Mobility as a Service (MaaS) at University of Eastern Piedmont (UPO)

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is a concept that aims to integrate various forms of transportation, including public transit, car-pooling, bike-sharing, and car-sharing, into a single, convenient, and seamless service. MaaS typically involves using a mobile app or other digital platforms that allow users to access and pay for multiple transportation services through a single account (Smith and Hensher, 2020). This can include the ability to plan a trip, book and pay for transportation, and monitor the progress of the trip in real time. The idea is to offer users a one-stop shop for all their transportation needs, thus reducing the need for private car ownership and promoting more sustainable modes of transportation (Christensen et al., 2022). Starting from this idea, this research project proposes laying the foundations for developing a MaaS platform within the University of Eastern Piedmont (UPO), whose specificity lies in being distributed over three different cities in eastern Piedmont, specifically Vercelli, Novara and Alessandria. Consequently, its community (students, professors, physicians, researchers, technical-administrative staff, etc.) could benefit from implementing a MaaS platform within UPO involving the combined and integrated use of various forms of transport, such as public transport, car-pooling, bike-sharing, and car-sharing. According to what mentioned above, this project aims to: • Carry out a feasibility study on the introduction of a MaaS platform that will benefit the entire UPO community; • Define the characteristics of a software architecture capable of meeting the requirements of a MaaS platform within a university context such as UPO; • Verify the validity of existing emission measurement models and introduce emission measurement indices consistent with MaaS and the specific UPO context.