Assessing Mobility as a Service bundles potential for university students and employees

This paper explores individuals’ Willingness to Pay (WTP) for MaaS bundles of different integrated mobility services, discussing the factors that affect behavioral intentions towards MaaS solutions adoption. The study involves a large-scale survey campaign carried out within the university community of Politecnico di Milano (Italy), comprising 1873 interviews among faculty members, technical-administrative staff, and students, and uses aggregate statistics and discrete choice models to analyze the WTP of different user profiles. Results highlight that the WTP of current public transport pass holders is significantly higher than the WTP of non-holders, as well as individuals living far from the city center (and the university campuses) are willing to pay more than those who reside in the inner urban area. In particular, the MaaS bundles that combine public transport with car-sharing or reserved car parking have the highest WTP. Moreover, age has a high influence on the WTP, as well as private vehicle availability, or current travel habits, such as the integration of public and private transport. The outcomes of this study suggest that MaaS bundles constitute a solution to orient university members towards sustainable transport modes. Anyway, for an effective implementation, MaaS should have a user-tailored design to answer the needs of disparate user categories, and this research could support this process and provide a base for future research on MaaS in university communities.