has the characteristic of aggregating all mobility modes and access means as fundamental resources for the provision of its services [275]. Therefore, all identified IT approaches presented in this theoretical framework are relevant studies for the development of the MaaS proposal.
3.3 MaaS - Mobility as a Service
The concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) formalized itself in the first subscription-based mobility trial in Gothenburg, Sweden, in 2013. However, it was in 2016 that it operated for the first time via a mobile app, in Helsinki, Finland [276-279]. In Sweden, the system called UbiGo simplified the administrative part of trips through monthly invoices and offered mobility service provision, with guaranteed improved travel, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week [280].
According to the results of the 6-month trial conducted by UbiGo, by transforming the concept of transportation into accessibility [281], the new business model showed initial success in reducing private vehicle ownership, which is a central objective of the MaaS concept [280]. The elements of MaaS include services that focus on users' needs through the integration of transportation services, information, reservations, payments, and all resources necessary for personalized service. MaaS offers mobility and access instead of transportation [280,277]. The results show that this business model can be significant for the development and sustainability of mobility. However, being such a recent solution, there remain a series of doubts, uncertainties, and discussions regarding the MaaS concept and its potential outcomes. Below, Table 3 presents some aspects related to researchers' discussion on the concept of MaaS.
Discussion on the Concept of MaaS
Table 3 - Discussion on MaaS Concepts - Author's Source
Concept
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Still not clearly defined and contextualized, making it very difficult to assess how MaaS can affect travel behavior and how it can help shape the future [282]
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There is a definitional gap in terms of what MaaS is and what it aims to achieve; many see it as a technology or product, while others perceive it as a definitive vision for cities. [283]
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There's still a lack of unified definition; the concept of MaaS is often confused with Shared Mobility [284]
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The research shows that there is no consensus on a unequivocal definition of MaaS nor a universal best way to assess and compare MaaS schemes. [285]
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While there is ongoing debate about what constitutes MaaS, the core elements include: providing a service that focuses on the transportation needs of the user; offering mobility and access rather than just transportation; and providing integration of transportation services, information, booking, payment, etc.[286,277]
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MaaS has the potential to fundamentally change people's behavior and reduce dependence on car ownership by providing easy and on-demand access to the mobility services they need. [104]
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The MaaS concept regards travel as a disutility for the traveler, motivated solely by the destination. MaaS focuses on meeting the needs of the traveler's origin and destination, offering a range of options varying in terms of mode, timing, and cost. [287,288]
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In the MaaS ecosystem, the mobility customer should be at the center of the process, receiving services according to their particularities and individual needs and having options for flexible travel packages. To meet this demand, the MaaS provider must have the ability to aggregate and combine various public and private transportation solutions to provide a door-to-door mobility service [104].
A MaaS provider, besides integrating various suppliers of different modes of transportation to provide door-to-door mobility services, also needs to orchestrate the entire MaaS ecosystem and provide users with access to information, which is one of the fundamental aspects of this management. However, governments face challenges in incorporating these new data and new forms of citizen engagement into their practice [96,289,290], as data has become a strategic issue for mobility operators and different suppliers request open public data with the interest of producing new urban mobility services [96], which tend to offer competition to current mobility services. For this reason, there is a discussion where some believe that the government is the entity that should organize and regulate the introduction of one or more digital platforms that integrate services [291].
One of the major challenges faced by the MaaS concept is related to one of the key issues in current city mobility structures. Each mobility service is provided by different suppliers, and there is no easy way to make them share data, budgets, and commitments with a broader vision of sustainable mobility [293]. Public transportation is in competition with some shared modes of transportation, while the relationship with other modes [294] seems to be more complementary [96]. Policy formulation, through research and development activities and tests, therefore needs to address these cooperation problems by providing definitive answers about the ideal MaaS model. In this game of interests, the promises of "efficiency" seem not to be possible without intervention.
The table 4 below lists some of the most popular MaaS applications that are being developed around the globe
Most popular MaaS pilot application projects
Table 4 - Most Popular MaaS Pilot Application Projects - Source: Zhang & Zhang [278]