Nordicum - Real Estate Annual Finland 2020 | Page 40

A
dding IQ into the way we move peo-
ple and goods, of course, is hardly
a novel idea. Finland has, however,
been trailblazer in this regard, having pub-
lished the first intelligent transportation
strategy in the world in 2009. It defined
intelligent transportation as “usage of infor-
mation and communications technologies to
optimize the transportation system” and rec-
ognized that this would mean a major shift
in focus, from maintaining and developing
traffic routes to customer-based operation
of the whole traffic system.
Already in 2006, however, Sampo Hie-
tanen, CEO of non-profit networking organ-
ization ITS Finland, had been tinkering with
the concept of Mobility as a Service, and he
started actively making the rounds to pro-
mote the new urban idea.
Push for Business
MaaS made a major breakthrough in 2014 as
Aalto University engineering student Sonja
Heikkilä published the first master thesis on
Mobility as a Service. Heikkilä was quickly
propelled to national and international star-
dom, as she was featured on Bloomberg and
in The Guardian, among others. Sampo Hie-
tanen served as co-instructor for the paper
– and, in fact, it was Hietanen’s presenta-
tion on MaaS that had triggered Heikkilä to
focus her thesis on it.
40 Nordicum
o K
Communities today strive for urban
functionality in all their endeavors.
With “Smart & Sustainable” as the
mantra in many a metropolis, cities
are searching for digital solutions
with a definite green edge. One of the
new urban-proof concepts is MaaS,
Mobility as a Service.