INSIDE
By Stephen Metzger
Managing Director
Small Vehicle Resource, LLC
[email protected]
www.smallvehicleresource.com
THE GATED
COMMUNITY
Has the Time Come for MaaS
in Your Community?
M
obility concepts are all in the news from
electric powered bikes, to scooters, to
self-driving vehicles. By the way if you
don’t know what MaaS stands for, it is “Mobil-
ity as a Service”. The central idea behind the
concept is vehicular mobility (of all sorts) but
without individual private ownership.
Well, haven’t we had carriages, trains, buses, tax-
is, etc. since the days when horsepower actually
meant horses? None of these conveyances, his-
torically, were owned by the individuals making
use of them. So, what is different today? Here
are some of differences (and anomalies):
• While we still have most of the public trans-
portation services mentioned above, the major-
ity of our transportation needs are met through
use of our privately-owned vehicles—particu-
larly one of more on-road vehicles and in the
community, personal transportation vehicles, or
PTVs. (Note: Some of the uninformed still refer
to our PTV beauties as “golf carts”—PUHleez!)
MaaS is a challenge to the ownership concept,
aspiring to be the new, dominant transportation
mode.
• Secondly, the context is different. In the past,
cities and suburbs expanded outward, covering
vast new areas of geography, all made possible
by use of the privately-owned automobile. Now
the twin beasts of congestion and pollution have
made driving a nightmare in many metropolitan
areas, along with questionable air quality
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• Finally, we, as consumers, do not want to give up the freedom
of getting from one location to another specific location, when
we want to; that is, we don’t want to be tied to a schedule and
then dropped off somewhere in the vicinity of our desired desti-
nation.
Is there an answer to these new complexities in the mobility
environment and, at the same time, meet our demands for per-
sonalized service? Quite possibly and we are beginning to see a
number of new options.
Emerging options in MaaS
A number of MaaS options have emerged and are very active in
both consumer and commercial markets. Two-wheeled op-
tions are proliferating. Bicycles in New York City, sponsored by
CitiBank may picked up at stations located throughout the city.
Presently, the system has an inventory of 13,000 bicycles and
over 800 bike locking stations. Recently, Citi Bike announced
plans to triple the size of the fleet to about 40,000 bikes, and as-
suming the same bike to station ratio, bike locking stations would
increase to 2,400 locations. In another announcement, Citi Bike
will begin offering pedal-assist electric bikes—some 4,000 of
these units envisioned. All this in climate zone that makes com-
fortable bike riding possible in only 5 months out of the year.
Not to be outdone, Citi Bike has begun operations in Miami,
under the management of DECOBIKE, LLC. Currently, the fleet
numbers approximately 1,000 units and 100 locking stations.
Plans for expansion are well underway.
On the commercial side of things, electric delivery bikes are prolif-
erating as well in New York City. In this case, the bikes are individ-
ually purchased by companies.