In 1900, Paris introduced a moving sidewalk — le trottoir roulant — at the Exposition Universelle.

The idea was bold: Instead of making pedestrians dodge carriages and trams, let them glide above it all. Riders stepped onto slow-moving platforms that accelerated in stages, circling the fairgrounds in a continuous loop.

Though it never took hold as everyday infrastructure, it embodied a provocative premise: Urban mobility requires rethinking how movement fits into the city itself, not just adding capacity.

Today, we face a similar inflection point: Traditional approaches to public transit no longer meet modern needs. The solution emerging across the globe is Mobility as a Service (MaaS), a customer-centric, integrated approach to transportation that combines multiple modes of public transit into a modern user experience.

While the Four Levels of Integration describe what needs to be stitched together, the 3S Framework offers a way to evaluate how well it’s being done in practice.

The Shifting Social Contract of Public Transit

Historically, city dwellers — especially in regions with robust public transit — viewed trains, trams, or buses as an unglamorous but reliable means to get from A to B. In many cities, trains used to run on time, and monthly passes were the default for most workers.

However, this landscape is changing because of several factors:

Funding Erosion

Many transit systems are trapped in a cycle of insufficient funding. Municipalities are often forced to make tradeoffs between cutting weekend routes or raising fares to avoid a deficit.

The result? Ridership plummets, ironically reducing revenue just when more money is needed to maintain or modernize infrastructure.

Service Disruptions

In countries with strong labor unions, service disruptions have become commonplace. A single multi-day strike can cause chaos: canceled trains, jam-packed platforms, and an explosion of short-notice ride-hailing demand.

Every such event nudges more travelers to rethink their reliance on the public network.

Hybrid Work and Changing Commutes

The pandemic left a structural shift in its wake. Many office workers now commute just two or three days per week. For instance, Transport for London data showed a sustained dip in traditional season-ticket purchases as commuting patterns changed in that city.

This shift has prompted travelers to reconsider their mobility options, though impacts vary by region. In cities like Singapore, with excellent public transit and high car costs, commuters may simply adjust their ticketing approach. Elsewhere, people might increase or decrease their reliance on personal vehicles depending on local conditions and individual needs.

These evolving mobility choices reflect a complex interplay between changing work patterns, local infrastructure, economic factors, and cultural context — not a one-size-fits-all response to hybrid work.

Elevated User Expectations

From an experiential perspective, we can’t just “improve the bus schedule.” User expectations are now shaped by broader technological experiences, like ecommerce’s same-day shipping or near-instant results from generative AI.

For MaaS to thrive, it must act like a competitive consumer product, continually refining itself in line with user behaviors and data insights.

What Is Mobility as a Service (MaaS)? A Complete Overview

Mobility as a Service proposes that if all transportation options (public buses, trains, bike-share, e-scooters, microtransit shuttles, ride-hailing, etc.) are integrated into a unified digital ecosystem, individuals will no longer need personal vehicles or multiple ticketing systems to move around urban spaces.

Journeys are planned, booked, and paid for with a few taps on a smartphone, and real-time updates ensure travelers are always on the most efficient route.

This vision challenges two traditionally held assumptions about mobility:

Mobility as a Choice, Not a Constraint: For urban dwellers, commuting transcends affordability. It embodies the demand for convenience, reliability, and the reassurance that one is not at the mercy of a fragmented, outdated system.

Even minor transit disruptions can feel like betrayals of modern promise in an era where every delay is scrutinized. Some transit authorities have found that every 1% decrease in on-time performance yields a 1% decrease in ridership.

From Asset Ownership to Service Experience: The traditional notion of owning a car as “freedom insurance” is increasingly being questioned. A growing generation views mobility not as an asset to be owned, but as a service to be experienced.

The question now becomes how to build a MaaS ecosystem that is financially viable, operationally robust, and responsive to city dwellers’ needs.

The Four Levels of MaaS Integration

For transit authorities considering implementing Mobility as a Service solutions, understanding the different levels of integration is crucial.

A successful initiative requires cohesion across four dimensions:

Service Integration

This involves meshing different mobility modes into one pipeline of planning, booking, and payment.

True MaaS means travelers don’t worry about separate tickets or apps. They can hop from a microtransit van to a bicycle to a train, with real-time updates guiding them along.

Service integration is more than just listing available options. It creates a unified user experience across disparate systems, proactively answering questions like: How do transfers work? What happens during disruptions? How are refunds and changes handled across multiple service providers?

Data Integration

MaaS relies on real-time data that informs travelers about train locations or microtransit delays. Behind the scenes, it depends on governments and private operators establishing data-sharing protocols that don’t lock cities into vendor monopolies.

If data is siloed or proprietary, we may see short-lived pilot programs that vanish when budgets tighten. Transit authorities must establish clear data governance policies that permit innovation while protecting public interests.

Infrastructure Integration

For MaaS to compete with private car ownership, cities must think systematically about roads, bike lanes, bus lanes, e-charging stations, and the broader energy grid as a cohesive whole.

We see glimpses of this in cities that track traffic flow and reprogram traffic signals on the fly. By weaving MaaS data into city operations — like installing sensors at bus stops to measure crowding — transit agencies can calibrate routes or shift resources dynamically.

Physical integration points like mobility hubs, where multiple transit modes converge with amenities and clear wayfinding, create tangible connections in what might otherwise be a solely digital experience.

User-Centric Design Integration

It isn’t enough for an app to just display schedules or enable one-tap payment. User-centric design in Mobility as a Service must evoke trust, ease, and even delight.

This requires emotional resonance and adaptive design, as well as spatial and contextual intelligence, enabling all kinds of users to navigate urban areas confidently.

Accessibility considerations must be built in from the start, not added as an afterthought.

Mobility as a Service Case Study: The Rise and Fall of Whim

We’d be remiss to discuss Mobility as a Service without acknowledging one of its most promising players: MaaS Global and its Whim app.

Founded in 2015 in Finland, Whim was the first commercially available all-inclusive MaaS solution that integrated planning, booking, and payments for multiple transport modes under a single subscription.

At its peak, Whim had approximately 10,000 active monthly users in Helsinki alone and expanded to cities like Tokyo, Vienna, Birmingham, and Antwerp. The company attracted over €149 million in investments from automotive giants including Toyota and Mitsubishi.

But in early 2023, MaaS Global filed for bankruptcy.

The fundamental flaw in Whim’s business model stemmed from a misalignment between revenue and costs. While customers paid Whim a fixed subscription fee, the company had to pay transit providers based on actual usage. This created a structural imbalance: Whim committed to covering all customer trips but had no guarantee those customers would use enough services to offset the costs.

For example, if a subscriber paid €60 monthly but only used €40 worth of transit services, Whim still had to pay the full amount to service providers, effectively losing money on each underutilized subscription. Unlike typical subscription businesses where unused capacity costs nothing, Whim faced the opposite problem — paying for capacity whether customers used it or not.

This financial asymmetry, combined with ambitious expansion into multiple cities and acquisitions of regional competitors, accelerated cash burn. The pandemic’s dramatic reduction in public transportation usage struck when the company was already financially vulnerable.

This doesn’t signal the end of MaaS as a concept. Market projections remain strong, with research estimating Mobility as a Service in Europe to grow from $1.34 billion in 2022 to $15.66 billion by 2030 at a 35.9% CAGR.

The path forward requires hyper-customized solutions that target specific user segments and strong public-private collaboration, with business models that properly align revenue structures with actual cost drivers.

The 3S Framework for Evaluating Mobility as a Service Implementations

Too often, Mobility as a Service programs launch with compelling visions but lack the tools to assess whether they’re delivering on the fundamentals — technical interoperability, system resilience, and public accountability.

The 3S Framework provides a structured way to evaluate real-world MaaS implementations. It can be used during procurement to define clear vendor requirements, serve as an audit tool to identify where systems fall short, and inform policy design by offering a benchmark for regulation.

The framework comprises three pillars:

1. Seamlessness

What does frictionless travel really mean? This pillar examines the quality of user experience from technical and human perspectives.

Interoperability at Scale: The technical backbone of MaaS depends on heterogeneous systems sharing data in real time through common protocols. Without standardized protocols, even the best-designed apps falter.

Actions:

• Audit whether all service providers are using open, standardized APIs (e.g., GBFS, GTFS-RT, SIRI, TOMP).
• Test how real-time data flows between systems and whether it degrades under load.
• Identify whether each provider can push and pull updates dynamically without human intervention.

User-Centric Design: The design must accommodate the full spectrum of users, from tech-savvy commuters to tourists, elderly riders, and those with accessibility needs.

Actions:

• Conduct usability testing with multiple user personas.
• Check whether route recommendations adapt to known user preferences.
• Review interface consistency across platforms — mobile app, kiosk, and desktop.

Trust Through Transparency: Users must understand how the system works, why a route is suggested, how data is used, and what causes disruptions.

Actions:

• Evaluate if service disruptions are communicated clearly and if the next best route is shared proactively.
• Review terms of use and privacy policies to ensure data permissions are explicit.
• Examine fare structures and dynamic pricing mechanisms for clarity.

2. Scalability

How do we ensure Mobility as a Service grows effectively with urban demands?

Adaptive Infrastructure: Urban transit systems must be designed to evolve. MaaS infrastructure should handle growth in users, data, and complexity without degradation, even as demographic trends and technological capabilities shift.

Actions:

• Assess whether new transport modes can be integrated without major architecture changes.
• Review the deployment flexibility of hardware components.
• Determine if predictive data is used to adjust system load based on real-time demand fluctuations.

Financial Resilience: The business model behind MaaS must sustain operations under different economic conditions. Sustainable MaaS requires diversified revenue models, blending fare revenues, public subsidies, and innovative cross-sector partnerships.

Actions:

• Model multiple revenue scenarios: pay-per-use, subscription, public subsidy, or mixed models.
• Review contractual flexibility to adjust pricing schemes without renegotiating full agreements.
• Identify dependencies on a single funding source.

Agile Governance: Cities need governance structures nimble enough to implement long-term solutions beyond electoral cycles, as decisions and funding can change with a new administration. Governance models must keep pace with technology, allowing for quick iteration without regulatory bottlenecks.

Actions:

• Map the governance chain for decision-making.
• Assess the existence of sandbox environments where new mobility modes or policies can be trialed.
• Review inter-agency coordination between municipal departments, transport operators, and tech vendors.

3. Sovereignty

Who truly owns urban mobility, and who benefits from it?

Data Sovereignty: Data generated through public infrastructure must remain under public or neutral entities’ stewardship. Clear policies on data sharing can prevent monopolistic capture while ensuring citizens benefit from every byte collected.

Actions:

• Review who owns the usage data collected.
• Confirm whether operators must share anonymized, standardized data with the city or transit agency.
• Check whether external researchers can access performance data to support planning and accountability.

User Empowerment: Users must retain agency in how their data is used, how services are priced, and how policies evolve. A democratic Mobility as a Service system treats its users as stakeholders, not just end customers.

Actions:

• Assess whether the system allows opt-outs for data tracking without degrading the user experience.
• Determine if there are feedback loops that influence policy.

Long-Term Vision Over Short-Term Gains: System design must prioritize strategic public outcomes (equity, sustainability, access) over fast returns. This requires bold decisions, such as investing in zero-fare zones or subsidizing microtransit in underserved neighborhoods.

Actions:

• Review procurement contracts for incentives tied to long-term performance outcomes.
• Identify investments in low-profit, high-impact areas.
• Examine funding structures to ensure Mobility as a Service pilots are evaluated for long-term integration.

Learning From MaaS Failures, Building for Successful Mobility as a Service Solutions

The story of Mobility as a Service is still being written. Whim’s experience teaches us:

1. Financial fundamentals matter. MaaS operators need sustainable business models from day one, not just compelling user experiences.
2. Public-private partnerships are essential. Transit authorities and private operators must align incentives and share both risks and rewards.
3. Customization trumps one-size-fits-all. Different cities and user segments have different needs; MaaS solutions should reflect these differences.
4. Integration must be holistic. Service, data, infrastructure, and user experience must all be considered together, not in isolation.

Corporate MaaS solutions represent another promising avenue. With companies now mandating partial office returns, these flexible solutions will see increased adoption. MaaS can support organizations by integrating preferred transport options for employees, including corporate shuttle buses, and integrating with expense management systems.

Moving Forward With Mobility as a Service

At Method, we’ve worked with transit agencies across major metropolitan areas to design Mobility as a Service solutions that balance immediate operational needs with long-term strategic goals.

Our approach focuses on designing for all users while ensuring technical infrastructure remains flexible enough to evolve with changing needs. We encourage transit authorities to start with these steps:

1. Start with user research. Understand how your riders currently piece together their journeys and where the pain points lie.
2. Map your existing ecosystem. Document current transport modes, data sources, payment systems, and infrastructure elements that would need to be integrated.
3. Define your core value proposition. What specific problems will your MaaS solution solve? For which user segments?
4. Identify integration partners. Which private mobility providers will complement your public transit options?
5. Develop governance frameworks. Establish clear rules for data sharing, pricing, and operational coordination across partners.
6. Pilot, measure, iterate. Start with targeted use cases, gather real-world feedback, and refine before scaling.

It’s not enough to promise convenience. We must build systems that ensure reliability, equity, and resilience.

Through thoughtful design and implementation, Mobility as a Service can fulfill its promise of changing urban movement for the better, creating cities that are more accessible, sustainable, and human-centered.