Mobility as a Service for the older population: a transport solution to land use changes in essential services?

Abstract

Land use changes in relation to everyday services are resulting in centralisation of local services from mixed land use town centres to single land use destinations on the edge of cities. Technology advances are disrupting the provision of local community services such as local shops and local health care. Cost considerations and the benefits achieved by economies of scale are driving the land use changes which are changing the landscape of service provision. Whereas hospitals, for example, were typically located in city centres they are now more often in peripheral locations. For many sections of society, these changes have offered better convenience and higher quality of service. However, these changes have both spatial and horizontal equity impacts, particularly for older people and particularly for areas of lower density where accessibility will significantly decline. This paper explores the potential contribution of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in promoting greater equity for older people using Community Transport (CT) as the service co-ordinator. The travel needs and behaviour of older people are reviewed as well as the contribution of flexible transport services towards meeting these needs. Drawing on discussions with a group of CT operators in Australia the key characteristics of the MaaS model are explored in the context of older people to ascertain whether CT acting as the service co-co-ordinator fits the MaaS model. A series of MaaS packages are proposed to show how the model could be delivered in practice. The paper concludes that as a business model, MaaS for CT could be one way of ameliorating the lack of equity for the old and frail age group brought about by land use changes in essential services.