ArticlePDF Available

Mobility-as-a-service transitions in China: Emerging policies, initiatives, platforms and MaaS implementation models

July 2023
Case Studies on Transport Policy

July 2023

DOI:10.1016/j.cstp.2023.101054

License
CC BY 4.0

Authors:

Yuyuan Chen

The University of Manchester

Ransford A. Acheampong

The University of Manchester

The concept of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is gaining increasing attention in both academic and policy discourses concerning the future of transport and mobility. The current understanding of the progress of MaaS is based on the handful of studies that have explored pilot initiatives carried out mainly in Europe and North America. In contrast, this paper extends the literature by exploring the evolution of MaaS in mainland China. It examines how the concept of MaaS emerged in China, identifies and maps on-going MaaS initiatives and platforms across Chinese cities, and investigates the most common approaches and models of MaaS delivery. The analysis reveals that while Chinese government policy has long discussed integrated transport, MaaS and related aspects, including ‘one-stop’ mobility services and ‘Chuixing Ji Fuwu’, which is the Chinese translation of Mobility-as-a-Service, have only appeared in recent times. At present, 41 Chinese cities are hosting ongoing MaaS initiatives and associated platforms. These are concentrated in the developed eastern regions, in cities with high political influence and larger populations. The geography of MaaS strongly reflects the prevailing digital divide in China, implying that deliberate policy choices are needed to avert widening transport and mobility inequalities in the age of MaaS. MaaS platforms currently only provide basic information and modal/service integration and are deployed either as bespoke applications or added to existing social media and navigation applications. Two main models of MaaS delivery were identified: public-controlled model that is predominant and centered primarily on integrating existing state-run public transport services, and partnership model that is emerging in cities such as Beijing to integrate more mobility services beyond conventional public transport. The complex landscape of actors associated with the emerging public–private partnership model presents new challenges for transport governance, especially in balancing an established tradition of strong public sector control over transport on the one hand, and the interests of the fledgling private sector mobility service providers on the other hand.

Conceptualizing MaaS and the aspects of integration (Source: Authors, 2022).

…

Scoping Review and Analytical Process (Source: Authors, 2022).

…

MaaS Integration Level: Types, Criteria, and Examples (Source: Based on Sochor et al.,2018).

…

Map of MaaS Platform Pilots in China Source: Authors, 2022.

…

Implementation Model of MaaS Platforms and Initiatives in Mainland China (Source: Authors, 2022).

…

Figures - uploaded by Ransford A. Acheampong

Content may be subject to copyright.

Content uploaded by Ransford A. Acheampong

Content may be subject to copyright.

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

Available online 29 July 2023

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Mobility-as-a-service transitions in China: Emerging policies, initiatives,

platforms and MaaS implementation models

Yuyuan Chen

, Ransford A. Acheampong

Department of Planning and Environmental Management. University of Manchester, UK

ARTICLE INFO

Keywords:

Mobility-as-a-service

MaaS

Integrated transport

Future mobility

China

ABSTRACT

The concept of Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) is gaining increasing attention in both academic and policy dis-

courses concerning the future of transport and mobility. The current understanding of the progress of MaaS is

based on the handful of studies that have explored pilot initiatives carried out mainly in Europe and North

America. In contrast, this paper extends the literature by exploring the evolution of MaaS in mainland China. It

examines how the concept of MaaS emerged in China, identies and maps on-going MaaS initiatives and plat-

forms across Chinese cities, and investigates the most common approaches and models of MaaS delivery. The

analysis reveals that while Chinese government policy has long discussed integrated transport, MaaS and related

aspects, including ‘one-stop’ mobility services and ‘Chuixing Ji Fuwu’, which is the Chinese translation of

Mobility-as-a-Service, have only appeared in recent times. At present, 41 Chinese cities are hosting ongoing MaaS

initiatives and associated platforms. These are concentrated in the developed eastern regions, in cities with high

political inuence and larger populations. The geography of MaaS strongly reects the prevailing digital divide

in China, implying that deliberate policy choices are needed to avert widening transport and mobility in-

equalities in the age of MaaS. MaaS platforms currently only provide basic information and modal/service

integration and are deployed either as bespoke applications or added to existing social media and navigation

applications. Two main models of MaaS delivery were identied: public-controlled model that is predominant and

centered primarily on integrating existing state-run public transport services, and partnership model that is

emerging in cities such as Beijing to integrate more mobility services beyond conventional public transport. The

complex landscape of actors associated with the emerging public–private partnership model presents new

challenges for transport governance, especially in balancing an established tradition of strong public sector

control over transport on the one hand, and the interests of the edgling private sector mobility service providers

on the other hand.

1. Introduction

Urban areas all over the world face major challenges concerning

transport and mobility. A crucial concern in this sector regards the

implementation of environmentally sustainable means of transport that

can meet the mobility needs of different groups (Casady, 2020; Giesecke

et al., 2016). The challenges faced by urban transport are inextricably

tied to rapid urbanisation, which dramatically increases the number of

personal vehicles in cities (Gakenheimer, 1999; Halpern, 2014; Han,

2010). In developing countries with high levels of recent urbanisation,

the mismatch between the supply of transport infrastructure and urban

residents’ changing mobility demands is steadily increasing (Jarah et al.,

2019; Han et al., 2018; Sietchiping et al., 2012). As people become more

reliant on cars for transport, other issues arise, including air and noise

pollution, road congestion, accidents and related deaths, high energy

consumption, and growing CO

emissions (Canitez, 2019; Zavitsas et al.,

2010; Shekhovtsov et al., 2020). Consequently, academic research and

government policy are currently focused on reducing the pollution,

energy consumption, and emissions tied to road transport to improve the

quality of urban life.

One way to resolve these transportation challenges is to construct

highly efcient integrated transport systems, the goals of which include

achieving an all-encompassing level of physical, inter-modal, timetable,

and fare integration to meet the travel demands of all urban residents

(Buchanan and Crow, 1974; Audouin, 2019). Physical integration con-

cerns the integration of infrastructure, including physical routes and

* Corresponding author.

E-mail addresses: yuyuan.chen-2@student.manchester.ac.uk (Y. Chen), Ransfordantwi.acheampong@manchester.ac.uk (R.A. Acheampong).

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Case Studies on Transport Policy

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/cstp

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2023.101054

Received 25 October 2022; Received in revised form 3 June 2023; Accepted 28 July 2023

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

facilities such as stations, stops, and transfer centres to minimise the

number of transfers during inter-modal journeys and make the urban

travel experience as seamless as possible (Saliara, 2014). Fare integra-

tion refers to the integration of booking and payment systems, while the

integration of the timetables and scheduled departures of different

transport services is needed for users to be able to use different modes

with ease (Audouin, 2019).

Emerging transport technologies, together with the services they

offer and mobility concepts they construct, are leveraging advances in

Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) and thus creating

new possibilities for the integration of urban transport. Indeed, the

development of ICTs has enabled the creation of Integrated Mobility

Services (IMS), which are means of modal integration centred around

aggregating different mobility services and making them accessible all at

once via a single interface (Sochor et al., 2015; Mukhtar-Landgren et al.,

2016). IMS have included various services, from shared mobility ser-

vices such as car- and bike-sharing schemes to demand-responsive ser-

vices such as Uber and Didi (Yun et al., 2020), with platforms integrating

the booking and payment of a single travel mode (Mukhtar-Landgren

et al., 2016).

Within the context of IMS, Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) has emerged

to strengthen the current level of integration and customisation of

mobility services. MaaS is thus a means to aggregate multiple transport

services in a single channel or platform to facilitate customers’ access to

information about different mobility modes (Heikkil¨

a, 2014; Giesecke

et al., 2016; Cruz and Sarmento, 2020; Hensher et al., 2021). The aim of

these platforms is to provide users with the ability to customise their

travel experience and seamlessly integrate various services (European

MaaS Alliance, 2020; Smith et al., 2018; Holmberg et al., 2016; Ranta-

sila, 2015; Heikkil¨

a, 2014). Whereas integration focuses on harnessing

the complementarities between modes of transport and making them

readily available to users, the customisation offered by MaaS seeks to

address users’ preferences and enable seamless multi-modal journeys

(Audouin, 2019). MaaS is considered to be a way of introducing a new

regime of inter-modality, which will induce profound socio-technical

changes (Audouin, 2019). This, however, also requires deep changes

in individual behaviour and attitudes, notably to allow on-demand ac-

cess and usage to replace ownership (Lajas and Mac´

ario, 2020). More-

over, MaaS must be supported by new business models that are more

nancially sustainable (Reck, 2021), and new actors for the aggregation

of mobility services into one platform (Smith et al., 2018).

Since its emergence, MaaS has been gradually put into practice

through various pilot initiatives. However, as a relatively new concept,

research on this type of mobility service is still in its infancy. All of the

MaaS pilot initiatives that have been scientically explored so far are

either European (e.g., Finland, Sweden, Germany, Poland, and the UK),

Singapore, or North American (see e.g. Zijlstra et al., 2020; Heikkil¨

2014; Goodall et al., 2017). Most of these studies have centred on

governance issues, including governance approaches, policy in-

struments and implementation models (Smith and Hensher, 2020;

Audouin and Finger, 2018; Hirschhorn et al., 2019; Vonk Noordegraaf

et al., 2021; Mukhtar-Landgren and Smith, 2019; Pangbourne et al.,

2020; Dadashzadeh et al., 2022), the role of public sector actors (Fenton

et al., 2020; Audouin and Finger, 2019; Li, 2019), barriers and enablers

to the development of MaaS (Karlsson et al., 2020), and evolving insti-

tutional congurations (Smith et al., 2018; Surakka et al., 2018). Others,

instead, have focused more practically on the platforms themselves and

the level of integration they provide. For instance, in this type of

research, Sochor et al. (2018) categorised MaaS platforms into two main

groups: platforms that only integrate mobility information (e.g., Qixxit),

and those that integrate information, booking, and payment (e.g., Smile,

Moovel, Whim, and Ubigo). A third research direction has addressed the

business models adopted by MaaS providers (Hensher, 2017; Mulley and

Nelson, 2020; Kamargianni and Matyas, 2017), while a fourth branch

has researched users’ acceptance and adoption behaviour (Ye et al.,

2020; Schikofsky et al., 2020; Liljamo et al., 2020; Matyas and Kamar-

gianni, 2019; Polydoropoulou et al., 2020).

The current understanding of the development of MaaS initiatives is

limited to these few empirical studies carried out in developed Western

countries. Hence, the evolution of MaaS in other national contexts is

virtually unknown, especially in developing countries in the Global

South. However, MaaS and IMS have recently started to be discussed in

Chinese policies, and some pilot initiatives have either been planned or

have already started in various Chinese cities, including Beijing. As such,

this study aims to provide a broad, initial understanding of China’s

transition toward MaaS. Specically, the paper addresses four main

interrelated objectives which are: (a) assess the general policy context

concerning transport integration broadly and MaaS specically in

China; (b) identify and map the geographical distribution of MaaS ini-

tiatives and platforms across mainland China (c) analyse the charac-

teristics of on-going MaaS initiatives and platforms, including mobility

service offerings and platform types and levels of integration within

platforms; and (d) examine emerging MaaS implementation models/

approaches. By exploring the current evolution of MaaS in China, this

study provides a rst contribution to the understanding of China’s

transitional progress, highlights similarities and differences with previ-

ous empirical scholarship on MaaS in other contexts and outlines di-

rections for further research.

Fig. 1. Conceptualizing MaaS and the aspects of integration (Source: Authors, 2022).

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

This paper is divided into ve sections. Following this introduction,

Section 2 will outline the methodology of this study. Then, Section 3

will present the results of the analysis, followed by a discussion of the

main ndings and their implications in Section 4. Finally, Section 5 will

make some concluding remarks before presenting directions for further

research.

2. Methodology

2.1. Conceptualizing MaaS

In this study, the transition to MaaS is seen as the gradual emergence

of an integrated mobility regime (Audouin, 2019) covering the inte-

gration of platform-enabled mobility services, data, physical infra-

structure, and policy and institutions (Fig. 1). The rst element can be

interpreted as the integration of different mobility services into a single

platform through which users can access information about different

mobility options and book the services they need (Kamargianni and

Goulding, 2018). For the realisation of this purpose of MaaS platforms,

transport service providers should collect data concerning users’ pref-

erences, available routes, ticket prices and timetables and be willing to

share it with the platform (Kamargianni and Goulding, 2018). As such,

service integration is partly tied to data integration, without which

service providers could not make operational decisions. On a more

practical level, physical integration concerns the effective and efcient

coordination of transport infrastructure and facilities, including parking

spaces and all the available transport networks in a given area (Audouin,

2019; Merkert et al., 2020). Finally, the realisation of efcient MaaS also

requires relevant institutions to be integrated (Merkert et al., 2020).

This, in practice, means that relevant institutional actors should

collaborate for the implementation of coordinated policies and mea-

sures. For example, local governmental authorities may support the

delivery of MaaS by developing a range of complementary cross-sectoral

and cross-tier policies. In addition, institutional integration also con-

cerns organisational integration, such as building collaborative bodies

between MaaS deliverers.

2.2. Systematic scoping review

As mentioned before, this study aims to track the trajectory of the

MaaS transition currently underway in mainland China. In line with this

study’s exploratory nature, systematic scoping review, focused mainly

on policies and initiatives, was adopted as its main research approach.

This method entails the employment of a systematic approach to gath-

ering, sorting, reviewing, and analysing relevant information from

multiple sources (Daudt et al., 2013; Weber and Chaiechi, 2022). Fig. 2

shows the three stages of the systematic scoping review, each of which

will be explained in the following sections.

2.2.1. Identication and review of documents

The rst step of the scoping review involved gathering information

about how MaaS emerged in China and how the surrounding policy

context evolved both at the national and local levels. To this end, rele-

vant documentary sources were selected based on the criteria presented

in Table 1 and were then analysed. Although MaaS emerged relatively

recently as an independent concept, the integration of transport has

been a priority for Chinese policies since the early 2000s (Liu and Luk,

2009). Considering this fact, the review focused primarily on policy

Fig. 2. Scoping Review and Analytical Process (Source: Authors, 2022).

Table 1

Document selection criterion and search terms.

Type and Source of

Documents

Published ofcial documents, including press releases and

news bulletins, policy documents, reports, other records

published by governments and companies, and academic

literature.

Relevant terms MaaS; Chuixing Ji Fuwu; integrated and intelligent

mobility service; app-based mobility; integrated transport;

mobility-on-demand; on-demand mobility; door-to-door

mobility; demand-responsive transport/mobility; Metro

and Bus One-Card Scheme; application.

Content coverage Documents should contain information about transport

integration, including data, service and infrastructure

integration, government programmes, strategies and

policy directions. Documents focusing specically on

MaaS initiatives were also considered.

Source: Authors, 2022.

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

documents published from early 2000, with the intent of uncovering the

broader Chinese political and policy agenda surrounding transport

integration, and, specically, the transition to MaaS. The documents

collected included public-domain online news articles, ofcial press

releases, policy documents, and reports. Table 1 presents the keywords

that were used to search for documents and assess how relevant they

were to the study objectives. To avoid excluding potentially relevant

information, the main keywords used for the search were ’Chuxing Ji

Fuwu’ and MaaS, followed by a series of related concepts such as ‘in-

tegrated transport,’ ‘integrated mobility services,’ and ‘one-stop

mobility service platform.’ The web search for these terms resulted in a

collection of 32 government documents and two relevant academic

papers published on MaaS as of the time of conducting this research (see

Appendix 1, Table A1). The documents were assigned alphanumerical

codes ranging from ‘DOC-01

′

to ‘DOC-34

′

and systematically reviewed

using thematic analysis.

2.2.2. Inventorizing and mapping MaaS initiatives and platforms across

China

In addition to the document analysis, the second stage of this study

involved the identication of MaaS platforms and initiatives across

mainland China through a dedicated web search (Fig. 2). After identi-

fying relevant pilot initiatives, Sochor et al.’s (2018) MaaS integration

typology was used to assess the level of integration of different mobility

services within Chinese MaaS platforms. The original typology divided

MaaS into four levels, each corresponding to a certain degree of data,

service, and policy integration (Fig. 3). Level 1 corresponds to the pro-

vision of basic information about multiple mobility modes. Level 2 refers

to platforms that provide users with a single interface through which

they can book and pay for different mobility services, but only for single

trips. Platforms at Level 3 integration instead provide ticket bundles,

periodic subscription services and service packages (Vitetta, 2022), thus

meeting the travel demands of both households and individuals over

periods of varying length (Sochor et al., 2018). The fourth and last level

of integration concerns societal and incentive integration of all stake-

holders, including both supply and demand ones, and their coordination

for the delivery of MaaS (Sochor et al., 2018). This classication does

not consider infrastructural integration, which was previously identied

as an important component of MaaS (Fig. 1). Nonetheless, this frame-

work remains a useful starting point to support the analysis of the dif-

ferences between the types of MaaS platforms currently in place in

Chinese cities and their capabilities.

2.2.3. Identication of implementation models

In the third research step, this study adopted Smith et al.’s (2018)

classication of MaaS development scenarios to characterise the

emerging implementation models that can be found in China. This

Fig. 3. MaaS Integration Level: Types, Criteria, and Examples (Source: Based on Sochor et al.,2018).

Table 2

Implementation Model Identication Criteria.

MaaS

Development

Scenario/Model

Role of Public Sector Actors Role of Private Sector Actors

Market-Driven Mainly responsible with

public transport ticket sales

Mainly play the role of public

transport providers and

generally act as enabler but

driving force

Play the role of integrating

and operating mobility

services

The whole delivery process

is driven by private sector

actors with support of public

sector

Public-Controlled Public sector actors take the

leading role of integrating and

operating mobility services in

addition to their traditional

roles (e.g., selling public

transport tickets)

Public sector actors drive

MaaS developments

Provide mobility services as

what they do before

delivering MaaS platforms

Public-Private Take the role of MaaS

integrator: public sector plays

a mediating and enabling role,

including providing technical,

nancial support to service

providers/operators, and

other activities

Take the role of MaaS

operator: manage MaaS

platform and deliver MaaS

services to end-users

through the MaaS interface

Source: Based on Smith et al., (2018).

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

framework proposes three MaaS development scenarios, distinguished

based on the role of public and private sector actors in delivering MaaS

(Table 2). The characteristics and interpretation of each development

scenario correspond, in turn, to three different implementation models.

Thus, in this analysis, the original scenarios proposed by Smith et al.

(2018)—market-driven, public-controlled, and public–private partner-

ship—are interpreted, respectively, as market-driven, public-controlled,

and partnership models. This framework allowed for the identication

of the currently existing MaaS operators and integrators in China, based

on which the role of public and private sector actors in the delivery

process was examined.

3. Results

3.1. Policy context

3.1.1. Origins of integrated transport imperatives in China

From the review of various documentary sources, it was revealed

that MaaS was rst mentioned in Chinese national policy in 2018,

initially discussed under the umbrella label ‘one-stop’ mobility services.

Later, in 2019, the concepts of ‘MaaS’, or ‘Chuxing ji Fuwu’, started to

emerge in policy documents and reports. Before MaaS started to be

discussed, integrated transport had already been a key point of national

policy since the early 2000 s. The idea of constructing an all-

encompassing integrated transport system was discussed for the rst

time in the 2007 policy Medium and long-term development planning of

comprehensive transportation network. Since then, various other policies

and projects for the integration of transport infrastructure, fare systems

and mobility data have been proposed and delivered.

For the integration of physical infrastructure, the national govern-

ment focused on integrating various means of public transport, con-

cerning primarily bus, rail, and metro lines (see Table 3). In contrast, few

policies addressed the integration of public and private mobility services

(e.g., DOC-17/2021, Table 3). Moreover, national policies and strategies

mainly focus on the integration of transport hubs to facilitate transfers

between different modes of transport but are not as closely concerned

with the overall journey, which would include, for example, connections

between different hubs and access to transport facilities (Chowdhury

and Ceder, 2013). In addition, China’s national government has openly

addressed the physical integration of various intercity mobility modes,

including rails, roads, and waterways. For instance, such policies discuss

how to integrate urban railways with air transport or national train

stations.

Another interesting nding was that the national government chose

to differentiate the development of transport and thus prioritised regions

as the scale for achieving transport integration goals across China. Under

this system, the government selected some cities that would become

‘National Public Transport Demonstration’ or ‘Comprehensive Trans-

portation Service Demonstration’ cities. These municipalities were thus

given special funds to develop their urban public transport systems and,

more specically, build integrated transport hubs (see DOC-06/2013,

Table 3). In addition to this, the central government selected large ter-

ritories with relatively mature conditions (e.g., transport conditions,

economic conditions) and endogenous demand, such as the Beijing-

Tianjin-Hebei area, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Pearl River Delta,

to take the lead in implementing one-card intercity transportation

schemes.

As for the integration of transport data, the national government

prioritises publicly operated transport services, while the data integra-

tion of private or partnership-operated mobility services is rather

limited in government policy at all levels. Consequently, only a handful

of policies and regulations were found to address mobility data sharing

between the public and private sectors.

In addition to infrastructure and data integration, a range of national

policies was also enacted to favour the integration of the public trans-

port fare system. A key document regulating this area of transport

Table 3

Summary of Policies for Transport Infrastructure Integration in China.

Policy Title Year Code Summary of Content

Medium and long-term

development planning of

integrated transportation

network

2007 DOC-

Proposed to build commercial

rail, road and air transport

hubs in connection with urban

rail transit, conventional

public transport, taxis, and

other transport modes to

achieve a comprehensively

integrated transport system

Notice of the General Ofce of

the State Council

Forwarding the Opinions of

the Ministry of Construction

and Other Departments on

Prioritizing the

Development of Urban

Public Transport

2008 DOC-

Build comprehensive transport

hubs to facilitate transfers

between different mobility

modes (e.g., urban buses,

railways, and other long-

distance transport modes)

Notice of the Ministry of

Transport on the

announcement of the second

batch of cities to be created

by the demonstration project

of public transport urban

construction

2013 DOC-

06-

Build new integrated transport

hubs in 37 selected cities

“13th Five-Year” Modern

Comprehensive

Transportation System

Development Plan

2017 DOC-

Build 150 open and three-

dimensionally integrated

passenger transport hubs

nationwide

Achieve ‘Zero’ transfer

distance between different

transportation modes

Urban railways should be

integrated with airline stations

and both large and medium-

size high-speed rail stations

National Comprehensive

Three-dimensional

Transportation Network

Planning Outline

2021 DOC-

International airports should

be integrated with more than

two rail transport modes,

including tramways and

underground trains

National train stations should

be integrated with more than

two modes of urban rail

transport

The planning and construction

of rail transit in cities with

international and national

integrated transport hubs

should take building

comprehensive passenger

transport hubs connecting

these cities as a priority.

Build about 20 international

comprehensive transportation

hub cities and 80 national

comprehensive transportation

hub cities.

“14th Five-Year” Modern

Comprehensive Transportation

System Development Plan

2021 DOC-

The entrances and exits of the

payment areas for different

transportation modes should

be less than 300 m apart

80% of airports should be

integrated with railways and

metros by 2025

More than 90% of harbours

should be integrated with

railways

Comprehensive transportation

service “14th Five-Year plan”

development plan

2021 DOC-

Facilitate the passenger

transfer of urban buses and

bicycles within 100 m of all the

main entrances and exits of

railway stations

Source: Compiled by Authors.

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

integration is the 2012 policy document Guiding Opinions on Prioritizing

the Development of Public Transport in Cities, which emphasised the

importance of working toward the popularisation of smart cards for

intra- and inter-city transport. In 2020, more than 280 prefecture cities

in China had already implemented smart-card schemes. Under these

projects, a single card can be used to pay for bus, metro, ferry and light

rail tickets, as well as taxis and public bike sharing (see DOC-14/2020).

3.1.2. The emergence of MaaS in national and sub-national policies

The rst ofcial policy documents and other government sources

addressing the integration of mobility services in China appeared in

2018 (see Table 5). At the national level, the Chinese government has

conceptualised ‘one-stop’ mobility services that closely resemble MaaS

in their intents, purposes and service conguration. However, the

existing policies describing these services are rather general and do to

mention any specic MaaS projects or initiatives, nor do they set clear

benchmarks and performance evaluation mechanisms for them.

Furthermore, the few MaaS-related policies reviewed here do not

identify the responsibilities of the various public and private actors in

the process of delivering ‘one-stop’ mobility services. As summarised in

Table 4

Transport data integration and sharing-related policies in China.

Policy Title Summary of Content

“13th Five-Year” Development Outline

of Urban Public Transport

Proposed to accelerate the establishment

of a system to share urban public transport

data and resources among ministries,

provinces and cities. Promoted the

construction of ‘one-stop’ information

services covering all modes of transport

that could span across regions.

“14th Five-Year” Development Plan

for Digital Transportation

Proposed to improve the structure of

comprehensive transport information

platforms at the ministry and the

provincial level and promote

comprehensive transportation as a

concept. Proposed to strengthen the

integration and inter-service exchange of

data and other resources.

Comprehensive transportation service

“14th Five-Year plan” development

plan

Promoted data sharing between inter-

urban mobility modes, including air and

rail transport.

Outline of Building a Strong

Transportation Country

Promoted the construction of

comprehensive transport big data centres

for the development of intelligent

transport.

“14th Five-Year” Modern

Comprehensive Transportation

System Development Plan

Proposed to strengthen the

institutionalisation of transport data

sharing.

Source: Compiled by Authors.

Table 5

Summary of National Policies Related to MaaS.

City Summary of Content

“14th Five-Year” Development Plan for

Digital Transportation

Promoted the construction of integrated

travel service platforms and advocated

the concept of MaaS.

“14th Five-Year” Modern

Comprehensive Transportation

System Development Plan

Supported market entities to integrate

resources and provide ‘one-stop’ travel

services.

Comprehensive transportation service

“14th Five-Year plan” development

plan

Promoted the concept of “MaaS” and the

development of ‘one-stop’ travel services

based on smart terminals to actively

achieve integration between air-rail,

public-rail, public-air, public-water,

air–water, and integration of other

mobility modes.

Outline of Building a Strong

Transportation Country

Proposed to develop shared mobility and

realise ‘Mobility as a Service’.

Source: Compiled by Authors.

Table 6

Summary of Local Policy Related to MaaS.

Document Title Year of

Publication

Code Summary of main

content for MaaS

Beijing Municipal Trafc

and Travel Data Open

Management Measures

(for Trial Implementation)

2019 DOC-

Promotes the exchange

of urban mobility data in

Beijing, specically

listing the type of

mobility data that can be

shared and the

procedures for doing so.

Report of Qingdao

Municipal Transportation

Bureau on the revision and

improvement of the pilot

program for building a

strong transportation

country

2021 DOC-

Set a timeline of 3 to 5

years for the realisation

of a MaaS platform in

Qingdao.

Jiangsu Province “14th Five-

Year” Smart

Transportation

Development Plan

2021 DOC-

Proposed to rely on

Huai’an, Suzhou and

other nearby cities to

carry out MaaS

initiatives in 2021.

Changsha Municipal

Transportation Bureau’s

decision on accelerating

the construction of a new

smart city demonstration

city

2020 DOC-

Proposed to build a MaaS

one-stop travel service

platform for public

transport in Changsha.

Three-year action plan for

trafc optimization and

improvement in the

central urban area of Xi’an

(2020–2022)

2021 DOC-

Proposed to develop a

public mobility platform

based on MaaS.

Hainan Province’s “14th

Five-Year”

Comprehensive

Transportation Plan”

2020 DOC-

Promoted the

construction of a MaaS

system on a pilot basis

for urban public

transport and tourism.

Dongguan City

Transportation

Development White Paper

2020 DOC-

Advocated an “efcient,

coordinated and green”

future transportation

system and the

exploration of MaaS.

Several policies and

measures of Shanghai to

promote the digital

transformation of cities

2020 DOC-

Promoted the

construction of a

Shanghai-based MaaS

system based on the

improvement of data

collection and sharing, as

well as the provision of a

unied payment model.

Shanghai Public Data

Resource Opening 2020

Work Plan

2020 DOC-

Proposed to open specic

types of mobility data to

support the development

of smart transportation

planning, among other

elds. Allocated specic

tasks to different public

and private sector actors

to further open the

delivery of integrated

mobility data.

2021 Beijing Municipal

Trafc Comprehensive

Management Action Plan

2021 DOC-

Proposed to construct an

integrated MaaS

information platform for

green transportation.

Beijing’s 14th Five-Year

Plan for Climate Change

and Energy Conservation

2022 DOC-

Proposed to mobilise

public enthusiasm to

participate in green and

low-carbon practices

through a carbon credit

mechanism.

Source: Compiled by Authors.

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

Table 4, the national policies identied only addressed the integration of

long-distance transport services, such as air and rail transport. Thus, it

can be afrmed that MaaS has formally emerged in policy discourses and

was clearly featured in the government’s long-term transport and

mobility vision. However, no concrete plans and strategies for achieving

MaaS have yet been proposed at the national level, and those concerning

intra-urban mobility have been especially disregarded.

In contrast with national policies, local governments of various

Chinese cities (e.g., Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao, Changsha, Xian,

Hainan, and Dongguan) and provinces (e.g., Jiangsu, Hainan) have

enacted more MaaS-related policies (Table 6). However, these local

policies suffer from the same shortcomings as the national ones. This

means that they also fail to provide detailed strategies and action plans

for the delivery of MaaS, outline the different roles and responsibilities

of various public and private actors, and propose specic implementa-

tion evaluation mechanisms. At the same time, the governments of some

cities, such as Beijing and Shanghai, have developed supplementary

cross-sectoral policies to support the delivery of MaaS. Specically,

Beijing and Shanghai have proposed a series of supplementary policies

addressing data management and data sharing between public and

private mobility services for the optimal delivery of MaaS (see DOC-21/

2019, DOC-31/2020). For example, in DOC-21/2019 developed by

Beijing, it is afrmed that both static and dynamic urban public trans-

port data, including urban rail and road transport, can be shared. Static

data can refer to bus information, while dynamic data can include real-

time updates on road congestion levels. Similarly, Shanghai proposed to

provide wider access to transport data such as bus congestion levels and

travel updates, among other types of information (see DOC-31/2020).

Beijing has also initiated an incentive scheme including a carbon

credit initiative to boost residents’ usage of the recently introduced

Beijing MaaS platform (see DOC-23/2022). Briey, this scheme prom-

ises to reward urban travellers with various discounts, such as free metro

tickets, if they use the Beijing MaaS Platform to navigate via green travel

modes, which include bus, metro, and bikes (Mobility Transition in

China, 2021).

3.2. MaaS pilot initiatives and platforms across mainland China

In addition to the policies analysed above, several MaaS pilot ini-

tiatives across mainland China were also identied and examined. The

Appendix 2, Table A2 contains a matrix detailing the characteristics of

the platforms, indicating the cities where they have been implemented,

their implementation model and integration level, the modal options

they provide, and whether they are public or private. Each of these as-

pects is covered in the following sections.

3.2.1. MaaS cities and characteristics

Across mainland China, 41 cities have developed and implemented a

total of 43 MaaS platforms that integrate different mobility services

(Fig. 4). The rst step of the analysis entailed the review of some of the

characteristics of these cities, including their political situation, popu-

lation size, and geographical location (see Appendix 2, Table A2). This

investigation revealed that cities hosting MaaS initiatives tend to have a

relatively higher political level, larger population, and be located along

the economically prosperous eastern belt of the country. Twelve of the

cities identied are large prefectural cities and municipalities with a

population of over 10 million, while 14 of the cities have a population

between 5 and 10 million residents.

In terms of the cities’ political level, 24 of them have a higher po-

litical level or a signicant inuence over their surrounding areas. As

shown in more detail in Appendix 2, Table A2, 16 of the cities examined

are even more important than normal prefectural cities, as they are

metropolitan, sub-provincial, capital cities of provinces, making them

important centres for political administration, and central cities of

Chinese provinces. The other eight cities are important for the economy

or transport network of their provinces and the surrounding regions. For

example, Wuhu has the second-highest GDP in the Anhui Province

(Wuhu City Party History Ofce, 2022). Foshan, another of the cities

examined, is a major node in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater

Bay Area and a key economic and trade centre of the western Pearl River

Delta region (Foshan Municipal People’s Government Ofce, 2022).

Moreover, among the identied cities, those with a higher political level

are generally more populous than those with less political relevance.

The geography of MaaS cities and platforms in China is depicted in

Fig. 4. Map of MaaS Platform Pilots in China Source: Authors, 2022.

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

Fig. 4. In China’s 7th Five-Year Plan(Central Committee of the

Communist Party of China, 1985), which was pursued between 1986

and 1990, mainland China was divided into three belts based on a

combination of economic development and geographical factors. These

are the Eastern Economic Belt, Middle Economic Belt, and Western

Economic Belt (Pan, 2019; Gao, 2008). Fig. 4 shows that most of the

MaaS initiatives and platforms identied (29, with three platforms of

them being in Beijing) were implemented in cities located in the pros-

perous Eastern Economic Belt, while the Middle belt hosts 9 initiatives,

and the West one only presents 5 of them.

The Eastern Economic Belt presents the highest level of development

in terms of transport infrastructure, economic productivity, and tech-

nological innovation. In contrast, the Western Economic Belt is the least

developed, while the middle one ranks between the other two regions

(National Bureau of Statistics, 2022; Hu, 2016). The superior advance-

ment of the Eastern region is reected in its output, which is almost

twice as much as the other regions in terms of Gross Regional Product,

city and urban-district population, and population density, among other

aspects (National Bureau of Statistics, 2022). It is therefore under-

standable that this region would host the largest number of MaaS pro-

jects. On the contrary, the two poorer regions tend to have limited

nancial resources to invest in developing the basic infrastructure for

the implementation of MaaS, such as widespread Wi-Fi access and smart

ticketing systems for public transport (Hu, 2016). Indeed, having the

infrastructure to support the internet of things (IoT) is crucial for the

effective and efcient data transmission that is required for delivering

MaaS (Kamargianni and Goulding, 2018; Cruz and Sarmento, 2020).

Hence, these factors can explain why the number of MaaS platforms and

initiatives decreases as one moves toward the west of China.

3.2.2. MaaS platform deployment types and integration levels

The platforms identied can be divided into three types depending

on their deployment model: ‘bespoke’ platforms, platforms built on

existing social media applications, and navigation platforms (Fig. 5).

Bespoke MaaS platforms are developed specically for the integration of

mobility services. In China, such applications include Tianfu Tong,

Shengjing Tong, and Handan Transport. Users of these applications

subscribe to the single MaaS platform operator to access the available

mobility offerings through that specic interface. In comparison, some

MaaS platforms are constructed on existing social media or mapping and

navigation platforms. The ones used in cities such as Zhengzhou, Xiamen

and Guangzhou rely on WeChat, a well-established privately-owned

social media platform. In order to access mobility services in these cities,

users must have a WeChat account, which will cause some of the in-

formation associated with the WeChat prole to be shared with the

MaaS platform, such as the account name and phone number. Similarly,

the Beijing MaaS platform was constructed relying on two existing ap-

plications, Amap (Gaode Map) and Baidu Map. The deployment models

are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, another MaaS platform, Yangcheng

Tong, is a bespoken application and built on WeChat as an applet, so

users can access the platform via two ways.

Regarding the level of integration, 24 of the platforms examined,

such as those in Qingdao, Tianjin, and Zhengzhou, provided Level 1

integration, meaning that they only contained information about

different modes of transport. Secondly, 19 other platforms integrated

both general information and the fare systems of different mobility

modes, being thus categorised as Level 2 integration. For example, urban

travellers in Chengdu, Shenyang, and Changsha can use, respectively,

Tianfu Tong, Shengjing Tong, and Xiangxing One-Card Tong to visualise

information about local bus and metro services and purchase tickets for

every journey they make. However, none of these platforms allows users

to purchase transport subscriptions or mobility bundles that integrate

different mobility services, even though passengers can use a single

interface to buy tickets for any of the integrated travel modes. Overall,

all of the platforms examined were considered to have reached either

Levels 1 or 2 of integration, based on the criteria shown in Fig. 3. No

platform has yet achieved Level 3 integration, as they do not offer pe-

riodical subscriptions that can satisfy the travel demands of daily com-

muters or an entire household. The most developed platform in terms of

integration among the ones examined is the service package provided in

2020 for the residents of Guangzhou by a collaboration between Didi

Chuxing and Guangzhou Yangchengtong Co., Ltd. This scheme, called

‘green ticket,’ entitles users to freely use the local bus and bike sharing

systems during a set period, such as a week or a month (Yangcheng

Evening News, 2020). However, at the time of this study, this service

package had been suspended for reasons that could not be established.

Additional information about the types and levels of integration of the

MaaS platforms examined can be found in Appendix 2, Table A2.

3.2.3. Modal offerings within platforms

Another aspect of the MaaS platforms examined in this study con-

cerned the extent to which they integrated different mobility modes and

the scope of this integration. Two of the platforms examined only inte-

grated transport modes that connect different cities, which normally

include long-distance coach services, railways, and air transport (i.e.,

Panjin Mobility, Huimin Mobility). Interestingly, the Leshan Transport

platform and Weinan on Hand platform provides a Level 2 integration

for inter-city trains and coaches, offering both information and payment

functions, but only integrates general information for urban buses.

Aside from the three aforementioned platforms, the other 39 MaaS

interfaces integrate services and/or information for various urban

mobility options. Among them, 10 only offer services and information

relating to urban public transport, while the other 29 integrate both

public (bus and metro services) and private mobility services (demand-

responsive services). For 22 of these 29 platforms, only one type of

demand-responsive service is addressed, which is normally either a bike-

Fig. 5. MaaS Platform Types Source: Authors, 2022.

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

sharing or ride-hailing service. Only 7 of the platforms examined include

more than one private demand-responsive mobility service alongside

urban public transport. This nding suggests a rather weak degree of

integration between urban public transport and demand-responsive

mobility services, which, in turn, reveals how public and privately

managed transport services are not well integrated. The Appendix 2,

Table A2 contains more details about the modal offering of each of the

platforms identied.

3.3. MaaS implementation models

Among the three MaaS implementation models presented in Table 2

(Section 2.2.3), only two of them were found to be present in the ini-

tiatives and platforms examined in this study: public-controlled and

partnership models. As shown in Fig. 6, only eight of the 41 MaaS ini-

tiatives identied are being delivered through a partnership approach,

while all others are public-controlled. As there are several MaaS

Fig. 6. Implementation Model of MaaS Platforms and Initiatives in Mainland China (Source: Authors, 2022).

Fig. 7. Landscape of actors and relationships within the Beijing MaaS Platform Initiative.

Fig. 8. Landscape of actors and relationships within the RUUBYPAY initiative.

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

platforms and initiatives underway across China, not all of which can be

covered in this paper, the Beijing MaaS Platform initiative and RUU-

BYPAY initiative are used as illustrative examples of the partnership and

public-controlled models, respectively. Appendix 2, Table A2 report the

specic service providers of the Chinese platforms examined in this

study.

Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 shows the landscape of key actors and their inter-

relationships within the on-going Beijing MaaS Platform initiative and

Ruubypay initiative, respectively. In the typology of relationships

depicted (Figs. 7 and 8), interaction is characterized as political where it

involves government agencies/department exercising political power

and inuence over other institutions in both the public and private

sectors. Regulatory oversight responsibilities emanate directly from the

mandate and political power of public sector institutions. Technical

support relates to the development and management of the platforms by

both public sector organizations designated for that purpose and private

sector companies that are involved in the development of software ap-

plications. Data and information sharing captures transfer of mobility

service-related information that underpins the MaaS platforms.

In general, the ‘partnership’ model sees private actors operating the

MaaS platform while public sector actors act as service integrators.

Beijing’s functional government, mainly the Beijing Municipal Com-

mission of Transport (BMCT) plays the role of MaaS integrator and

provides overall regulatory oversight over subordinate public sector

institutions and private sector actors involved in the implementation

process. BMCT facilitates and oversees the integration of transport data

from various state-owned public transport operators, such as Beijing

Daxing International Airport, the Beijing Public Transport Group, and

the Rail Transit Command Centre. BMCT’s subordinate institutions,

including Beijing Transport Institute (BIT) and the Intelligent Transport

Development Centre, do not have power of publishing policies. Instead,

they mainly provide technical input into the policy-making process and

manage the Beijing MaaS Platform (Beijing Transport Institute, 2022a;

2022b). One example is the integration of information and payment of

Wukesong Underground Parking Lot during the Olympic Games (Beijing

Transport Institute, 2022a). This parking service was provided by Bei-

jing MaaS Platform specically for promoting citizen mobility during

the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2022 (China National Radio, 2022).

The Beijing MaaS Platform leverages existing map applications built

by private sector companies. Amap (also known as Gaode Map) and

Baidu Map company are the two major private sector companies directly

involved in the platform’s development and management. These com-

panies also help integrate some of the mobility services provided by

other private companies into the platform without direct involvement of

public sector actors. A typical example is the way ride-hailing services,

provided by Technological Network Companies (TNCs) and traditional

taxi services were integrated rst into Amap application and subse-

quently into the Beijing MaaS Platform. Prior to the introduction of the

Beijing MaaS Platform in 2019, Amap had collaborated with various

ride-hailing companies (e.g., Caocao Mobility, Yangguang Mobility) and

integrated them into the Amap application two years earlier in 2017 (Ji,

2019). The same company, working with the Beijing Taxicab and Livery

Association (BTLA), also integrated conventional taxi services into the

Amap application. Thus, what is now the Beijing MaaS platform com-

prises Amap and the initial taxi and ride-hailing services the company

integrated through their map application as well as public transport

services provided by state-owned enterprises.

Unlike the partnership model where there is a complex landscape of

actors and their interaction, under the public controlled model, the

picture is much less complex, as shown in Fig. 8. MaaS platforms under

the public-controlled model are operated by public sector institutions,

such as local government departments or state-owned enterprises. The

public sector institutions also help with the integration of mobility ser-

vices, while private sector only provide a part of the services offered by

the platform, such as selling tickets for services they own and operate.

The Beijing Ruubypay Science and Technology Co., Ltd (refered to

here as Ruubypay Corporation) is delivering RUUBYPAY, an example of

the public-controlled model that has been introduced in Beijing since

2017. In this arrangement, the Beijing Infrastructure Investment Co.Ltd.

(BII) is a state-owned enterprise that operates Beijing’s rail transit,

mainly metro. Ruubypay Corporation is a subordinate company to BII

and is responsible for operating the RUUBYPAY platform with oversight

from BII. Moreover, Beijing’s functional government (BMCT), plays

specic roles derived from its political and administrative mandate. For

example, the BMCT, through an administrative order, mandated the

development of a new ticket payment system, which then became a one-

stop shop for users to purchase tickets/payment codes for both bus and

metro services. Prior to this, the Beijing Public Transport Group for bus

and BII for metro services sold tickets separately. This payment system is

part of the RUUBYPAY platform, enabling service integration between

metro and bus through a single payment platform. The operation of

RUUBYPAY is also under the planning and guidance of the Beijing Rail

Transit Command Centre (a subordinate institution to BMCT) (Science

and Co, 2017). Therefore, various public sector actors in Beijing,

including local government, subordinate institutions, and state-owned

enterprises, directly control integration and operation of mobility ser-

vices within RUUBYPAY platform. Thus, within the public-controlled

model, the integration of existing public transport services is the key

focus of MaaS, implying that state-run public transport naturally be-

comes the backbone of MaaS.

4. Discussion: Key ndings and their implications

This paper aimed to explore the current landscape of MaaS initiatives

and platforms in mainland China. More specically, the objectives of

this study were to assess the general policy context concerning transport

integration and MaaS, identify the geographical distribution of current

MaaS initiatives and platforms, and explore emerging MaaS imple-

mentation approaches and their implications. In line with the main

objectives identied earlier in the introduction, the key ndings and

their implications are outlined and discussed as follows:

4.1. A supportive policy context and government commitment to MaaS in

China

By analysing the selected ofcial documents, it was revealed that the

notion of MaaS has clearly emerged in China’s transport policies, both at

the national and sub-national levels. National policy documents,

alongside other ofcial sources, explicitly state the overall intent to

invest in the delivery of MaaS, demonstrating an overall supportive

attitude from the national government toward this new mobility

concept. Previous research conducted by Smith et al. (2018) in Finland

established the importance of support from national governments in

institutionalising an ecosystem for the effective implementation of

MaaS. Thus, while concrete measures are yet to emerge in China,

marked policy intents and support from the central government are

effectively enabling a range of local government policies and MaaS

initiatives in the country’s richest and largest cities such as Beijing. As

established by other scholars, the nature of the government’s in-

terventions determines whether the delivery of MaaS will be enabled or

inhibited (Karlsson et al., 2020; Li, 2019; Fenton et al., 2020). This

signies that more specic institutional and regulatory reforms may

become necessary in the long run, and China’s government will need to

identify the level of regulatory support and interventions that will pro-

mote and support MaaS.

4.2. The geography of MaaS initiatives and platforms reects prevailing

digital divide in China

Overall, many Chinese cities are currently attempting to implement

their rst MaaS initiatives. However, the majority of them are taking

place in the developed eastern regions, in cities with high political and

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

administrative inuence and relatively larger populations. The

geographic distribution of these initiatives clearly demonstrates that

cities with enabling conditions are being prioritised in this primary stage

of experimentation. This is understandable, as, for example, a larger

population concentration can suggest greater mobility demand and

more signicant mobility challenges, such as trafc congestion (Ham-

mel, 1996; Zhao and Hu, 2019; Han et al., 2018) –issues that MaaS is

seeking to address in different contexts. Thus, this study revealed that

the local government of China’s most populous and urbanised cities is

adopting MaaS as a critical part of their strategies to manage their res-

idents’ travel demands. Furthermore, it must be noted that the Chinese

government prioritises cities with higher political and administrative

power in the allocation of resources for major capital investments (Nian

and Wang, 2016; Li et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2017), which includes the

integration of transport. In general, local governments are expected to

follow the decisions of upper administrative departments, which can

intercept available resources for the development of their cities while

discouraging that of lesser ones (Li et al., 2016). Another inuencing

factor is the presence of a well-developed transport and ICT infrastruc-

ture, as they are vital for the transition to MaaS (Kamargianni and

Goulding, 2018). In China, powerful cities tend to have stronger infra-

structural foundations due to long-term investments in smart infra-

structure systems, as well as knowledge and technology-intensive

industries (Zubach et al., 2020; Huang et al., 2017). Hence, these cities

have crucial enabling conditions for MaaS delivery.

Clearly, the geography of the emerging MaaS landscape in China,

alluded to above, have equity implications. Previous research has

already established existing inequalities in the coverage of and access to

ICTs and new transport infrastructure and services in China. A large

digital divide already exists whereby provinces in the more prosperous

eastern coast of China have more developed ICT infrastructure

compared to the provinces in the middle and western economic regions

(Jia, 2006; Liu et al., 2017; Song et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2021). A

similar pattern whereby new transport infrastructure such as High-

Speed Rail (HSR) investments benet the most economically devel-

oped east regions has also been established (see e.g., Wang et al., 2020;

Communist Party of China News, 2017). The integration of different

mobility services—a key aspiration of MaaS–can in principle, help re-

gions that are underserved by public transport connect to transit net-

works and thus improve transit accessibility (Hasselwander et al., 2022).

However, since MaaS platforms themselves leverage digital technolo-

gies, including ICT, and access to these platforms from the perspective of

users also depends on access to ICT, it is likely that prevailing digital

divides could have profound impact on access to ICT-mediated mobility

solutions such as MaaS. In China, the unfolding transition so far suggests

that MaaS could entrench existing inequalities of access between re-

gions. Thus, deliberate policy choices, underpinned by equity consid-

erations, are needed to avert a widening of inequalities of access to

transport and opportunities in the age of MaaS.

4.3. MaaS platforms leverage and evolve from existing ICT-enabled

mobility applications

Furthermore, the evidence gathered through this study suggests that

MaaS initiatives in China are leveraging existing solutions, rather than

creating radically new technologies and platforms from the scratch. As

the analysis showed, the Beijing MaaS Platform, for example, is not

entirely new or revolutionary, but one that essentially takes advantage

of initial service aggregation efforts involving Amap application and taxi

and ride-hailing services on the private sector side of the transport in-

dustry and combines with traditional public transport services provided

by state-owned enterprises. We believe this approach is a strategic and

deliberate attempt by city governments to build the critical mass of users

needed to sustain MaaS. In the case of the Beijing MaaS Platform, the

original Amap application had already accumulated many users through

the company’s initial mobility service aggregation efforts. Thus, when

the Beijing MaaS Platform was later inserted into Amap, it inherited,

among other things, a large existing user-base, allowing for a seamless

transition to the ‘new’ MaaS platform. In this regard, the transition to

MaaS in China can be characterized as a continuous evolutionary pro-

cess. In this evolution, existing innovations in digital platform mobility

services are incrementally being aggregated to create opportunities for

operators to evolve new business models and for users to access avail-

able mobility solutions via a single platform. Over time, radically new

ecosystems and complex interactions emerge, as is the case of the Beijing

MaaS Platform initiative, due to the multiple actors that become

involved in the process.

4.4. MaaS platforms currently provide basic information and modal/

service integration

In terms of integration levels, all of the platforms examined are only

integrated as far as Level 2. This means that none of them provides

periodical subscriptions or service packages that can meet broader in-

dividual or household travel needs in the way a full-edged MaaS system

should. Moreover, while service integration is relatively advanced for

public transport services, the integration of data and services between

public and private operators has not been fully realized yet. The

involvement of the private sector in this process would require the

development of new business models and operational arrangements.

This is because in general, private actors may be discouraged from

participating in MaaS due to nearly all public transport in China being

publicly owned and managed. Governments tend to focus on guaran-

teeing specic public welfare imperatives, which are not necessarily

compatible with private companies’ prot-oriented goals (Tsamboulas

et al., 2013). In China, direct public operation and management of mass

transport ensures welfare benets partly through low, subsidized fares

set by government (Shen and Feng, 2020; Chang-fu and Yuan, 2011).

Thus, the emerging private operators of on-demand mobility services

that need to be integrated with existing public controlled mass transport

services might be unable to independently determine their fares under

MaaS. This, in turn, could hinder the full integration of public transport

services and privately operated demand-responsive mobility services.

These factors may explain why Chinese MaaS initiatives are so far

struggling to deliver the same comprehensive service packages

attempted by European projects, such as Whim in Helsinki, Finland and

West Midlands, UK (Ramboll, 2019; Pangbourne et al., 2020). This

struggle between private and public service providers underscores the

need for MaaS in China to explore new ways to make these services

sustainable and identify nancial models that can benet all MaaS

stakeholders equally. Considering the increasing value of data (Torre-

Bastida et al., 2018), a viable way to benet all stakeholders might

include the establishment of new partnerships and mechanisms for

mobility data integration and sharing.

Moreover, MaaS platforms that only integrate urban public transport

may fail to meet the so-called ‘last-mile’ mobility demands without

integrating with private ride-hailing services (Kamargianni and Gould-

ing, 2018). Considering that in China these platforms are mainly

developed and managed by public actors, the persistent failure in inte-

grating with services beyond urban public transport may be attributed to

a lack of policy intent from national and sub-national governments. In

the future, as the system evolves, a stronger level of integration between

public transport and private demand-responsive mobility services may

be sought.

4.5. MaaS transition in China is path-dependent, dominated by the

‘public-controlled’ delivery model

The foregoing suggests a stronger presence of private sector actors in

Global North contexts in the ongoing transition toward full-edged

MaaS, compared to the dominant public-controlled model observed in

China. One reason is that China’s urban public transport, including rail

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

transit (metro and railway), ferry, and most buses, is owned by local or

central governments and operated through state-owned enterprises

(State Council, 2015; Zhang, 2017). Local government decides and xes

the price of urban public transport services (e.g., bus, metro, and taxi) in

China (e.g., Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform,

2019). Once prices are xed, even the state-owned enterprises that

operate public transport services cannot change them. In the context of

the unfolding MaaS transition, it therefore seems natural and relatively

easy for the public sector institutions to use their existing political

powers and competences to bring about the integration of both the

public transport services already under their control, and privately

operated mobility services such as ride-hailing. Thus, one strength of the

public-controlled model is that the public sector can leverage existing

political and regulatory powers to direct and control the transition to

MaaS in line with long-term strategic imperatives. Researchers have

highligted the important role of public transport if MaaS transitions

would contribute to sustainability imperatives (see e.g., Mulley et al.,

2018; Audouin, 2019). With a strong state involvement, the public

controlled model in China ensures that public transport becomes the

backbone of MaaS, creating one of the critical conditions for possible

long-term socio-environmental sustainability benets of a MaaS system

that is built around public transport instead of car-based alternatives.

The transition to MaaS in China is therefore path-dependent,

whereby established transport governance regimes, dominated by pub-

lic sector control, profoundly shape the unfolding transition. Within this

context, we argue that private sector-led, market-driven models of MaaS

that can be found elsewhere in Europe and North America would be

difcult to emerge in China. Instead, a partnership model involving

public and private sector actors, but with a strong policy and regulatory

oversight as well as direct operational control by the former, is more

likely to emerge and become established, such as what we have observed

in the case of the on-going Beijing MaaS initiative. Indeed, in the 35

public controlled MaaS initiatives examined in this study, public sector

actors, such as local government or state-owned enterprises, directly run

MaaS platforms and deliver the related services to end-users. In contrast,

private actors are merely asked to provide the non-public transport

services that are integrated into the MaaS platforms, such as ride-hailing

and bike-sharing. This makes these platforms starkly different from

some European and North American ones. For instance, in Helsinki,

Finland, and Denver, USA, the public sector only serves to create an

environment where MaaS can ourish but does not necessarily run these

schemes itself (Li, 2019; Audouin and Finger, 2018). Similarly, when

delivering MaaS in the West Midlands region of the UK, the public sector

was only involved to moderate the collaboration between different

private transport operators to deliver MaaS without being responsible

for the operation of the platform nor the associated mobility services (Li,

2019; Hirschhorn et al., 2019).

4.6. A ‘private–public partnership’ delivery model and a complex

landscape of actors are emerging in response to MaaS

Regarding the private–public partnership model, eight cases were

found thus far in China, although we envisage more private sector actors

may choose to collaborate with the public sector to deliver MaaS in the

future. The Beijing MaaS initiative serves as a good example of how this

model is emerging and the potential benets associated with it. It ap-

pears that the partnership model promotes fast and efcient pathway

towards the realization of MaaS, considering that within a period of one

year, 10 modes of transport and their providers have already been in-

tegrated within the Beijing MaaS platform (Beijing Municipal Commis-

sion of Transport (BMCT), 2020; Chen et al., 2022). This approach

appears to optimize the relative strengths and competences of the public

and private sectors. Specically, with the enormous political power they

wield, as well as being traditionally responsible for the operation of most

public transport services, public sector institutions in China, such as

local governments, can quickly realize data and service aggregation

imperatives required for MaaS. This is in contrast with contexts where

such data and service integration efforts are often characterized by

lengthy negotiations among incumbent public transport operators in the

private sector who tend to have different and conicting values and

motivations that are challenging to reconcile (Audouin and Finger,

2018). An added advantage of the partnership model is that the private

sector companies that are drawn in to realize MaaS have already

developed platforms for ICT-mediated mobility services (e.g., ride-

hailing and bike-sharing). Thus, as has been alluded to earlier, the

partnership model allows for seamless integration of existing applica-

tions and mobility services operated by both the public and private

sectors. This, in turn, can save both time and cost in deploying MaaS

platforms (Smith et al., 2018; Zhou, et al., 2022).

Finally, the complex landscape of actors associated with the part-

nership model is expected to create new challenges and uncertainties for

transport governance in the context of MaaS. This includes balancing

different actors’ interests, establishing new, protable business models

and mitigating investment risks and uncertainties that private sector

partners are likely to face (Wong et al., 2018; Dulskaia and Bellini,

2023). Most importantly, with the lack of coherent policies for mobility

data sharing and the dominance of the government over urban public

transport, private sector actors may long remain unable to integrate with

publicly managed transport data and services. This implies that for

full-edged MaaS schemes to be realized in China through the pub-

lic–private partnership model, new data governance arrangements

would have to negotiated and become established. This would require

balancing several essential tensions. Paramount among these would be

reconciling the established tradition of strong public sector control over

transport services with the interests of the edgling private sector

mobility service providers.

5. Concluding remarks and future research

This study has conducted a broad and detailed exploration of the

current state of MaaS in mainland China by reviewing related policies,

initiatives, platform characteristics and implementation models. The

ndings provide an initial understanding of how the concept of MaaS is

being gradually put into action through pilot initiatives in China. Spe-

cically, the ndings show that despite being a relatively new concept,

MaaS is gradually becoming a key priority of government policy and

action at the national and sub-national levels, and is seen as crucial to

realizing long-established multi-modal transport integration impera-

tives in China. Consequently, MaaS initiatives are receiving policy and

government support across mainland China. That said, the study also

found not all regions across China are equally being prioritized, at least

at the initial stages of MaaS. Instead, the distribution of MaaS initiatives

and platforms appears to prioritize or favour larger population centres

and more economically prosperous and political inuential cities, mir-

roring the prevailing digital divide in China. A third important conclu-

sion from this study is that full-edge MaaS platforms are yet to become

established in China. Instead, the identied MaaS platforms build on and

aggregate existing ICT-enabled mobility applications that provide basic

information and service integration capabilities (i.e. Level 2 integra-

tion). Finally, the analysis has shown that the transition to MaaS in

China is path-dependent, with a long-established tradition of public

sector control over transport profoundly shaping how MaaS initiatives

are conceived and implemented. Nevertheless, new models of priva-

te–public partnerships are being experimented with, but only in a

handful of on-going MaaS initiatives. This new model, the associated

business models and the complex landscape of actors involved are ex-

pected to present unique opportunities and challenges in a context with

an established tradition of strong public sector control over public

transport.

As this is a preliminary scoping study, it can be extended in multiple

directions. For instance, this study focused primarily on policies and the

platform integration of mobility services, while physical integration was

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

Table A1

Documents Collected for Review.

Document Title (English) Document Title

(Chinese)

Year of

Publication

Type Code Source Infrastructure Data

Integration

Service

Integration

Fare System

Integration

General

Guidance

Experimental

Project

One-Card

Ticket/

scheme

Notice of the General Ofce of the

State Council Forwarding the

Opinions of the Ministry of

Construction and Other

Departments on Prioritizing the

Development of Urban Public

Transport

国务院办公厅转发建设

部等部门关于优先发展

城市公共交通意见的通

知

2008 Policy DOC-

http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/

2008-03/28/content_5617.htm

The State Council on the

implementation of the “National

Economy of the People’s Republic

of China”

Outline of the Eleventh Five-Year

Plan for and Social Development

Notication of main goals and

tasks division of work

国务院关于落实《中华

人民共和国国民经济和

社会发展第十一个五年

规划纲要》主要目标和

任务工作分工的通知

2008 Policy DOC-

http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/

2008-03/28/content_1937.htm

Circular of the State Council on

Printing and Distributing the

National Main Function Zone

Planning

国务院关于印发全国主

体功能区规划的通知

2010 Policy DOC-

http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/

2011-06/08/content_1441.htm

Notice on matters related to the

development of the National

Public Transport City Construction

Demonstration Project

关于开展国家公交都市

建设示范工程有关事项

的通知

2011 Policy DOC-

https://xxgk.mot.gov.cn/2020/jigou/

ysfws/202006/t20200623_3315626.

html

Opinions on giving priority to the

development of urban public

transport

国务院关于城市优先发

展公共交通的指导意见

2012 Policy DOC-

http://www.gov.cn/zwgk/2013-01/05/

content_2304962.htm

Notice of the Ministry of Transport

on the announcement of the

second batch of cities to be created

by the demonstration project of

public transport urban

construction

交通运输部关于公布公

交都市建设示范工程第

二批创建城市的通知

2013 Policy DOC-

https://xxgk.mot.gov.cn/2020/jigou/

ysfws/202006/t20200623_3315069.

html

Notice of the Ministry of Transport

on Launching the Construction of

Demonstration Cities for

Comprehensive Transportation

Services

交通运输部关于开展综

合运输服务示范城市建

设的通知

2014 Policy DOC-

https://xxgk.mot.gov.cn/2020/jigou/

ysfws/202006/t20200623_3315105.

html

Guiding Opinions of the Ministry of

Transport on Promoting the

Healthy Development of the All-in-

One Transportation Card and

Accelerating the Realization of

Interconnection

交通运输部关于促进交

通一卡通健康发展加快

实现互联互通的指导意

见

2015 Policy DOC-

https://xxgk.mot.gov.cn/2020/jigou/

ysfws/202006/t20200623_3315144.

html

The Ministry of Transport issued the

“Thirteenth Five-Year”

Development Plan for

Transportation Science and

Technology

交通运输部关于印发交

通运输科技“十三五”发展

规划

2016 Policy DOC-

https://zjhy.mot.gov.cn/zzhxxgk/jigou/

kjxxc/202007/t20200708_3428167.htm

“13th Five-Year” Development

Outline of Urban Public Transport

城市公共交通“十三五”发

展纲要

2016 Policy DOC-

http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2016-07/2

5/content_5094575.htm

x x

(continued on next page)

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

Table A1 (continued )

Document Title (English) Document Title

(Chinese)

Year of

Publication

Type Code Source Infrastructure Data

Integration

Service

Integration

Fare System

Integration

General

Guidance

Experimental

Project

One-Card

Ticket/

scheme

The 13th Five-Year Plan for National

Informatization

“十三五”国家信息化规划 2016 Policy DOC-

http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2

016-12/27/content_5153411.htm

“13th Five-Year” Modern

Comprehensive Transportation

System Development Plan

国务院关于印发“十三五”

现代综合交通运输体系

发展规划的通知

2017 Policy DOC-

http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2

017-02/28/content_5171345.htm

Outline of Building a Strong

Transportation Country

《交通强国建设纲要》 2019 Policy DOC-

http://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/

2019/content_5437132.htm

Transportation card interconnection 交通一卡通互联互通 2020 Report DOC-

https://www.mot.gov.cn/zxft2020/ji

aotongykt_nmg/index.html

National Comprehensive Three-

dimensional Transportation

Network Planning Outline

国家综合立体交通网规

划纲要

2021 Policy DOC-

http://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/

2021/content_5593440.htm

x x x

New infrastructure construction in

the eld of transportation

Action Plan (2021–2025)

交通运输领域新型基础

设施建设

行动方案（2021—2025

年)

2021 Policy DOC-

https://xxgk.mot.gov.cn/2020/jigou/

zhghs/202109/t20210923_3619709.

html

x x

Comprehensive transportation

service “14th Five-Year plan”

development plan

综合运输服务“十四五”发

展规划

2021 Policy DOC-

https://xxgk.mot.gov.cn/2020/jigou/

ysfws/202111/t20211118_3626733.

html

x x x x

“14th Five-Year” Development Plan

for Digital Transportation

数字交通“十四五”发展规

划

2021 Policy DOC-

https://xxgk.mot.gov.cn/2020/jigou/

zhghs/202112/t20211222_3632469.

html

“14th Five-Year” Modern

Comprehensive Transportation

System Development Plan

国务院关于印发“十四五”

现代综合交通

运输体系发展规划的通

知

2022 Policy DOC-

https://www.mot.gov.cn/zhuanti/sh

isiwujtysfzgh/202201/P0202201296

57756692258.pdf

x x

Notice of the Ministry of Transport

on Printing and Distributing the

“Administrative Measures for

National Public Transport Urban

Construction Demonstration

Projects”

交通运输部关于印发《

国家公交都市建设示范

工程管理办法》的通知

2022 Policy DOC-

https://xxgk.mot.gov.cn/2020/jigou/

ysfws/202204/t20220411_3650428.

html

Beijing Municipal Trafc and Travel

Data Open Management Measures

(for Trial Implementation)

北京市交通出行数据开

放管理办法(试行)

2019 Policy DOC-

http://www.beijing.gov.cn/zhengce/

zhengcefagui/201911/

t20191105_483739.html

2021 Beijing Municipal Trafc

Comprehensive Management

Action Plan

2021年北京市交通综合

治理行动计划

2021 Policy DOC-

http://www.beijing.gov.cn/zhengce/

zhengcefagui/202103/

t20210324_2321573.html

Beijing’s 14th Five-Year Plan for

Climate Change and Energy

Conservation

北京市“十四五”时期应对

气候变化和节能规划

2022 Policy DOC-

http://fgw.beijing.gov.cn/fgwzwgk/zcg

k/ghjhwb/wnjh/202208/t20220824_27

99575.htm

Report of Qingdao Municipal

Transportation Bureau on the

revision and improvement of the

pilot program for building a strong

transportation country

青岛市交通运输局关于

交通强国建设试点方案

修改完善情况的报告

2021 Government

Report

DOC-

https://m.thepaper.cn/baijiahao

_15268040

Jiangsu Province “14th Five-Year”

Smart Transportation

Development Plan

江苏省“十四五”智慧交通

发展规划

2021 Policy DOC-

https://www.sohu.com/a/

489636013_649849

(continued on next page)

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

Table A1 (continued )

Document Title (English) Document Title

(Chinese)

Year of

Publication

Type Code Source Infrastructure Data

Integration

Service

Integration

Fare System

Integration

General

Guidance

Experimental

Project

One-Card

Ticket/

scheme

Changsha Municipal Transportation

Bureau quickly conveyed the

decision to study and implement

the spirit of the 12th Provincial

Party Congress on accelerating the

construction of a new smart city

demonstration city

长沙市交通运输局迅速

传达学习贯彻省第十二

次党代会精神关于加快

新型智慧城市示范城市

建设的决定

2020 Policy DOC-

https://www.changsha.gov.cn/zfxxgk/

zfwjk/srmzf/202010/P020201030521

976478557.pdf

Three-year action plan for trafc

optimization and improvement in

the central urban area of Xi’an

(2020–2022)

西安市中心城区交通优

化提升三年行动方案

(2020-2022年)

2020 Policy DOC-

http://www.7its.com/html/2020/dongt

ai_0505/9077.html

Hainan Province’s “14th Five-Year”

Comprehensive Transportation

Plan”

海南省“十四五”综合交通

运输规划

2021 Policy DOC-

https://www.hainan.gov.cn/ainan/flfg

xzgfxwj/202106/60f895385179412dbf1

c41f065d1a2a9.shtml

Dongguan City Transportation

Development White Paper

东莞市交通发展白皮书 2020 Policy DOC-

https://www.dg.gov.cn/zwgk/jdhy/zcj

d/szfjqbm/content/post_3011067.html

Several policies and measures of

Shanghai to promote the digital

transformation of cities

上海市促进城市数字化

转型的若干政策措施

2021 Policy DOC-

https://service.shanghai.gov.cn/XingZh

engWenDangKuJyh/XZGFDetails.aspx?

docid =REPORT_NDOC_007913

Shanghai Public Data Resource

Opening 2020 Work Plan

上海市公共数据资源开

放2020年度工作计划

2020 Policy DOC-

https://www.shanghai.gov.cn/nw12

344/20200813/0001-12344_64749.

html

Medium- and long-term development

plan for the integrated

transportation network

综合交通网中长期发展

规划

2007 Policy DOC-

https://max.book118.com/html/2017/

0622/117254376.shtm

x x

MaaS in China Research Paper —— 2021 Academic

Literature

DOC-

https://dutchmobilityinnovations.com/

leattachment?le =

13PHEABcNnpdmCQcM2GE2g%3D%

3D&v =1&isDownload =true

A Novel Development Scheme of

Mobility as a Service: Can It

Provide a Sustainable Environment

for China?

—— 2021 Academic

Literature

DOC-

https://www.mdpi.com/2071–1050/

13/8/4233

Source: Authors, 2022.

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

Table A2

MaaS Platforms in the Mainland China.

City Name Political level and

Geographical

Importance

Population

size (in 10

thousand)

Platform

name

Platform Type Platform

Provider

Integration

levels

modes

Bespoke

Application

Social media

application

(WeChat

Public

Account

Map

Application

private public

Shenyang Capital City of

Liaoning Province,

Sub-Provincial City

907 Shengjing Tong x x 2 Metro, Bus

Dalian Sub-Provincial City 745 Dalian Metro E

Mobility

x x 2 Ride-hailing,

Metro

Handan Normal Prefectual

City

941 Handan

Transport

x x 1 Bicycle Sharing,

Bus

Qingdao Sub-Provincial City 1011 Qingdao

Transport

x x 1 Metro, Bus,

Taxi, Subway,

Airline

Yingkou The second largest

port city in

Northeast China

233 Smart

Yingkou/

Huanyingban

x x 1 Bus, Ride-

Hailing

Panjin Normal Prefectual

City

131 Panjin Mobility x x 2 Ferries,

Subway, Long-

Distance Buses,

Urban Bus

Zhengzhou Capital City of

Henan Province

1262 Zhengzhou

Mobility

Website

x x 1 Bus, Metro,

Inter-City ride-

hailing service

Suzhou One of the important

central cities in the

Yangtze River Delta

1275 Su E Mobility x x 2 Metro, Tram,

Bicycle

Nantong Normal Prefectual

City

773 Travel Freely

in Nantong

(Changxing

Nantong)

x x 1 Bus, Urban

Ride-hailing

service

Huai’an Normal Prefectual

City

456 Cheng Ke e Jia x x 2 Bicycle Sharing,

Urban Ride-

Hailing, Bus,

Urban light rail;

Railway

Yangzhou Normal Prefectual

City

456 Easy Travel

Yangzhou

x x 2 Bus, Bicycle

Sharing, Ride-

hailing service

Xiangyang Provincial sub-

center city of Hubei

Province

526 Xiangyang

Mobility

x x 2 Bus, Urban

Ride-hailing

Changsha Capital City of

Hunan Province

1006 Xiangxing One-

card Tong

(Xiangxing

Yika Tong)

x x 2 Bus, Metro

Yueyang An important

regional central city

in the middle

reaches of the

Yangtze River, the

second largest

economy in the

province, a big city

in Hunan Province,

the only

international trade

port city along the

Yangtze River in

Hunan

505 Yueban

Yuehao

x x 1 Bus, Bicycle-

Sharing service

Shaoxing Normal Prefectual

City

529 Shaoxing

Metro

x x 1 Bus, Metro

Quzhou Normal Prefectual

City

228 E-Qu Mobility x x 1 Bus, Bicycle

Sharing service

Taizhou Normal Prefectual

City

663 Taizhou

Mobility

x x 1 Bus, Bicycle

Sharing service

Lishui Normal Prefectual

City

251 Lishui Public

Mobility

x x 1 Bus, Bicycle

Sharing service

Zhoushan Normal Prefectual

City

116 Zhoushan

Transport

x x 1 Bus, Taxi, Inter-

City Bus, Ferry

Harbin Capital City of

Heilongjiang

1001 Harbin

Mobility

x x 1 Bus, Taxi

(continued on next page)

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

Table A2 (continued )

City Name Political level and

Geographical

Importance

Population

size (in 10

thousand)

Platform

name

Platform Type Platform

Provider

Integration

levels

modes

Bespoke

Application

Social media

application

(WeChat

Public

Account

Map

Application

private public

Province, Sub-

Provincial City

Xiamen Sub-Provincial City 518 Xiamen

Transport

x x 1 Ferry, Airline,

Intercity Bus,

Urban Bus,

Urban metro,

Taxi (under

developing)

Quanzhou One of the three

central cities in

Fujian Province

879 Quancheng

Tong

x x 2 Bus, Bicycle

Sharing Service,

Inter-City Ride-

Hailing Service

Sanming Normal Prefectual

City

249 Sanming

Jiaoyun

x x 2 Bus, Bicycle

Sharing Service

Zhongshan Normal Prefectual

City

443 Zhongshan

Transport

x x 1 Bus, Taxi,

Bicycle Sharing

Service,

Railway,

Airline, Ferry,

Port

Foshan The third city with

an economic

aggregate exceeding

one trillion yuan in

Guangdong Pr

ovince.It is an

important node city

in the Guangdong-

Hong Kong-Macao

Greater Bay Area

and the economic

and trade center of

the west wing of the

Pearl River Delta

region.

952 Foshan

Transport

x x 1 Taxi, Bus

Huizhou Normal Prefectual

City

606 Huimin

Transport

x x 2 Railway, Long-

Distance Coach,

Airline, Airport

Shuttle Bus,

Urban Bus

Taiyuan Capital City of

Shanxi Province

532 Tingjing x x 1 Metro, Bus

Jinzhong Normal Prefectual

City

338 Jinzhong Tong x x 1 Ride-hailing

Service, Bus,

Bicycle Sharing

Service

Lvliang Normal Prefectual

City

339 Lvliang Tong x x 2 Bus, Ride-

hailing

Chengdu Capital City of

Sichuan Province,

Sub-Provincial City

2095 Tianfu Tong x x 2 Bus, Metro

Guangyuan Normal Prefectual

City

231 Guangyuan E

Transport

x x 1 Bus, Ride-

hailing Service

Leshan Normal Prefectual

City

316 Leshan

Transport

x x 1 Long-Distance

Rail, Train,

Inter-city

Coach, Urban

Bus

Weinan Its jurisdictions

include a Provincial

Municipalities with

Independent

Planning Status

under the National

Social and Economic

Development

469 Weinan on

Hand

(Zhangshang

Weinan)

x x 1 Bus, Subway

Hefei Capital City of Anhui

Province

937 Hefei Tong x x 1 Bus, Taxi, High-

Speed Rail,

(continued on next page)

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

only briey addressed. Further investigations could thus explore infra-

structural integration to better understand the current progress of Chi-

nese cities’ transition to MaaS. Moreover, future studies could provide a

deeper comparative understanding of emerging MaaS implementation

models in China with other national and city contexts. For example,

research into how public–private partnership models have been devel-

oped in contexts where public control and oversight over transport is

dominant would help evaluate the feasibility of such projects in the

Chinese MaaS environment. In relation to this, a key direction for future

research would be to examine how institutions, governance traditions

and transport business models will evolve in the context of the contin-

uous expansion of MaaS in China and globally. In particular, further

research is needed to understand how transport policy and governance

will evolve to respond to the complex challenges associated with the

emerging partnership models of MaaS delivery in China. Finally, the

ndings of this study points to potential equity implications of MaaS

transition in China due to the disparities in the geographical distribution

of initiatives and platforms that mirror prevailing digital divide in the

country. We see the need for a deeper understanding of patterns of

MaaS-related inequalities between and within regions, how this may

change over time and the underlying policy drivers. At the urban and

city scales, further research is needed to uncover the socio-spatial equity

impacts of MaaS, to uncover how the (dis)benets of MaaS are distrib-

uted across different demographic and socio-economic groups as well as

different locations in urban areas.

6. Declaration

All data and materials use in this study are publicly available online

resources and ofcial policy documents. The authors received no fund-

ing support for this study. We declare no conict of interest.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Yuyuan Chen: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis,

Formal analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

Ransford A. Acheampong: Conceptualization, Supervision, Formal

analysis, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing nancial

interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to inuence

the work reported in this paper.

Table A2 (continued )

City Name Political level and

Geographical

Importance

Population

size (in 10

thousand)

Platform

name

Platform Type Platform

Provider

Integration

levels

modes

Bespoke

Application

Social media

application

(WeChat

Public

Account

Map

Application

private public

Long-Distance

Coach

Wuhu The total GDP ranks

second in Anhui

Province

365 Wuhu Public

Transport

x x 1 Bus, Metro

Chongqing Metropolitan City 3209 Chongqing

Transport

Services

x x 1 Bus, Urban

Light rail,

Railway, Long-

Distance Coach,

Airline

Shenzhen Sub-Provincial City 1763 Maishi

Mobility

x x 2 Bus, Metro,

Bicycle Sharing,

Shuttle Bus

Beijing Metropolitan City,

Capital City of China

2189 Beijing MaaS

Platform

x x 2 Bus, Metro,

Ride-Hailing,

Service, Shared-

bicycle service,

Long-Distance

Coach, Airline,

High-speed rail

Beijing Public

Transport

x x 2 Bus, Metro

Ruubypay x x 2 Bus, Metro,

Bicycle

Tianjin Metropolitan City 1387 Tianjin

Integrated

Transport on

Hand

(Zhangshang

Lulutong

Tianjin)

x x 1 Bus, Metro

Guangzhou Capital City of

Guangzhou Province

1874 Yangcheng

Tong

x x x 2 Bus, Metro,

Urban Ride-

Hailing Service

on Autonomous

Vehicles, Taxi

Shanghai Metropolitan City 2488 Suishen Xing x x 2 Urban Bus,

Metro, Ride-

Hailing

Services, Shared

Bicycle Service,

Taxi

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Prof Cecilia Wong, University of

Manchester for her comments and suggestions on the initial draft of this

paper.

Appendix 1

Appendix 2

References

Audouin, M.U.J., 2019. Towards Mobility-as-a-Service: a cross-case analysis of public

authorities’ roles in the development of ICT-supported integrated mobility schemes

(No. EPFL, THESIS).

Audouin, M., Finger, M., 2018. The development of mobility-as-a-service in the Helsinki

metropolitan area: a multi-level governance analysis. Res. Transp. Bus. Manag. 27,

24–35.

Audouin, M., Finger, M., 2019. Empower or Thwart? Insights from Vienna and Helsinki

regarding the role of public authorities in the development of MaaS schemes. Transp.

Res. Procedia 41, 6–16.

Beijing Municipal Commission of Development and Reform, 2019. Heavy! Beijing will

not start the dynamic adjustment of public transport fares this year. Beijing

Municipal Commission of Development and Reform. http://fgw.beijing.gov.cn/gzdt

/fgzs/mtbdx/bzwlxw/201912/t20191228_1535134.htm.

Beijing Municipal Commission of Transport (BMCT), 2020. The incentive effect of green

travel has begun to show, serving a total of 2.45 million people. Beijing Municipal

Commission of. Transport. http://jtw.beijing.gov.cn/xxgk/xwfbh/202011/t2020

1103_2127960.html.

Buchanan, C., Crow, G., 1974. I. An integrated transport system. J. Royal Society of Arts

122 (5211), 117–128.

Canitez, F., 2019. Pathways to sustainable urban mobility in developing megacities: a

socio-technical transition perspective. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang. 141, 319–329.

Casady, C.B., 2020. Customer-led mobility: a research agenda for Mobility-as-a-Service

(MaaS) enablement. Case Studies on Transport Policy 8 (4), 1451–1457.

Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, 1985. Outline of the Seventh ve-

year plan for national economic and social development. Accessed 25 July 2022.

https://wenku.so.com/d/17ac3b5952aa02da84422a2382ffa625.

Chang-fu, H., Yuan, X., 2011. Research on the role of urban rail transit in promoting

economic development. Procedia Eng. 21, 520–525.

Chen, J.Q., Shang, Y., Lin, Y.H., 2022. Mobility as a service, Beijing’s green travel

integrated service platform (MaaS) will be upgraded in this way. AliResearch. htt

p://www.aliresearch.com/ch/information/informationdetails?articleCode

=416022787413643264&type=新闻&special=数字商业.

China National Radio. (2022, January 29). Beijing MaaS Platform Helps Citizens Travel

During the Winter Olympics, AutoNavi Map Launches Special Lane Navigation Tips.

China National Radio. https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?

id=1723272069964762080&wfr=spider&for=pc.

Chowdhury, S., Ceder, A., 2013. Denition of planned and unplanned transfer of public

transport service and user decisions to use routes with transfers. J. Public Transp. 16

(2), 1.

Communist Party of China News, 2017. Transformation and upgrading lead the country –

a summary of the rst development in the eastern region. Accessed 27 June 2022.

http://cpc.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0928/c412690-29564813.html.

Council, S., 2015. Notice of the ministry of transport on printing and distributing the

《Guidelines for the Compilation of Urban Public Transport Planning》. State

Council. http://www.gov.cn/gongbao/content/2015/content_2835276.htm.

Cruz, C.O., Sarmento, J.M., 2020. “Mobility as a service” platforms: a critical path

towards increasing the sustainability of transportation systems. Sustainability 12

(16), 6368.

Dadashzadeh, N., Woods, L., Ouelhadj, D., Thomopoulos, N., Kamargianni, M.,

Antoniou, C., 2022. Mobility as a service Inclusion Index (MaaSINI): evaluation of

inclusivity in MaaS systems and policy recommendations. Transp. Policy 127,

191–202.

Daudt, H.M., van Mossel, C., Scott, S.J., 2013. Enhancing the scoping study

methodology: a large, inter-professional team’s experience with Arksey and

O’Malley’s framework. BMC Med. Res. Method. 13 (1), 1–9.

Dulskaia, I., Bellini, F., 2023. New Business Models and Partnerships for Sustainable

Mobility and Transport Sector. In: Capacity Building in Local Authorities for

Sustainable Transport Planning. Springer Nature Singapore, Singapore, pp. 279–302.

European MaaS Alliance, 2020. What is MaaS? Accessed 28 July 2022. https://maas-allia

nce.eu/homepage/what-is-maas/.

Fenton, P., Chimenti, G., Kanda, W., 2020. The role of local government in governance

and diffusion of Mobility-as-a-Service: exploring the views of MaaS stakeholders in

Stockholm. J. Environ. Plan. Manag. 63 (14), 2554–2576.

Foshan Municipal People’s Government Ofce (2022). City Overview. Foshan Municipal

People’s Government Ofce. http://www.foshan.gov.cn/zjfs/fsgl/csgk/index.html.

Gakenheimer, R., 1999. Urban mobility in the developing world’. Transp. Res. A Policy

Pract. 33 (7–8), 671–689.

Gao, X.C., 2008. Keep up with the times: the evolution of China’s regional development

strategy. Journal of Lanzhou University (Social Science Edition) 2008 (03), 2–16.

Giesecke, R., Surakka, T. and Hakonen, M. (2016). Conceptualising mobility as a service.

In 2016 eleventh international conference on Ecological Vehicles and Renewable

Energies (EVER), 1-11.

Goodall, W., Dovey, T., Bornstein, J., Bonthron, B., 2017. The rise of mobility as a

service. Deloitte Rev 20 (1), 112–129.

Halpern, C., 2014. Urban mobility: what role for the European Union? Explaining

dynamics of European Union policy design since 1995. Eur. Plan. Stud. 22 (12),

2526–2541.

Hammel, E.A., 1996. Demographic constraints on population growth of early humans.

Hum. Nat. 7 (3), 217–255.

Han, S.S., 2010. Managing motorization in sustainable transport planning: the Singapore

experience. J. Transp. Geogr. 18 (2), 314–321.

Han, F., Xie, R., Lai, M., 2018. Trafc density, congestion externalities, and urbanization

in China. Spat. Econ. Anal. 13 (4), 400–421.

Hasselwander, M., Nieland, S., Dematera-Contreras, K., Goletz, M., 2023. MaaS for the

masses: Potential transit accessibility gains and required policies under Mobility-as-

a-Service. Multimodal Transportation 2 (3), 100086.

Heikkil¨

a, S. (2014). Mobility as a service-a proposal for action for the public

administration, Case Helsinki.

Hensher, D.A., 2017. Future bus transport contracts under a mobility as a service (MaaS)

regime in the digital age: are they likely to change? Transp. Res. A Policy Pract. 98,

86–96.

Hensher, D.A., Mulley, C., Nelson, J.D., 2021. Mobility as a service (MaaS)–Going

somewhere or nowhere? Transp. Policy 111, 153–156.

Hirschhorn, F., Paulsson, A., Sørensen, C.H., Veeneman, W., 2019. Public transport

regimes and mobility as a service: Governance approaches in Amsterdam,

Birmingham, and Helsinki. Transp. Res. A Policy Pract. 130, 178–191.

Holmberg, P. E., Collado, M., Sarasini, S., & Williander, M. (2016). Mobility as a Service-

MaaS: Describing the framework, Victoria Swedish ICT, Gothenburg, 2016, 54.

http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf%3Fpid=diva2:1043942. Accessed 23

August 2022.

Hu, Y., 2016. Research on obstacles and countermeasures of the transportation

infrastructure construction of the western region of China. Chongqing University,

Master Degree.

Huang, W., Wei, Y., Guo, J., Cao, J., 2017. Next-generation innovation and development

of intelligent transportation system in China. Science China Inf. Sci. 60 (11), 1–11.

Beijing Transport Institute. (2022a, February 18). [Science and Technology Services

Winter Olympics Travel] Our institute helps Beijing MaaS platform to launch new

functions. Beijing Transport Institute. https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/

vs5Hl7YLKeajIne94v4uEg..

Beijing Transport Institute. (2022b, March 25). The cumulative number of users exceeds

30 million, and the number of green travel carbon inclusive users exceeds one

million — Review of Beijing MaaS1.0 Achievements. Beijing Transport Institute.

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/bzlbMi3dgP3x7mn3_Ubg2Q.

Jarah, S.H.A., Zhou, B., Abdullah, R.J., Lu, Y., Yu, W., 2019. Urbanization and urban

sprawl issues in city structure: a case of the Sulaymaniah Iraqi Kurdistan Region.

Sustainability 11 (2), 485.

Ji, X., 2019. November 12). AutoNavi and 27 online car-hailing platforms launched the

“dare to sit and dare to pay” service. Chinanews. https://www.chinanews.com.cn/

business/2019/11-12/9005311.shtml.

Jia, Y.L., 2006. Study of China Regional Policies’ Impact Upon Regional Disparities.

Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, PhD.

Kamargianni, M., Goulding, R., 2018. The mobility as a service maturity index: preparing

the cities for the mobility as a service era. Transport Research Arena 7.

Kamargianni, M., Matyas, M., 2017. The business ecosystem of mobility-as-a-service. In:

In Transportation Research Board, p. 96.

Karlsson, I.C.M., Mukhtar-Landgren, D., Smith, G., Koglin, T., Kronsell, A., Lund, E.,

Sarasini, S., Sochor, J., 2020. Development and implementation of Mobility-as-a-

Service–a qualitative study of barriers and enabling factors. Transp. Res. A Policy

Pract. 131, 283–295.

Lajas, R., Mac´

ario, R., 2020. Public policy framework supporting “mobility-as-a-service”

implementation. Res. Transp. Econ. 83.

Li, Y., 2019. The role of public authorities in the development of Mobility-as-a-Service.

The Governance of Smart Transportation Systems 229–245.

Li, P., Liu, R.Y., Li, J., 2016. China’s urban administrative hierarchy and resource

allocation efciency. Econ. Geogr 36 (10).

Liljamo, T., Liimatainen, H., P¨

oll¨

anen, M., Utriainen, R. and Viri, R. (2020). Potential

user groups of mobility as a Service in Finland. Implications of mobility as a service

(MaaS) in urban and rural environments: emerging research and opportunities. 51-

81.

Liu, H., Fang, C., Sun, S., 2017. Digital inequality in provincial China. Environ. Plan A 49

(10), 2179–2182.

Liu, W.M., Luk, M.K., 2009. Reform and opening up: Way to the sustainable and

harmonious development of air transport in China. Transp. Policy 16 (5), 215–223.

Matyas, M., Kamargianni, M., 2019. Survey design for exploring demand for Mobility as

a Service plans. Transportation 46 (5), 1525–1558.

Merkert, R., Bushell, J., Beck, M.J., 2020. Collaboration as a service (CaaS) to fully

integrate public transportation–Lessons from long distance travel to reimagine

mobility as a service. Transp. Res. A Policy Pract. 131, 267–282.

Mobility Transition in China, 2021. Beijing maas platform launches “maas mobility for

green city” initiative. Accessed 03 September 2022. https://transition-china.org/m

obilityposts/ainan-maas-platform-launches-maas-mobility-for-green-city-initiative/.

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Case Studies on Transport Policy 13 (2023) 101054

Mukhtar-Landgren, D., Karlsson, M., Koglin, T., Kronsell, A., Lund, E., Sarasini, S.,

Sochor, J., Wendle, B., 2016. Institutional conditions for integrated mobility services

(IMS). Towards a Framework for Analysis 16, 5–24.

Mukhtar-Landgren, D., Smith, G., 2019. Perceived action spaces for public actors in the

development of Mobility as a Service. Eur. Transp. Res. Rev. 11 (1), 1–12.

Mulley, C., Nelson, J.D., 2020. How mobility as a service impacts public transport

business models. In: International Transport Forum Discussion Paper No. 2020/17.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International

Transport Forum, Paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/df75f80e-en.

Mulley, C., Nelson, J.D., Wright, S., 2018. Community transport meets mobility as a

service: on the road to a new a exible future. Res. Transp. Econ. 69, 583–591.

Nian, M., Wang, Y., 2016. Administrative hierarchy and congestion in big cities——city

population growth breaking the household registration restriction. Finance and

Trade Economy’. 2016 (11), 126–145.

Pangbourne, K., Mladenovi´

c, M.N., Stead, D., Milakis, D., 2020. Questioning mobility as

a service: unanticipated implications for society and governance. Transp. Res. A

Policy Pract. 131, 35–49.

Polydoropoulou, A., Tsouros, I., Pagoni, I. and Tsirimpa, A. (2020). Exploring individual

preferences and willingness to pay for mobility as a service. Transportation research

record, 2674(11), 152-164.

Ramboll, WHIMPACT Insights from the world’s rst Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS)

system, https://ramboll.com/-/media/les/r/publications/Ramboll_whimpact-

2019.pdf 2019 Accessed 2 September 2022.

Rantasila, K., 2015. The impact of Mobility as a Service concept to land use in Finnish

context. In: 2015 International Conference on Sustainable Mobility Applications,

Renewables and Technology (SMART), pp. 1–7.

Reck, D.J. (2021). How does Mobility as a Service (MaaS) inuence travel behavior?.

Maas-A European Perspective. https://www.research-collection.ethz.ch/bitstream/

handle/20.500.11850/491537/v857.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y. Accessed 20

August 2022.

Saliara, K., 2014. Public transport integration: the case study of Thessaloniki, Greece.

Transp. Res. Procedia 4, 535–552.

Schikofsky, J., Dannewald, T., Kowald, M., 2020. Exploring motivational mechanisms

behind the intention to adopt mobility as a service (MaaS): Insights from Germany.

Transp. Res. A Policy Pract. 131, 296–312.

Beijing Ruubypay Science and Technology Co., Ltd (RUUBYPAY Corporation). (2017).

RUUBYPAY (Version 5.1.5) [Mobile app] Available at: App Store (Downloaded: 21

September 2022).

Shekhovtsov, A., Kozlov, V., Nosov, V., Sałabun, W., 2020. Efciency of methods for

determining the relevance of criteria in sustainable transport problems: a

comparative case study. Sustainability 12 (19), 7915.

Shen, X., Feng, S., 2020. How public transport subsidy policies in China affect the

average passenger load factor of a bus line. Res. Transp. Bus. Manag. 36.

Sietchiping, R., Permezel, M.J., Ngomsi, C., 2012. Transport and mobility in sub-Saharan

African cities: an overview of practices, lessons and options for improvements. Cities

29 (3), 183–189.

Smith, G., Hensher, D.A., 2020. Towards a framework for mobility-as-a-service policies.

Transp. Policy 89, 54–65.

Smith, G., Sochor, J., Sarasini, S., 2018. Mobility as a service: comparing developments

in Sweden and Finland. Res. Transp. Bus. Manag. 27, 36–45.

Sochor, J., Str¨

omberg, H., Karlsson, I.M., 2015. Implementing mobility as a service:

challenges in integrating user, commercial, and societal perspectives. Transp. Res.

Rec. 2536 (1), 1–9.

Sochor, J., Arby, H., Karlsson, I.M., Sarasini, S., 2018. A topological approach to Mobility

as a Service: a proposed tool for understanding requirements and effects, and for

aiding the integration of societal goals. Res. Transp. Bus. Manag. 27, 3–14.

Song, Z., Wang, C., Bergmann, L., 2020. China’s prefectural digital divide: spatial

analysis and multivariate determinants of ICT diffusion. Int. J. Inf. Manag. 52.

Surakka, T., H¨

arri, F., Haahtela, T., Horila, A., Michl, T., 2018. Regulation and

governance supporting systemic MaaS innovations. Res. Transp. Bus. Manag. 27,

56–66.

Torre-Bastida, A.I., Del Ser, J., La˜

na, I., Ilardia, M., Bilbao, M.N., Campos-Cordob´

es, S.,

2018. Big data for transportation and mobility: recent advances, trends and

challenges. IET Intel. Transport Syst. 12 (8), 742–755.

Tsamboulas, D., Verma, A., Moraiti, P., 2013. Transport infrastructure provision and

operations: why should governments choose private–public partnership? Res.

Transp. Econ. 38 (1), 122–127.

Vitetta, A., 2022. Sustainable mobility as a service: framework and transport system

models. Information 13 (7), 346.

Vonk Noordegraaf, D.M., Bouma, G.M., Munzel, K.L. and Heezen, M.J.M. (2021). Policy

options to steer Mobility as a Service: international case studies’. TNO. http://

resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:481ec32b-604c-407c-98a4-741a0e3e64f2. Accessed 15

August 2022.

Wang, L., Acheampong, R.A., He, S., 2020. High-speed rail network development effects

on the growth and spatial dynamics of knowledge-intensive economy in major cities

of China. Cities 105.

Wang, Z.F., Wang, Y.R., Wang, Y.T., Chen, J.H., 2017. Urban administrative hierarchy

and economic growth——based on the perspective of development zone.

Macroeconomic Research 11, 115–127.

Wang, D.i., Zhou, T., Wang, M., 2021. Information and communication technology (ICT),

digital divide and urbanization: evidence from Chinese cities. Technol. Soc. 64.

Weber, M. and Chaiechi, T. (2022). Fiscal Implications–Inclusive Growth and Climate

Change Resilience: A Scoping Study of Existing Policy in Selected ASEAN Countries.

Community Empowerment, Sustainable Cities, and Transformative Economies. 587-

604. Springer, Singapore.

Wong, Y. Z., Hensher, D. A., & Mulley, C. (2018, December). Stated preference design for

mobility as a service (MaaS) broker/aggregator contracts. In 40th Australasian

Transport Research Forum (ATRF). Darwin.

Wuhu City Party History Ofce, 2022. History. Accessed 15 August 2022. https://www.

wuhu.gov.cn/mlwh/lswh/lsyg/index.html.

Yangcheng Evening News, 2020. Bus +bicycle one-ticket pass Guangzhou “Green Pass”

invites you to try it. Accessed 17 August 2022. http://gd.sina.com.cn/news/2020

-12-20/detail-iiznezxs7868548.shtml.

Ye, J., Zheng, J., Yi, F., 2020. A study on users’ willingness to accept mobility as a service

based on UTAUT model. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang. 157, 120066.

Yun, J.J., Zhao, X., Wu, J., Yi, J.C., Park, K., Jung, W., 2020. Business model, open

innovation, and sustainability in car sharing industry—comparing three economies.

Sustainability 12 (5), 1883.

Zavitsas, K., Kaparias, I., Bell, M.G.H., Tomassini, M., 2010. Transport problems in cities.

Isis 6 (05).

Zhang, Y. (2017). Research on Efciency and Mechanism of Public Transport Subsidies.

[Doctoral thesis, Chongqing Jiaotong University]. https://kns.cnki.net/kcms2/

article/abstract?v=3uoqIhG8C447WN1SO36whLpCgh0R0Z-iTEMuTidDzndci_h58Y

6ouTalQOhMp3aUlzMcXFKX2qaI1U9WgtJI7dTKYnlMy0&uniplatform=NZKPT.

Zhao, P., Hu, H., 2019. Geographical patterns of trafc congestion in growing megacities:

big data analytics from Beijing. Cities 92, 164–174.

Zhou, Q., Bao, Y., Zhao, Y., He, X., Cui, C., Liu, Y., 2022. Impacts of government credit on

government performance of Public-Private partnership project in china: a WSR

system theory perspective. Sustainability 14 (11), 6886.

Zijlstra, T., Durand, A., Hoogendoorn-Lanser, S., Harms, L., 2020. Early adopters of

mobility-as-a-service in the Netherlands. Transp. Policy 97, 197–209.

Zubach, A.V., Kostennikov, M.V., Kashkina, E.V., 2020. To the issue of identifying highly

automated vehicles (HAV) in ITS infrastructure (intelligent transport systems) to

ensure compliance with transport security requirements. Institute of Scientic

Communications Conference 404–409.

Y. Chen and R.A. Acheampong

Will the perceptions to incentive policies have any effect on users' willingness to participate in Mobility-as-a-Service?

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2024

Urbanization and Urban Sprawl Issues in City Structure: A Case of the Sulaymaniah Iraqi Kurdistan Region

Article

Full-text available

Jan 2019

This novel study explores the driving forces and dynamics of rapid urbanization, highlighting the main causes and effects of urban explosion, environmental disruption, and city pattern transformation. This study was carried out that how urbanization and urban sprawl have influenced the structure of the city of Sulaymaniah in Kurdistan region of Iraq. This is because over the years many urban areas have experienced dramatic growth and population explosion that has resulted in the exhaustion of social amenities in the concerned communities. For this purpose, a qualitative method is used based on in-depth face-to-face interviews with local authority, including planners, architects, and experts of master planning, as well as professors in the academic institutions. This study also utilizes extensive document analysis to present the evolution of urban growth. The findings reveal that the autonomy, political conflict, non-implementation of master plans, and economic prosperity are the driving forces which are accelerating this urbanization process. It is proposed that the practical policies and strategic urban development plans are urgent requirement to control the unplanned urban growth and stimulate the desired sustainable future urban development.

MaaS for the masses: Potential transit accessibility gains and required policies under Mobility-as-a-Service

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2023

Transit accessibility, the conditions and distance under which people have access to transit services , is one of the key indicators to assess the performance of cities' transit systems. The more people can access the transit system, the better its performance in terms of social equity (e.g., more equal access to jobs, education, and other opportunities). To inform policymakers and support decision-making, it is crucial to measure potential transit accessibility changes of transport investments. Due to the paucity of available data, however, calculating and monitoring transit accessibility is a difficult task. Anchored in SDG 11 for more 'Sustainable Cities and Communities', the UN has thus proposed a simplified, globally applicable indicator for the performance of cities' transit systems (SDG 11.2.1) that measures the share of the population living in a walking distance of 500 m to the transit system. Building on this definition and leveraging open data sources, we analyze potential transit accessibility gains under Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) in Metro Manila, Philippines. We show that the integration of paratransit (i.e., jeepneys) into the transit network could almost triple access to transit from 23.9 % to 65.0 %. The integration of micro-mobility (i.e., e-scooter and bicycles) as a feeder mode could further increase this share significantly (to 97.9 % and 99.9 %, respectively). We outline and discuss evidence-based policy recommendations to exploit this potential and foster a sustainable development under MaaS. Finally, we conclude with a research agenda for micro-mobility and MaaS in developing countries, a topic which has been widely overlooked in the scientific literature so far.

Mobility as a Service Inclusion Index (MaaSINI): Evaluation of inclusivity in MaaS systems and policy recommendations

Article

Full-text available

Sep 2022
TRANSPORT POLICY

According to UN statistics, the population of people in vulnerable social groups, namely elderly people, people with disabilities, and low-income populations, has increased over the recent decades. It is projected that this trend will continue in the future. Thus, their mobility and access to transport services are important areas to study. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a digital platform (smartphone application) that aims to encourage more sustainable travel. MaaS is promoted as being accessible to all user groups. However, there are limited studies linking MaaS with vulnerable social groups and their particular needs. This paper comprehensively reviews studies on the emergence of such platforms since 2014 until today to identify the research gaps with respect to vulnerable social groups. A framework and MaaS Inclusion Index (MaaSINI) are then proposed to evaluate the inclusion in MaaS services, focusing on vulnerable social groups’ needs at a service level instead of a city/area level. The framework and policy recommendations proposed in this study will make a significant contribution in guiding stakeholders and policymakers in implementing accessible-for-all-users MaaS services targeting sustainable and inclusive transport.

Sustainable Mobility as a Service: Framework and Transport System Models

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2022

Antonino Vitetta

Passenger mobility plays an important role in today’s society and optimized transport services are a priority. In recent years, MaaS (Mobility as a Service) has been studied and tested as new integrated services for users. In this paper, MaaS is studied considering the sustainability objectives and goals to be achieved with particular reference to the consolidated methodologies adopted in the transport systems engineering for design, management, and monitoring of transport services; it is defined as Sustainable MaaS (S-MaaS). This paper considers the technological and communication platform essential and assumed to be a given considering that it has been proposed in many papers and it has been tested in some areas together with MaaS. Starting from the MaaS platform, the additional components and models necessary for the implementation of an S-MaaS are analyses in relation to: a Decision Support System (DSS) that supports MaaS public administrations and MaaS companies for the design of the service and demand management; a system for the evaluation of intervention policies; and also considers smart planning for a priori and a posteriori evaluation of sustainability objectives and targets.

Impacts of Government Credit on Government Performance of Public-Private Partnership Project in China: A WSR System Theory Perspective

Article

Full-text available

Jun 2022

To alleviate project financial pressure and improve performance, the public-private partnership (PPP) arrangement was introduced by the central government of China to facilitate the sustainable development of infrastructure. However, arising government credit crisis from the PPP project may damage both the private’s and public’s interests, and affect the government performance of PPP projects consequently. In order to understand the influence between government credit and performance, we constructed a government credit evaluation index system by using the Wuli-Shili-Renli system theory, and conducted a questionnaire survey among people related to PPP based on 359 valid questionnaires. The results firstly indicated that government credit and performance of PPP projects are optimistic in China. Secondly, the institutional environment, financial situation, management technology and internal and external communication of government credit all have a positive impact on the government performance of PPP. Thirdly, the government credit and performance of PPP projects can be increased by the improvement of regional economic and social development. These findings enrich the knowledge system of the relationship between government credit and performance of PPP projects and contribute to clarifying the influence of government credit and performance, thus provide the basis for the government to guide PPP practice effectively.

MaaS for the masses: Potential transit accessibility gains and required policies under Mobility-as-a-Service

Conference Paper

Full-text available

Jan 2022

Transit accessibility is one of the key indicators to assess the performance of transport systems, whereby higher scores indicate a better performance in terms of social equity (e.g., more equal access to jobs and other opportunities). To inform policymakers and support decision-making, it is crucial to measure potential accessibility changes for proposed transport investments. Due to the paucity of available data, however, calculating and monitoring accessibility is a difficult task. This holds particularly for the Global South, where informal or semi-formal transport services (paratransit) are often the most dominant transport mode. Anchored in SDG 11 for more ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’, the UN has thus proposed a simplified, globally applicable indicator for accessibility (SDG 11.2.1) that measures the share of the population with convenient access to public transport. Building on this definition and leveraging on open data sources, we analyze potential accessibility gains under Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) in Metro Manila, Philippines. We show that the integration of paratransit (i.e., jeepneys) into the transit network could almost triple accessibility from 23.9 % to 65.0 %. The integration of micro-mobility (i.e., e-scooter and bicycles) as a feeder mode could further boost this share significantly (to 97.9 % and 99.9 %, respectively). We outline and discuss evidence-based policy recommendations to exploit this potential and foster a sustainable development under MaaS. Finally, we conclude with a research agenda for micro-mobility and MaaS in developing countries, a topic which has been widely overlooked in the scientific literature so far.

New Business Models and Partnerships for Sustainable Mobility and Transport Sector

Chapter

Jan 2023

Urban mobility is crucial to European societies in providing access to services for passengers and goods and supporting economic growth. Small and Medium (S-M) European cities are facing similar challenges to larger cities, such as congestion and pollution, and perceive similar trends, such as digitalization, the sharing economy, integrated mobility. To improve urban mobility and the related societal challenges, it requires a wide range of complementary mobility solutions and services adopting innovative user-centric, smart, multimodal, and intermodal approaches. Solving the mobility challenge requires coordinated actions from the private and public sectors. Technological advances and commercialization, funding, intelligent policies, and business model innovation are needed to improve urban mobility and create more sustainable environments in modern cities. The capacity to develop or reshape business models requires organizational know-how and tools. New business strategies enable transportation and mobility organizations to receive investments, whilst well-chosen partners will reinforce the chance of success. This chapter outlines the main results of SUITS’ research into developing business models and partnerships. It provides knowledge about innovative business models in urban mobility; addresses existing and new partnership schemes; identifies evolving commercially viable business strategies; introduces the main findings of the research and recommendations.

Fiscal Implications – Inclusive Growth and Climate Change Resilience: A Scoping Study of Existing Policy in Selected ASEAN Countries

Chapter

Jan 2022

Inclusive growth and climate change resilience have been enthusiastically debated issues at the global and local levels even before the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been argued that they have increasingly threatened to destabilise the economy while interfering with the fiscal goals of stability, full employment, sustainable growth and development for shared prosperity and welfare.

The Mobility as a Service Maturity Index: Preparing the Cities for the Mobility as a Service Era

Conference Paper

Nov 2018

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is the use of a “digital interface to source and manage the provision of transport related services” which meet peoples mobility requirements. The implementation of a MaaS based transport system is dependent on a city possessing a number of characteristics. Before planning for MaaS it is important for decision makers to understand how close a city is to fulfilling these characteristics. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop the ‘MaaS Maturity Index’. This measures a cit’s readiness for MaaS implementation based on characteristics across five dimensions: 1. Transport operators data sharing and openness, 2. Citizen familiarity and willingness, 3. Policy, regulation and legislation, 4. ICT infrastructure, and 5. Transport services and infrastructure. The index has been applied to two metropolitan areas in the UK; London and the West Midlands. The results indicate that, as expected, London is slightly more ready for MaaS than the West Midlands, but that both cities have lots of room for improvement.

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) – Going Somewhere or Nowhere?

Article

Aug 2021
TRANSPORT POLICY

Noting the continuing lack of agreement as to how the concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) should be defined, this short topical issues paper offers an evaluation of the extent to which MaaS faces a very uncertain future. While MaaS remains a compelling concept, without evidence of MaaS contributing to sustainability goals, the multimodal future may be one of contactless deep linked customer-oriented Apps offering potential customer convenience but with no provision for bundling mobility services. The latter has been shown in the Sydney MaaS trial to be the source of positive societal outcomes such a reduced car use and emissions. A MaaS Champion with a proactive approach, led by government, seems essential for any future positive outcomes.

Mobility-as-a-service transitions in China: Emerging policies, initiatives, platforms and MaaS implementation models

Abstract and Figures

Recommended publications

China's economic transition: Features and policy response

How to Maintain a Minority Language through Education

Policy Implementation in Post-Mao China

The Full implementation of the 2003-2007 Action Plan for Invigorating Education