MaaS for the masses: Potential transit accessibility gains and required policies under Mobility-as-a-Service

Transit accessibility, the conditions and distance under which people have access to transit services, is one of the key indicators to assess the performance of cities' transit systems. The more people can access the transit system, the better its performance in terms of social equity (e.g., more equal access to jobs, education, and other opportunities). To inform policymakers and support decision-making, it is crucial to measure potential transit accessibility changes of transport investments. Due to the paucity of available data, however, calculating and monitoring transit accessibility is a difficult task. Anchored in SDG 11 for more ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’, the UN has thus proposed a simplified, globally applicable indicator for the performance of cities’ transit systems (SDG 11.2.1) that measures the share of the population living in a walking distance of 500 m to the transit system. Building on this definition and leveraging open data sources, we analyze potential transit accessibility gains under Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) in Metro Manila, Philippines. We show that the integration of paratransit (i.e., jeepneys) into the transit network could almost triple access to transit from 23.9 % to 65.0 %. The integration of micro-mobility (i.e., e-scooter and bicycles) as a feeder mode could further increase this share significantly (to 97.9 % and 99.9 %, respectively). We outline and discuss evidence-based policy recommendations to exploit this potential and foster a sustainable development under MaaS. Finally, we conclude with a research agenda for micro-mobility and MaaS in developing countries, a topic which has been widely overlooked in the scientific literature so far