MaaS Implications in the Smart City: A Multi-Stakeholder Approach

Abstract

Cities worldwide are calling for smart mobility strategies to tackle the negative externalities of their transport networks. Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is expected to introduce a new mobility model that promotes smarter and more sustainable urban futures. Given the novelty of the concept, this paper explores the implications that might arise from the implementation of MaaS in today’s metropolises in relation to the six dimensions of smart cities: smart governance, smart economy, smart mobility, smart environment, smart people, and smart living. To this end, 42 semi-structured interviews with MaaS stakeholders were conducted in Madrid (Spain). Thematic analysis identified a set of 35 urban implications. The success of MaaS requires more than the mere deployment of technologies and must be supported by the reorganisation of institutional structures, the reform of the regulatory scenario, the stimulation of innovation-based entrepreneurship, the promotion of environmental awareness, the encouragement of cultural transition, and the consideration of the public sphere. Overall, valuable insights are identified for policymakers when designing MaaS. Assessment of multiple stakeholders’ perspectives enables a holistic understanding of these strategies and thus maximises their potential to address the limitations of our complex mobility systems in meeting urban sustainability goals.

Fostering Smart Citizens: The Role of Public Libraries in Smart City Development

“…Such collaborations may further new ways of working among various stakeholders and innovative uses of technology, which adds to knowledge on multi-stakeholder interactions and collaborative models for smart city development and governance frequently advocated for in the literature [7,9,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36]. In parallel, our case studies contribute to the emerging research indicating that community organizations such as public libraries can develop smart citizens [9,66,[83][84][85][86][87][88][89] and thus add to the studies on the roles of different actors in developing smart citizens [51,57,65,76,80,121,143,151].…”

“…Early studies approach this topic from a social and human capital lens by discussing the term "smart people" as a significant dimension of smart cities and characterizing smart people as comprising "various factors like affinity to lifelong learning, social and ethnic plurality, flexibility, creativity, cosmopolitanism or open-mindedness, and participation in public life" [28,112,113]. Further, smart people use technology and data to make informed choices related to resource and service consumption towards greater sustainability and interact with others about public affairs [65,[102][103][104][105][106][107]. Smart people are also skilled individuals who contribute to socioeconomic development [33,45,79,[108][109][110][111], for example, as innovators [114] and problemsolvers for urban issues [1,8,78].…”

“…Yet, this perception of smart citizens can exclude those unaware of the use and impact of technology in their cities, which limits participation [58,71,107,127]. This research sub-stream thus posits that the assumption of smart citizens as tech-savvy populations able to participate could be unrepresentative and exacerbate inequalities, especially given the multidimensional social and digital divides [23,42,51,65,76,[126][127][128][129][130][131].…”

“…Smart citizens are generally defined as individuals empowered by technology and information to have a say in and evaluate decisions directly related to making their cities smart and sustainable [7,17,21,35,40,[58][59][60][61][62]. Smart citizens can be integral to the success of smart cities as their active participation can ensure that smart city initiatives are designed and implemented in alignment with real needs and aspirations, which can foster more inclusive and responsive urban development and governance [9,24,51,[63][64][65][66]. Being a smart citizen also means interacting and engaging with other stakeholders to ideate and co-create innovative solutions that improve individual and collective outcomes, which can contribute to collaborative forms of smart city development [17,20,57,62,[67][68][69][70][71].…”

Exploring the Success Factors of Smart City Adoption via Structural Equation Modeling

“…A study [120] indicated that users' perceptions of information security are supported by providing robust security defense techniques such as multi-factor authentication, encryption, and validation. Another study [121] confirmed that the security of online services is considered the primary factor determining the success of smart cities. Therefore, we hypothesized that providing security procedures would increase the successful adoption of smart cities.…”