Adaptive Travel Mode Choice in the Era of Mobility as a Service (MaaS): Literature Review and the Hypermode Mode Choice Paradigm

Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is becoming a “fashionable” solution to increase transport users’ satisfaction and accessibility, by providing new services obtained by optimally integrating sustainable modes, but also guaranteeing mass transport and less sustainable modes, guaranteeing fast and lean access/egress to the mass transport. In this context, the understanding and prediction of travellers’ mode choices is crucial not only for the effective management of multimodal transport networks, but also successful implementation of new transport schemes. Traditional studies on mode choices typically treat travellers’ decision-making processes as planned behaviour. However, this approach is now challenged by the widely distributed, multi-sourced, and heterogeneous travel information made available in real time through information and communication technologies (ICT), especially in the presence of a variety of available mode options in dense urban areas. Some of the real-time factors that affect mode choices include availability of shared vehicles, real-time passenger information, unexpected disruptions, and weather. These real-time factors are insufficiently captured by existing mode choice models. This chapter aims to propose an introduction to MaaS, a literature review on mode choice paradigms, then it proposes a novel behavioural concept referred to as the hypermode. It will be illustrated a two-level mode choice decision architecture, which captures the influence of real-time events and travellers’ adaptive behaviour. A pilot survey shows the relevance of some real-time factors, and corroborates the hypothesized adaptive mode choice behaviour in both recurrent and occasional trip scenarios.