A Diachronic Agent-Based Framework to Model MaaS Programs

In recent years, mobility as a service (MaaS) has been thought as one of the opportunities for shifting towards shared travel solutions with respect to private transport modes, particularly owned cars. Although many MaaS aspects have been explored in the literature, there are still issues, such as platform implementations, travel solution generation, and the user’s role for making an effective system, that require more research. This paper extends and improves a previous study carried out by the authors by providing more details and experiments. The paper proposes a diachronic network model for representing travel services available in a given MaaS platform by using an agent-based approach to simulate the interactions between travel operators and travelers. Particularly, the diachronic network model allows the consideration of both the spatial and temporal features of the available transport services, while the agent-based framework allows the representation of how shared services might be used and which effects, in terms of modal split, could be expected. The final aim is to provide insights for setting the architecture of an agent-based MaaS platform where transport operators would share their data for providing seamless travel opportunities to travelers. The results obtained for a simulated test case are promising. Particularly, there are interesting findings concerning the traffic congestion boundary values that would move users towards shared travel solutions.