- Email: [email protected]
MaaS in rural areas - case Finland
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Research in Transportation Business & Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rtbm
MaaS in rural areas - case Finland Jenni Eckhardta, , Lasse Nykänena, Aki Aapaojaa, Petri Niemib ⁎
a b
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Finland, P.O. Box 1100, Oulu FI-90571, Finland Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, Lappeenranta FI-53851, Finland
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Keywords: Mobility as a Service MaaS Rural SWOT Vision
This paper presents characteristics of rural areas for MaaS development, based on a project co-funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland. The paper presents rural mobility SWOT analysis and challenges, as well as goals and vision. Solutions for MaaS services in terms of collaboration, services & markets, planning & decision-making, and technology & information are proposed. The next steps to be taken in rural MaaS development are examined. Rural areas have challenges to organize mobility services due to long distances and narrow flows of people and material, as well as tightening financial targets. Rural areas have also a major potential to organize transport services more efficiently. The collaboration of different stakeholders — businesses, the public sector and people — is key to the success. New pilots with impact assessment should be carried out and best practices disseminated. The unique characteristics of rural areas should be taken into account in e.g. legislation and financing. Technology is an enabler of efficient MaaS services; thus digitalization of data and use of open/defined interfaces is recommended. A toolkit for MaaS pilot/service development is needed to promote the development and implementation of new MaaS services.
1. Introduction
“a mobility distribution model in which a customer's major transportation needs are met over one interface and are offered by a service provider”. The European Commission (2017) considers that MaaS could offer travellers easy, flexible, reliable, price-worthy and environmentally sustainable everyday travel, such as public transport, carsharing, car leasing and road use, as well as more efficient goods shipping and delivery possibilities. The sharing economy is booming, and several types of sharing services in transportation sector already exist. Carsharing companies (e.g. DriveNow, ZipCar), peer-to-peer carsharing services (e.g. ShareIt Blox Car), ridesharing services (e.g. BlaBlaCar) and bike-sharing services (e.g. DB/DIMIS including car and bike services) are all part of the current trend (Eckhardt et al., 2017a). Ridesourcing services, such as Lyft or Uber, are most frequently used for social trips when public transit runs infrequently or is not available (SUMC, 2016). There are also organized hitchhiking services, and e.g. Rezo Pouce was developed to assist with rural mobility (Rezo Pouce, 2017). MaaS is expected to have several positive effects on the environment, such as a modal shift from car to public transport and sharing services, an increase in multimodal trips, greater resource efficiency, and decreased emissions (Karlsson, Sochor, Aapaoja, Eckhardt, & König, 2017). The UbiGo MaaS trial in Sweden showed attitudinal
Megatrends - urbanization, climate change, globalization, digitalization and demographic shifts - have an ongoing effect on transportation. Given that current transport systems are based largely on private cars and that urban areas are becoming ever more congested, new transport solutions are urgently needed to decarbonize these transport systems. Digitalization is one megatrend that is helping the transport sector to find new solutions and bring greater efficiency and transparency to the transport system. (Pöllänen, Mäkelä, Nykänen, Liimatainen, & Mäntynen, 2015) In Finland, the current government program aims to promote the use of digitalization in the transport sector and services (Finnish Government, 2015). Emission targets require a remarkable reduction of transport emissions. Necessary measures include improved energy efficiency of vehicles, new sources of low-emission fuel and power, and improved energy efficiency of the transport system by e.g. adopting new transport services (Aho, Lyly, & Mero, 2017). Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is an emerging concept of new integrated transport services. According to the MAASiFiE project, MaaS is considered as “multimodal and sustainable mobility services addressing customers' transport needs by integrating planning and payment on a onestop-shop principle” (MAASiFiE, 2016). Hietanen (2014) defines MaaS as
⁎
Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Eckhardt).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2018.09.005 Received 29 March 2018; Received in revised form 22 August 2018; Accepted 17 September 2018 2210-5395/ © 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Please cite this article as: Eckhardt, J., Research in Transportation Business & Management, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2018.09.005
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
Fig. 1. Degree of urbanization for local administrative units (Eurostat, 2017).
changes toward various travel modes, participants becoming less positive toward the private car and more positive toward alternative modes like carsharing, bus/tram, and bike sharing (Sochor, Karlsson, & Strömberg, 2016). MaaS can also improve accessibility to transport and have a positive impact on total travel cost per individual/household (Karlsson et al., 2017). Also, MaaS has potential to improve the efficiency of existing transport services and public resources (Polis, 2017). MaaS is often developed and studied from an urban point of view, with rural areas receiving less attention. However, in Finland and many
other developed countries, large numbers of inhabitants still live in rural areas. Rural areas also cover large geographical regions in EU as shown in Fig. 1. In these areas, public transport coverage may be insufficient; thus MaaS cannot be based on public transport as in cities. Rural areas with sparse population, long distances, and low capacity utilization rates could improve efficiency by integrating different types of transportation (Eckhardt, Aapaoja, et al., 2017a). For example, a MaaS operator could, in addition to the mobility of people, include lastmile deliveries (parcel, post, shopping, pharmacy products and meal 2
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
Table 1 Reforms affecting the organization of transport services (Act 1397/, 2016; Finnish Government, 2018; LVM, 2017). Law/reform
Schedule
Key changes related to transport services
Health and social services reform
From 1.1.2021
Regional government reform
From 1.1.2021
Transport Code
Gradually in three stages starting from 1.1.2018
Public procurement law
From 1.1.2017
Regions, instead of municipalities, will be responsible for organizing public health and social services. Online and mobile services will be available for rural areas. Regions will be responsible for several public services including regional public transport services organized currently by ELY Centres. Also more digital services will be available. The Act on Transport Services includes an obligation to provide essential information and access to sales interfaces of ticket and payment systems. The Act facilitates entering the taxi sector and increases the freedom of taxi operators to develop their services. All transport modes (road, shipping, rail transport and aviation) will be included to enable multimodal travel chains. The new law on public procurement requires that electronic channels are used for publishing procurement notices and submission of proposals. The law more explicitly permits the use of award criteria based on product or service quality, life cycle costs and sustainability criteria. It introduced innovation partnership as a new procurement method allowing procurement of development and deployment of a new solution under a single contract.
deliveries) and statutory social and health service transportation integrated with commercial services (Eckhardt, Aapaoja, et al., 2017a). Public-private collaboration and partnerships are recommended (Eckhardt, Aapaoja, et al., 2017a; Polis, 2017; SUMC, 2016). Polis (2017) states that MaaS requires stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors, and that new mobility services should be developed in collaboration with the private sector and local and transport authorities, supporting city and regional transport priorities and policies. In Finland, the operational environment surrounding transport services is undergoing several significant changes including health, social services and regional government reform, and legislation covering the Transport Code and public procurement (Table 1). Finland is characterized by its very sparsely populated areas with long distances to municipality centres, especially in areas such as Lapland, which has a population density of 180,000 inhabitants per 100,000 km2 (Regional Council of Lapland, 2017).
(see Fig. 2). The paper presents SWOT, challenges, objectives and the vision for rural mobility. Solutions are proposed for mobility services regarding collaboration & combination, services & markets, planning & decision-making and technology & information. In addition, further steps for rural MaaS development are suggested. Two regional workshops were organized in each of four regions: Lapland, Central Ostrobothnia, South Karelia and Southwest Finland. Areas were selected to represent geographically different parts of Finland and different kinds of rural areas with their own characteristics. Lapland is an extremely sparsely populated rural area, while Southwest Finland has rural areas close to urban area and archipelago. Rural areas of Central Ostrobothnia typically include agriculture and cattle. Plenty of lakes and Finland-Russia frontier characterize South Karelia. The first workshop concentrated on regional vision and the objectives of mobility services. There were three different perspectives on mobility services: 1. Business including tourism and last-mile deliveries. 2. Inhabitants who pay for their mobility services. This may be related to e.g. commuting, hobbies, and shopping journeys carried out by families and pensioners. The sharing economy was also considered, along with what services would be practical to bring to the customer and which services the customer would go to. 3. Publicly supported/subsidized transportation, including statutory social and health service transportation and school transportation.
2. Methodology The purpose of this paper is to present the unique characteristics of rural areas with respect to MaaS development, based on the project ‘Mobility as a Service Concept Promoting Service and Livelihood Development in Rural Areas’ (Rural-MaaS, 2017). The project was cofunded by the development fund of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland and was conducted in 2016–2017. The project aimed at creating a national vision for MaaS in rural and sparsely populated areas. It focused mainly on recognizing emerging and potential business models for both commercial and publicly supported transport services. It also improved awareness of the MaaS concept in rural areas by sharing knowledge, and by providing measures and recommendations for developing mobility regulations and on the technical aspects of MaaS. The Rural-MaaS findings and analyses are based primarily on qualitative data collected via workshops, interviews and a literature review
Regional workshop 1: MaaS vision and objectives
Finally, the proposed ideas were prioritized and the most important presented in the second workshop. The workshop considered which actions and actors would be needed to reach the vision and objectives defined in the first workshop. The participants represented mainly regional and municipal authorities, social and health service stakeholders, local and rural development organizations and networks, transport services, mobile and ICT service providers, and the research community. The project performed 30 interviews during the fall of 2016 and
Regional workshop 2: Solutions (actions and actors)
Literature
Interviews
National consolidation workshop Fig. 2. Rural-MaaS methodology. 3
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
Table 2 Interviewed organizations in the Rural-MaaS project. Association of people with disabilities
Ministry of agriculture and forestry
Centre for economic development, transport and the environment (ELY) of lapland Centre for economic development, transport and the environment (ELY) of South ostrobothnia Centre for economic development, transport and the environment (ELY) of Southeast Finland Finnish transport safety agency Growth corridor Finland Linna business development (Hämeenlinna) Regional council of South Karelia Soite - Central Ostrobothnia joint municipal authority of social and health service South Karelia Social and Health Care District Tampere university of technology Technical research centre of Finland Association of Finnish local and regional authorities The city of Hämeenlinna The city of Imatra
VR Group (Finnish railways) Municipality logistics of Finland Petri Pekkala (trade name) Posti group corporation Regional council of central ostrobothnia Regional council of Lapland The city of Rovaniemi The council of rural policy MANE The hospital district of Lapland The hospital district of North Ostrobothnia The social insurance institution of Finland (Kela) Tuomi Logistics Ltd. Uber Finland Visit Rovaniemi
spring of 2017 with the organizations listed in Table 2. The interviews dealt with e.g. the current state (SWOT) and challenges (C) of rural mobility, possible mobility solutions, and business models. Also discussed were enablers, barriers and need for change regarding legislation. A literature review was performed to identify e.g. existing rural mobility services, pilots and solutions; nearly 20 cases were noted. Based on regional workshops, interviews, the literature study and awareness gained during the project, preliminary results were obtained which were then further developed, prioritized and validated in a national consolidation workshop. The rural mobility vision was also created as part of the consolidation workshop.
that facilitates the development of rural mobility solutions and procurement of the required resources and investments. Kela is the Social Insurance Institution (SII), a Finnish government agency, in charge of settling benefits under national social security programs. Kela partially covers illness-related transportation based on the National Health Insurance (NHI) and has call-centers for organizing transportation. The system enables ride-sharing and covers the whole country with a similar operational model, which is seen as a strength. The main weakness regarding stakeholders is the silo effect within and between organizations. Removing this obstacle is probably one of the main development needs facing rural MaaS. Collaboration at all levels on decision-making, economy, legislation, transport and planning, is needed to avoid partial optimization. Also, the lack of resources is a weakness that could cause incompetence and inflexibility in procurement and contract-related issues, at least to some extent. The ongoing health, social services and regional government reform opens up possibilities to take mobility into account and redefine the organization of transportation as responsibilities are shifting from municipalities to regions. Collaboration enables considerable possibilities for improving and creating new services, as well as raising the degree of efficiency and the service level in rural areas. Collaboration should take place at least between municipalities, Kela (NHI transportation) and ELY Centres responsible for the regional implementation and development tasks (including regional public transportation) of the
3. Rural mobility SWOT + Challenges The current state of rural mobility was analyzed using SWOT + Challenges analysis based on the interviews and workshops. It aimed at clarifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and challenges of current mobility services and in organizing them. To clarify the analysis, the results were divided into four categories: stakeholders, technology, operational environment & context, and services & market. Tables 3–6 show the main results of SWOT in these categories. Table 7 presents the main mobility challenges in rural areas. According to the stakeholder SWOT, the consensus among decisionmakers on the current status and need for development is a strength
Table 3 SWOT analysis of stakeholders (modified and translated from Eckhardt, Nykänen, Aapaoja, & Niemi, 2017b). SWOT: Stakeholders Strengths
are aware of development needs: will, enthusiasm and financial support of • Decision-makers state and municipalities is extremely important (health and social services require) • Kela: call center system for ride-sharing covers the whole country
Opportunities
of municipalities, ELY Centres and social and health • Collaboration service/care actors and Kela social services and regional government reform and changes in • Health, legislation enable reorganization of mobility services and inter-regional collaboration in mobility services: operative • Regional planning, procurement, best practices
Threats
Weaknesses
effect of stakeholders: decision-making, economy, legislation, • Silo transport, planning collaboration and procurement: inflexible, traditional price competition, • Contracts short-term thinking, incompetence, lack of collaboration of resources and expensive current system: subsidized • Lack transportation
• Reducing support and subvention reform (procurement law) leads to poor interpretations and solutions (partial • Law optimization) transportation under the municipalities' responsibility may remain separate from the • School entity of publicly organized transportation due to reforms Code will benefit large companies and small ones will lose out • Transport needs of special groups cannot be taken sufficiently into account • The reforms and uncertain future ➔ development stops • Large investment allocation • Inefficient • Lack of collaboration and separate visions of stakeholders 4
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
Table 4 SWOT analysis of technology (modified and translated from Eckhardt, Nykänen, et al., 2017b). SWOT: Technology Strengths
infrastructure: ICT (developed), road • Extensive network • Digitalization: services, adopting, will
Weaknesses
of IT systems and information, accessibility and usability: broadband blind spots, communication between • Lack the public sector and consumers
Opportunities
Threats
needed technology exists, is available and develops continuously • The • Opening of data and connecting open data, use in decision-making
central government in Finland. Regional and inter-regional cooperation could enable e.g. common planning and procurement of mobility services, and information exchange regarding best practices. The main threats are related to uncertainties due to current changes and reforms, and the lack of financial resources. Publicly subsidized transportation is a remarkable item of expenditure for the public sector, and there is pressure for economies. If changes to health, social services and regional government reform and legislation relating to e.g. the Transport Code, fail to remove or even end up increasing the silo effect, and if collaboration between different stakeholders does not succeed, partial optimization may remain in the future. Technological strengths include highly developed and extensive ICT infrastructure. Internationally compared Finland is leading the mobile data usage (see e.g. McCarthy, 2017). However, there are some blind spots in rural areas that create inequality. Digitalization is also recognized as a strength. The authorities have a common will to develop digitalized services, attitudes towards them are positive, and people are familiar with using them. Current digitalized mobility services include mobile booking, ticketing and payment, (re)routing and other webbased and mobile solutions and applications. Despite this, the transport sector has been relatively slow to exploit the potential offered by digitalization. Technology and data are seen to enable collaboration and decisionmaking based on transparent information. Technology readiness is an opportunity, as the technology needed for new mobility services already exists and technology maturity is sufficient for implementation. No technological threats related to rural mobility services were identified. However, general technological issues such as privacy and
security affect all services. In general, people in rural areas usually know and trust their neighbors more than those in cities do. This is also a strength regarding e.g. peer-to-peer services. They also know the special characteristics of their region and are often active in developing services there within associations, clubs etc. As the number of MaaS pilots increases, new services can initially be piloted on a small scale in rural areas. The weaknesses of the operational environment of rural mobility relate to the characteristics of rural areas: low and sparse population, and long distances between people and services. This poses challenges to offering comprehensive mobility services and maintaining the infrastructure. The rail network is considered a possibility, as smaller railway stations could be exploited to create travel chains to rural areas. However, many smaller railway stations are now either closed or trains stop there more seldom. The operational environment of rural mobility services is challenging. Urbanization and a decreasing population lower the population density, at the same time that the population is aging and will probably need more health service transportation. These issues create even greater challenges to constructing efficient mobility services, maintaining an appropriate service level, keeping entrepreneurs, and maintaining the infrastructure in rural areas. Furthermore, the accessibility and equity of people with limited means or without a driving license, such as the elderly or youth, is a concern. Regarding rural mobility services and the market, identified strengths include sufficient and available taxi services, extensive and regular postal services, and publicly subsidized transportation, together
Table 5 SWOT analysis of operational environment and context (modified and translated from Eckhardt, Nykänen, et al., 2017b). SWOT: Operational environment and context Strengths
stakeholders and knowledge • Local situation regarding population and services, good predictability of • Stable demand spontaneity (e.g. associations, clubs) • Solidarity, • Active culture of experimentation and support of authorities
Weaknesses
of business and residents to population centres resulting in fewer services and • Concentration alternatives in rural areas thin flows, long distances, low occupancy rates, mobility based on personal cars, • Inefficiency: seasonal changes infra: poor condition of road network, poor coverage of rail network, accessibility of • Limited air traffic
Opportunities
Threats
of an extensive existing rail network, which could be better used for • Possibility organizing travel chains to rural areas
and maintenance of the road network deteriorate • Condition is decreasing and aging in the countryside, urbanization • Population preconditions deteriorate ➔ service level drops • Operational new market-based services • No of generation ➔ will entrepreneurship continue? • Change people with limited means stay outside the services? • Will without a driving license (e.g. children, youth, elderly) are dependent on the • People mobility of others
5
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
Table 6 SWOT analysis of services and market (modified and translated from Eckhardt, Nykänen, et al., 2017b). SWOT: Services and market Strengths
economy and peer-to-peer services: trust • Sharing taxi fleet in each location • Sufficient transportation: creates basic transport load for the integration of other • Subsidized transportation Group (Finnish postal service): distribution network during weekdays covering the • Posti whole country
Weaknesses
resources and expensive current system • Insufficient of commercial stakeholders in rural areas are more challenging • Conditions offering is limited and no competition (transport and other • Service services) • Lack of travel chains and interoperability of modes
Opportunities
rides and creating travel chains: mobility of people and goods, postal delivery, taxi, sharing • Combining services; combining stakeholders in social and health services/care, municipality, ELY Centre and Kela; ambulance buses for non-urgent transportation
of service level (accessibility) due to economies gained through combining transportation and • Improvement technical solutions • Bringing services to customers
Threats
and subvention is decreasing • Support rise in costs • Remarkable services will drop, prices will increase, availability • Taxi will decrease Transport Code will benefit large companies and • The small ones will lose out
Table 7 Current challenges to rural mobility (modified and translated from Eckhardt, Nykänen, et al., 2017b). Current challenges to rural mobility Actors
silo effect of publicly subsidized transportation • The cost sharing between responsible stakeholders • Unclear stakeholder responsible for developing and coordinating mobility services in municipalities/regions • No to identify good service combinations also from the society's point of view • Challenging and lack of expertise in organizing and planning mobility (tendering, IT) • Incompetence social services and regional government reform and the Transport Code create uncertainty that will complicate the development and combination of publicly subsidized • Health, services, at least until the end of 2018 of publicly subsidized transportation are unsustainable • Expenses • Too high a service level when considering the system as an entity
Technology
• Incompetence and lack of expertise in organizing and planning mobility (tendering, IT)
Operational environment and context
of a common will and rules • Lack changing attitudes/unwillingness toward new solutions • Slowly • Irregular transportation demand (e.g. school transportation, seasonal changes)
Services and market
goes first (e.g. infra investments) • Freight/business market • Restricted service level of public transport • Poor and weekends have an even poorer service supply • Evenings transport does not fulfill accessibility requirements • Public • Centralized services may lead to growth in transportation (partial optimization of costs, environmental aspect)
creating a solid core of transport that could potentially be integrated into new transport solutions. Also, trust between people in rural areas creates a good basis for establishing sharing services. The challenging operational environment creates weaknesses in rural mobility services and the market. The current system offering publicly subsidized individual transportation is too expensive, making it unsustainable. On the other hand, due to the low volumes, completely market-based solutions are not realizable and subvention is needed to organize transportation. The small market in rural areas creates a shortage of services and competition, resulting in limited choices for users. Opportunities are related to combining different kinds of transportation and services, as well as creating travel chains. This improves
efficiency and brings economies, which is expected to improve the service level. The mobilization of services is also an opportunity to improve the service level. Services could be brought to users, either physically with e.g. library buses or virtually through technology. The main threat to rural mobility services and the market is cuts to subvention. For commercial stakeholders this might mean higher prices, fewer service offerings and concentration to the most profitable services and areas. The principal aim of the Transport Code is to promote new mobility and transport services. However, liberalizing taxi services may have a remarkable effect on the availability and prices of taxis in rural areas. In addition to the SWOT analysis, current challenges to rural mobility were studied and the main findings are presented in Table 7. 6
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
increasing the use of public transport (service lines) or sharing taxi rides. Publicly subsidized taxi rides can also be ordered directly from a private taxi reducing the possibility to combine rides and gain savings. The connection between municipal/regional and national level development would ensure the implementation of a national transport strategy, as well as uniformity and interoperability between regions. Transport service centers for publicly subsidized transportation could be utilized to offer services on a one-stop-shop principle, for which technical interoperability and integration of actors and transport modes is essential. Transport service centres refers to consolidation of multimodal transport services of different actors via multichannel interface (e.g. smartphones, SMS, website, phone calls). The aim is to increase the use of ride-sharing, public transport (also as an on-demand service), travel chains, and autonomous driving in the future. Accessibility to all user groups is important. More extensive rural mobility pilots are needed to find good solutions and to share best practices.
Table 8 Measures of rural mobility (modified and translated from Eckhardt, Nykänen, et al., 2017b). Measures Collaboration and combination
publicly subsidized transportation (social and health services/care, • Combining Kela, municipality) transport service centres • Utilizing travel chains (flexibility, ease) • Developing between national and municipal/regional level development • Connection Adequate service level considering the system as an entity • Services and market of mobility is important for parity (taking special groups and people • Accessibility without a driving license into account) services for all and on a one-stop-shop principle • Transport the attractiveness of public transport (bus, train…); on-demand (and • Developing autonomous) transport Technology and information Interoperability and integration of stakeholders and transport modes (one-stopshop principle enabling the purchase of multiple services via one user interface) Research and development More extensive pilots On-demand (and autonomous) transport
•
5. Potential solutions for rural MaaS
• •
These solutions are based on interviews and workshops. They are further processed in project group work meeting based on the knowledge obtained during this project and other projects (e.g. MAASiFiE project, 2016).
Regarding stakeholders, the main challenge is the silo effect and too high a service level of publicly subsidized transportation. As several stakeholders are in charge of organizing them, it is challenging to find good solutions for the entity while taking reforms and legislative changes into account. From the technological point of view, incompetence and lack of expertise is the main challenge due to lack of resources and possible resistance to change. From the operational environment point of view, every stakeholder in the MaaS ecosystem does not necessarily share the same vision, and some are not as development-oriented as others. Demand is not stable, due to school holidays and other seasonal transport needs. When there are too few users to maintain the core transport, offering transport services is challenging. Inequality between freight and mobility services, e.g. related to infrastructure investment, is challenging for mobility services and the market. Lack of customers in rural areas, especially outside working hours, results in a limited market and services. From the user perspective, accessibility might be problematic especially for special groups. For example, accessibility to a bus might be good in the city but poor when arriving in a rural area. The tendency to centralize services (e.g. healthcare) in order to gain economies causes a rise in transportation needs and costs, as well as in emissions. Thus, partial optimization is a major challenge.
5.1. Collaboration and combination Collaboration is needed between municipalities, social and health services/care, ELY Centres and Kela, and collaboration by the public sector should be made mandatory. Transport services should be analyzed by taking the entity into account. Combining the services would require a national system or database where all the relevant information is available to the stakeholders involved. Also, the collaboration between the public and private sector and people (PPPP) is necessary. The collaboration could also be international. Interoperable payment and ticket systems are a necessity for fluent collaboration and combining transport services. A typical service level should be agreed upon jointly, as well as delivery frequencies and destinations. Then procurement tendering could be performed aiming at overall efficiency and innovative approaches. Different transport services, such as individual transportation, group transportation and last-mile deliveries should be combined. Services should be open to all, and publicly subsidized transportation could be available to anyone on public transport fees, for example. Mobility services should be included at strategic level, and in the development projects of municipalities, which would avert a silo effect or optimization of a single viewpoint. For example, there could be changes in school schedules when taking the transportation entity into account.
4. Rural mobility vision and measures The Rural-MaaS project defined the rural mobility vision as: “Ensure for everyone adequate mobility services and accessibility relative to well-being, cost-efficiently with an appropriate service level” (Eckhardt, Nykänen, et al., 2017b). Other important aspects of the vision include maintaining the vitality of rural areas and offering reasonably priced services to everyone regardless of their place of residence, as mobility is a prerequisite e.g. for healthcare, business and accessibility. The main measures of rural mobility are presented in Table 8. Combining publicly subsidized transportation improves efficiency. This applies to hospital districts (between hospitals and other health centers), Kela (in case of illness) and municipalities including e.g. school transportation and social and health services (e.g. the elderly, disabled). The current system offers too high a service level from the economical point of view as private taxi rides are offered too easily 24/7 in some parts, which could be adjusted to a more appropriate level, e.g. by
5.2. Services and market Transparency and synchronization of demand and offering are essential; they would enable on-demand transportation and the use of suitable vehicles, leading to e.g. savings in resources. In addition, realtime transport information can assist in data visualization, which can contribute to a meeting of demand and offerings. Mobility service shops and platforms include the routes, schedules and prices of services. Solutions need to be easy to use and adopt. Publicly subsidized transport would have access to comprehensive customer profiles including special needs (e.g. disabilities). Service classes with time windows could be created based on urgency. In order to create travel chains, concrete tools and applications are needed, including schedules and purchasing possibility. For public administration, mobile service vehicles could be established for pupils and residents. Offered services could include e.g. 7
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
health nurse services, diabetes counseling and dental care. Mobility services based on sharing economy create new possibilities to develop mobility, especially in rural areas where public transport is limited. Currently, transport is the second biggest cost item for households, but private cars are in use only some 5% of the time, averaging roughly 1.5 passengers per time. Digital solutions for sharing economy are one way of increasing occupancy and utilization rates of vehicles, and creating an interesting option to public transport where accessibility is poor.
pursues for digital interfaces for transport through national or common access points in order to move toward a Single European Transport Area (EU, 2017). This development is still in process in several European countries (EC, 2018). Finland has had a strong will and administrative push to be a forerunner and better enable MaaS services through Transport Code requiring the opening of essential information and access to sales interfaces of ticket and payment systems. There are also several other types of legislation affecting transport services in rural areas, and these should be analyzed as an entity. The legislation is also open to interpretation, which is why it should be easy to understand and guidance put in place for its application. Changes in operation models, as well as roles and responsibilities, require efficient collaboration and a common will to achieve effective and user-oriented mobility services in rural areas. Collaboration between different stakeholders — businesses, the public sector and people — is needed in addition to that between various levels of administration at national, regional and municipality level. As the operational environment changes, services and stakeholders need to keep up. Legislation should also guide and encourage stakeholders to collaborate. The division of cost and profits could cause challenges between public organizations and companies providing services. Thus, solutions should be sought for. These could include for example innovative incentives for MaaS development or profit/loss sharing schemes during the pilot stage. New pilots with impact assessment are needed, as currently there is not enough quantitative data on rural MaaS to support decisionmaking. Studies and pilots also assist in defining the roles of related actors. Several studies and pilots already exist in Finland, and in other countries. However, pilots are often limited to restricted geographical areas, transport modes, actors or services. Best practices should be identified, widely disseminated and scaled up to create more extensive services both geographically and regarding service offering. As the legislation is still under preparation, it is still possible to affect the organization of publicly subsidized and commercial services and promote best practices identified in the pilots and services. A toolkit for MaaS pilot/service development is needed to support the development and implementation of new MaaS services. The toolkit would provide concrete steps and actions needed, and guide how to start organizing mobility services in a MaaS ecosystem. In addition, training related to changes in the transport sector is required for the public sector and service providers. The particular characteristics of rural areas need to be taken into account in national and European development activities. This refers e.g. to legislation and financing regarding e.g. research and services. Technology is an enabler of efficient MaaS services. Thus digitalization of data and utilizing open/defined interfaces is recommended. The equality gap between rural areas and cities may increase in the future. Measures to maintain lively rural areas in ways that are both resource- and cost-efficient should be sought. However, the possibility to create zones for different service levels should be examined in terms of land use, planning and construction. The need for service level zones may vary in different countries. In Finland, rural areas often have decentralized regional structure causing challenges and excessive cost for organizing transport. Services are also concentrated in bigger cities and villages, and consolidations of municipalities integrates public services, which results in even longer transport distances. There is little competition in rural areas, which is challenging for business. Companies need to explore possibilities, change patterns dynamically along with changes in the operational environment, and join MaaS ecosystems (partners, networks). The sharing economy (i.e. cars and rides) is expected to take off in the near future. Services provided by private people would complement other services offered in rural areas. Rural areas have great potential for organizing transport services more efficiently through collaboration, open-minded development and innovative solutions.
5.3. Planning and decision-making Combining the mobility of people and goods should be widely enabled. Legislation and decision-making that support mobility services are needed, as well as transparent procurement. Innovative procurement is recommended, as it concentrates on problems and objectives instead of a predefined solution. Related to publicly subsidized social and health service/care transportation, the possibility of a personal mobility budget should be studied. The user would have more flexibility to organize transportation based on individual needs and preferences within the budget allocated according to the extent of support needed. However, how to encourage car- and ride sharing needs to be solved. Also, sufficient information on the number of customers and their mobility needs would be required for organizing and procuring the services. The service level does not necessarily have to be the same in all areas. For example, kilometer-based zones with different service levels would mean that a municipality, when granting building permits, could tell which subsidized mobility services are available in that zone. The most rural areas do not necessarily have to have the same services as areas closer to a municipal center. The capacity of private cars (including cars owned by municipalities and companies) could be exploited in sharing services. Air traffic should be analyzed based on the number of passengers and demand. For example, some airports could remain open only during the peak season and when there is sufficient demand. When they are closed, transit could be organized from other airports to these areas. Commuting should be taken into account related to schedules and park and ride. The pricing logic also requires development. For example, how to assign a price if a taxi ride includes both people and a parcel? 5.4. Technology and information Informing the public about mobility services is a priority. General information is needed on the availability of services and their content, but also with a view to changing attitudes to new services. It is recommended to create a safe and secure payment system where charging and possible reimbursement would be dealt with afterwards in the most economical way for the customer. For example, if only a few trips are made per month, the fare could be based on single tickets. If there are many trips, a monthly fee could be charged instead. Payment could be by credit card, or by identification and the background system would take care of charging. IT know-how should be developed on a practical level among different stakeholders, such as municipalities and transport operators etc. 6. Conclusions and discussion Even though the project was conducted in Finland, the most of the results are also relevant and applicable in the rural areas of different countries. In Finland, several structural and legislative changes will affect rural transport in the near future. These include health, social services and regional government reform and changes in legislation such as the Transport Code and public procurement legislation. Transport Code will facilitate the creation of new transport services and travel chains, thus similar examination and deregulation of transport legislation is recommended in other countries as well. EU regulation 8
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
Acknowledgements
from=EN. Eurostat (2017). Eurostat regional yearbook (2017 Ed.). (Belgium). Finnish Government. Regional government, health and social services reform. (2018). Available https://alueuudistus.fi/en/frontpage (visited on 2018-08-21). Government, F. (2015). Strategic programme of prime minister Juha sipilä's government. Hietanen, S. (2014). ‘Mobility as a service’ – The new transport model? ITS & transport management supplement. Eurotransport, 12(2), 2–4 2014 pp. Karlsson, M., Sochor, J., Aapaoja, A., Eckhardt, J., & König, D. (2017). Deliverable 4: Impact Assessment. MAASiFiE project funded by CEDR. LVM (2017). Act on Transport Services. Press release of Ministry of Transport and Communications. https://www.lvm.fi/-/act-on-transport-services-955864. MAASiFiE project. Available at http://www.vtt.fi/sites/MaaSiFiE/ (visited on 201701-09). McCarthy, N. (2017). Mobile Data Subscriptions: Which countries use the most gigabytes? Forbes, 11(10), 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/10/11/ mobile-data-subscriptions-which-countries-use-the-most-gigabytes-infographic/# 2fd00e997220. Polis (2017). Mobility as a Service: Implications for Urban and Regional Transport, Discussion paper offering the perspective of Polis member cities and regions on Mobility as a Service (MaaS). (Brussel). Pöllänen, M., Mäkelä, T., Nykänen, L., Liimatainen, H., & Mäntynen, J. (2015). Liikenteen markkinat Suomessa. Trafi research reports. (16/2015. (in Finnish only)) http://www. trafi.fi/filebank/a/1452675021/34e771ac250db32ab331b2d71ae92ffc/19497Liikennemarkkinat_raportti_2015-12-10.pdf. Regional Council of Lapland. Available at http://www.lappi.fi/lapinliitto/en/statistics (Visited on: 2017-09-26). Rezo Pouce. Available at https://www.rezopouce.fr/ (Visited on: 2017-09-26). Rural-MaaS project. Available at http://www.vtt.fi/sites/maaseutumaas/ ((in Finnish only) visited on 2017-09-09). Sochor, J., Karlsson, M., & Strömberg, H. (2016). Trying out Mobility as a Service: Experiences from a Field Trial and Implications for Understanding demand transportation research record. Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2542. SUMC (2016). Shared mobility and the transformation of public transit. Shared Use Mobility Center, TRB, TCRPhttps://www.apta.com/resources/reportsandpublications/ Documents/APTA-Shared-Mobility.pdf.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the development fund of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland for enabling this study and stakeholders contributing to the results. References Act 1397 (2016). Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts. Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, Finland. https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/ kaannokset/2016/en20161397?search%5Btype%5D=pika&search%5Bpika%5D= public%20procurement. Aho, E., Lyly, L., & Mero, I. (2017). Liikenne- ja viestintäarkkitehtuuri 2030 ja 2050. Selvityshenkilöiden loppuraportti. Transport and Communications Architecture 2030 and 2050Ministry of Transport and Communication of Finland. in Finnish only https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/79795/Raportit%20ja %20selvitykset%207-2017.pdf?sequence=1. EC (2017). Smart, green and integrated transport, Horizon 2020 work programme 2016–2017. https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2016_ 2017/main/h2020-wp1617-transport_en.pdf. EC (2018). National access points under delegated acts of the ITS directive 2010/40/EU (updated 9 March 2018) https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/itsnational-access-points.pdf. Eckhardt, J., Aapaoja, A., Nykänen, L., Sochor, J., Karlsson, M., & König, D. (2017a). Deliverable 2: European maas roadmap 2025. MAASiFiE project funded by CEDR. Eckhardt, J., Nykänen, L., Aapaoja, A., & Niemi, P. (2017b). Liikkumispalvelut maaseudun elinvoimaisuuden ja saavutettavuuden mahdollistajana [Mobility as a Service as an enabler for livelihood and accessibility of rural areas] (in Finnish only). VTT research report VTT-R-03429-17http://www.vtt.fi/sites/maaseutumaas/. EU (2017). Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1926 of 31 May 2017 supplementing Directive 2010/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the provision of EU-wide multimodal travel information services. https:// eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32017R1926&
9
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Research in Transportation Business & Management journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rtbm
MaaS in rural areas - case Finland Jenni Eckhardta, , Lasse Nykänena, Aki Aapaojaa, Petri Niemib ⁎
a b
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Finland, P.O. Box 1100, Oulu FI-90571, Finland Lappeenranta University of Technology, P.O. Box 20, Lappeenranta FI-53851, Finland
ARTICLE INFO
ABSTRACT
Keywords: Mobility as a Service MaaS Rural SWOT Vision
This paper presents characteristics of rural areas for MaaS development, based on a project co-funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland. The paper presents rural mobility SWOT analysis and challenges, as well as goals and vision. Solutions for MaaS services in terms of collaboration, services & markets, planning & decision-making, and technology & information are proposed. The next steps to be taken in rural MaaS development are examined. Rural areas have challenges to organize mobility services due to long distances and narrow flows of people and material, as well as tightening financial targets. Rural areas have also a major potential to organize transport services more efficiently. The collaboration of different stakeholders — businesses, the public sector and people — is key to the success. New pilots with impact assessment should be carried out and best practices disseminated. The unique characteristics of rural areas should be taken into account in e.g. legislation and financing. Technology is an enabler of efficient MaaS services; thus digitalization of data and use of open/defined interfaces is recommended. A toolkit for MaaS pilot/service development is needed to promote the development and implementation of new MaaS services.
1. Introduction
“a mobility distribution model in which a customer's major transportation needs are met over one interface and are offered by a service provider”. The European Commission (2017) considers that MaaS could offer travellers easy, flexible, reliable, price-worthy and environmentally sustainable everyday travel, such as public transport, carsharing, car leasing and road use, as well as more efficient goods shipping and delivery possibilities. The sharing economy is booming, and several types of sharing services in transportation sector already exist. Carsharing companies (e.g. DriveNow, ZipCar), peer-to-peer carsharing services (e.g. ShareIt Blox Car), ridesharing services (e.g. BlaBlaCar) and bike-sharing services (e.g. DB/DIMIS including car and bike services) are all part of the current trend (Eckhardt et al., 2017a). Ridesourcing services, such as Lyft or Uber, are most frequently used for social trips when public transit runs infrequently or is not available (SUMC, 2016). There are also organized hitchhiking services, and e.g. Rezo Pouce was developed to assist with rural mobility (Rezo Pouce, 2017). MaaS is expected to have several positive effects on the environment, such as a modal shift from car to public transport and sharing services, an increase in multimodal trips, greater resource efficiency, and decreased emissions (Karlsson, Sochor, Aapaoja, Eckhardt, & König, 2017). The UbiGo MaaS trial in Sweden showed attitudinal
Megatrends - urbanization, climate change, globalization, digitalization and demographic shifts - have an ongoing effect on transportation. Given that current transport systems are based largely on private cars and that urban areas are becoming ever more congested, new transport solutions are urgently needed to decarbonize these transport systems. Digitalization is one megatrend that is helping the transport sector to find new solutions and bring greater efficiency and transparency to the transport system. (Pöllänen, Mäkelä, Nykänen, Liimatainen, & Mäntynen, 2015) In Finland, the current government program aims to promote the use of digitalization in the transport sector and services (Finnish Government, 2015). Emission targets require a remarkable reduction of transport emissions. Necessary measures include improved energy efficiency of vehicles, new sources of low-emission fuel and power, and improved energy efficiency of the transport system by e.g. adopting new transport services (Aho, Lyly, & Mero, 2017). Mobility as a Service (MaaS) is an emerging concept of new integrated transport services. According to the MAASiFiE project, MaaS is considered as “multimodal and sustainable mobility services addressing customers' transport needs by integrating planning and payment on a onestop-shop principle” (MAASiFiE, 2016). Hietanen (2014) defines MaaS as
⁎
Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Eckhardt).
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2018.09.005 Received 29 March 2018; Received in revised form 22 August 2018; Accepted 17 September 2018 2210-5395/ © 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Please cite this article as: Eckhardt, J., Research in Transportation Business & Management, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2018.09.005
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
Fig. 1. Degree of urbanization for local administrative units (Eurostat, 2017).
changes toward various travel modes, participants becoming less positive toward the private car and more positive toward alternative modes like carsharing, bus/tram, and bike sharing (Sochor, Karlsson, & Strömberg, 2016). MaaS can also improve accessibility to transport and have a positive impact on total travel cost per individual/household (Karlsson et al., 2017). Also, MaaS has potential to improve the efficiency of existing transport services and public resources (Polis, 2017). MaaS is often developed and studied from an urban point of view, with rural areas receiving less attention. However, in Finland and many
other developed countries, large numbers of inhabitants still live in rural areas. Rural areas also cover large geographical regions in EU as shown in Fig. 1. In these areas, public transport coverage may be insufficient; thus MaaS cannot be based on public transport as in cities. Rural areas with sparse population, long distances, and low capacity utilization rates could improve efficiency by integrating different types of transportation (Eckhardt, Aapaoja, et al., 2017a). For example, a MaaS operator could, in addition to the mobility of people, include lastmile deliveries (parcel, post, shopping, pharmacy products and meal 2
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
Table 1 Reforms affecting the organization of transport services (Act 1397/, 2016; Finnish Government, 2018; LVM, 2017). Law/reform
Schedule
Key changes related to transport services
Health and social services reform
From 1.1.2021
Regional government reform
From 1.1.2021
Transport Code
Gradually in three stages starting from 1.1.2018
Public procurement law
From 1.1.2017
Regions, instead of municipalities, will be responsible for organizing public health and social services. Online and mobile services will be available for rural areas. Regions will be responsible for several public services including regional public transport services organized currently by ELY Centres. Also more digital services will be available. The Act on Transport Services includes an obligation to provide essential information and access to sales interfaces of ticket and payment systems. The Act facilitates entering the taxi sector and increases the freedom of taxi operators to develop their services. All transport modes (road, shipping, rail transport and aviation) will be included to enable multimodal travel chains. The new law on public procurement requires that electronic channels are used for publishing procurement notices and submission of proposals. The law more explicitly permits the use of award criteria based on product or service quality, life cycle costs and sustainability criteria. It introduced innovation partnership as a new procurement method allowing procurement of development and deployment of a new solution under a single contract.
deliveries) and statutory social and health service transportation integrated with commercial services (Eckhardt, Aapaoja, et al., 2017a). Public-private collaboration and partnerships are recommended (Eckhardt, Aapaoja, et al., 2017a; Polis, 2017; SUMC, 2016). Polis (2017) states that MaaS requires stronger collaboration between the public and private sectors, and that new mobility services should be developed in collaboration with the private sector and local and transport authorities, supporting city and regional transport priorities and policies. In Finland, the operational environment surrounding transport services is undergoing several significant changes including health, social services and regional government reform, and legislation covering the Transport Code and public procurement (Table 1). Finland is characterized by its very sparsely populated areas with long distances to municipality centres, especially in areas such as Lapland, which has a population density of 180,000 inhabitants per 100,000 km2 (Regional Council of Lapland, 2017).
(see Fig. 2). The paper presents SWOT, challenges, objectives and the vision for rural mobility. Solutions are proposed for mobility services regarding collaboration & combination, services & markets, planning & decision-making and technology & information. In addition, further steps for rural MaaS development are suggested. Two regional workshops were organized in each of four regions: Lapland, Central Ostrobothnia, South Karelia and Southwest Finland. Areas were selected to represent geographically different parts of Finland and different kinds of rural areas with their own characteristics. Lapland is an extremely sparsely populated rural area, while Southwest Finland has rural areas close to urban area and archipelago. Rural areas of Central Ostrobothnia typically include agriculture and cattle. Plenty of lakes and Finland-Russia frontier characterize South Karelia. The first workshop concentrated on regional vision and the objectives of mobility services. There were three different perspectives on mobility services: 1. Business including tourism and last-mile deliveries. 2. Inhabitants who pay for their mobility services. This may be related to e.g. commuting, hobbies, and shopping journeys carried out by families and pensioners. The sharing economy was also considered, along with what services would be practical to bring to the customer and which services the customer would go to. 3. Publicly supported/subsidized transportation, including statutory social and health service transportation and school transportation.
2. Methodology The purpose of this paper is to present the unique characteristics of rural areas with respect to MaaS development, based on the project ‘Mobility as a Service Concept Promoting Service and Livelihood Development in Rural Areas’ (Rural-MaaS, 2017). The project was cofunded by the development fund of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland and was conducted in 2016–2017. The project aimed at creating a national vision for MaaS in rural and sparsely populated areas. It focused mainly on recognizing emerging and potential business models for both commercial and publicly supported transport services. It also improved awareness of the MaaS concept in rural areas by sharing knowledge, and by providing measures and recommendations for developing mobility regulations and on the technical aspects of MaaS. The Rural-MaaS findings and analyses are based primarily on qualitative data collected via workshops, interviews and a literature review
Regional workshop 1: MaaS vision and objectives
Finally, the proposed ideas were prioritized and the most important presented in the second workshop. The workshop considered which actions and actors would be needed to reach the vision and objectives defined in the first workshop. The participants represented mainly regional and municipal authorities, social and health service stakeholders, local and rural development organizations and networks, transport services, mobile and ICT service providers, and the research community. The project performed 30 interviews during the fall of 2016 and
Regional workshop 2: Solutions (actions and actors)
Literature
Interviews
National consolidation workshop Fig. 2. Rural-MaaS methodology. 3
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
Table 2 Interviewed organizations in the Rural-MaaS project. Association of people with disabilities
Ministry of agriculture and forestry
Centre for economic development, transport and the environment (ELY) of lapland Centre for economic development, transport and the environment (ELY) of South ostrobothnia Centre for economic development, transport and the environment (ELY) of Southeast Finland Finnish transport safety agency Growth corridor Finland Linna business development (Hämeenlinna) Regional council of South Karelia Soite - Central Ostrobothnia joint municipal authority of social and health service South Karelia Social and Health Care District Tampere university of technology Technical research centre of Finland Association of Finnish local and regional authorities The city of Hämeenlinna The city of Imatra
VR Group (Finnish railways) Municipality logistics of Finland Petri Pekkala (trade name) Posti group corporation Regional council of central ostrobothnia Regional council of Lapland The city of Rovaniemi The council of rural policy MANE The hospital district of Lapland The hospital district of North Ostrobothnia The social insurance institution of Finland (Kela) Tuomi Logistics Ltd. Uber Finland Visit Rovaniemi
spring of 2017 with the organizations listed in Table 2. The interviews dealt with e.g. the current state (SWOT) and challenges (C) of rural mobility, possible mobility solutions, and business models. Also discussed were enablers, barriers and need for change regarding legislation. A literature review was performed to identify e.g. existing rural mobility services, pilots and solutions; nearly 20 cases were noted. Based on regional workshops, interviews, the literature study and awareness gained during the project, preliminary results were obtained which were then further developed, prioritized and validated in a national consolidation workshop. The rural mobility vision was also created as part of the consolidation workshop.
that facilitates the development of rural mobility solutions and procurement of the required resources and investments. Kela is the Social Insurance Institution (SII), a Finnish government agency, in charge of settling benefits under national social security programs. Kela partially covers illness-related transportation based on the National Health Insurance (NHI) and has call-centers for organizing transportation. The system enables ride-sharing and covers the whole country with a similar operational model, which is seen as a strength. The main weakness regarding stakeholders is the silo effect within and between organizations. Removing this obstacle is probably one of the main development needs facing rural MaaS. Collaboration at all levels on decision-making, economy, legislation, transport and planning, is needed to avoid partial optimization. Also, the lack of resources is a weakness that could cause incompetence and inflexibility in procurement and contract-related issues, at least to some extent. The ongoing health, social services and regional government reform opens up possibilities to take mobility into account and redefine the organization of transportation as responsibilities are shifting from municipalities to regions. Collaboration enables considerable possibilities for improving and creating new services, as well as raising the degree of efficiency and the service level in rural areas. Collaboration should take place at least between municipalities, Kela (NHI transportation) and ELY Centres responsible for the regional implementation and development tasks (including regional public transportation) of the
3. Rural mobility SWOT + Challenges The current state of rural mobility was analyzed using SWOT + Challenges analysis based on the interviews and workshops. It aimed at clarifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats and challenges of current mobility services and in organizing them. To clarify the analysis, the results were divided into four categories: stakeholders, technology, operational environment & context, and services & market. Tables 3–6 show the main results of SWOT in these categories. Table 7 presents the main mobility challenges in rural areas. According to the stakeholder SWOT, the consensus among decisionmakers on the current status and need for development is a strength
Table 3 SWOT analysis of stakeholders (modified and translated from Eckhardt, Nykänen, Aapaoja, & Niemi, 2017b). SWOT: Stakeholders Strengths
are aware of development needs: will, enthusiasm and financial support of • Decision-makers state and municipalities is extremely important (health and social services require) • Kela: call center system for ride-sharing covers the whole country
Opportunities
of municipalities, ELY Centres and social and health • Collaboration service/care actors and Kela social services and regional government reform and changes in • Health, legislation enable reorganization of mobility services and inter-regional collaboration in mobility services: operative • Regional planning, procurement, best practices
Threats
Weaknesses
effect of stakeholders: decision-making, economy, legislation, • Silo transport, planning collaboration and procurement: inflexible, traditional price competition, • Contracts short-term thinking, incompetence, lack of collaboration of resources and expensive current system: subsidized • Lack transportation
• Reducing support and subvention reform (procurement law) leads to poor interpretations and solutions (partial • Law optimization) transportation under the municipalities' responsibility may remain separate from the • School entity of publicly organized transportation due to reforms Code will benefit large companies and small ones will lose out • Transport needs of special groups cannot be taken sufficiently into account • The reforms and uncertain future ➔ development stops • Large investment allocation • Inefficient • Lack of collaboration and separate visions of stakeholders 4
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
Table 4 SWOT analysis of technology (modified and translated from Eckhardt, Nykänen, et al., 2017b). SWOT: Technology Strengths
infrastructure: ICT (developed), road • Extensive network • Digitalization: services, adopting, will
Weaknesses
of IT systems and information, accessibility and usability: broadband blind spots, communication between • Lack the public sector and consumers
Opportunities
Threats
needed technology exists, is available and develops continuously • The • Opening of data and connecting open data, use in decision-making
central government in Finland. Regional and inter-regional cooperation could enable e.g. common planning and procurement of mobility services, and information exchange regarding best practices. The main threats are related to uncertainties due to current changes and reforms, and the lack of financial resources. Publicly subsidized transportation is a remarkable item of expenditure for the public sector, and there is pressure for economies. If changes to health, social services and regional government reform and legislation relating to e.g. the Transport Code, fail to remove or even end up increasing the silo effect, and if collaboration between different stakeholders does not succeed, partial optimization may remain in the future. Technological strengths include highly developed and extensive ICT infrastructure. Internationally compared Finland is leading the mobile data usage (see e.g. McCarthy, 2017). However, there are some blind spots in rural areas that create inequality. Digitalization is also recognized as a strength. The authorities have a common will to develop digitalized services, attitudes towards them are positive, and people are familiar with using them. Current digitalized mobility services include mobile booking, ticketing and payment, (re)routing and other webbased and mobile solutions and applications. Despite this, the transport sector has been relatively slow to exploit the potential offered by digitalization. Technology and data are seen to enable collaboration and decisionmaking based on transparent information. Technology readiness is an opportunity, as the technology needed for new mobility services already exists and technology maturity is sufficient for implementation. No technological threats related to rural mobility services were identified. However, general technological issues such as privacy and
security affect all services. In general, people in rural areas usually know and trust their neighbors more than those in cities do. This is also a strength regarding e.g. peer-to-peer services. They also know the special characteristics of their region and are often active in developing services there within associations, clubs etc. As the number of MaaS pilots increases, new services can initially be piloted on a small scale in rural areas. The weaknesses of the operational environment of rural mobility relate to the characteristics of rural areas: low and sparse population, and long distances between people and services. This poses challenges to offering comprehensive mobility services and maintaining the infrastructure. The rail network is considered a possibility, as smaller railway stations could be exploited to create travel chains to rural areas. However, many smaller railway stations are now either closed or trains stop there more seldom. The operational environment of rural mobility services is challenging. Urbanization and a decreasing population lower the population density, at the same time that the population is aging and will probably need more health service transportation. These issues create even greater challenges to constructing efficient mobility services, maintaining an appropriate service level, keeping entrepreneurs, and maintaining the infrastructure in rural areas. Furthermore, the accessibility and equity of people with limited means or without a driving license, such as the elderly or youth, is a concern. Regarding rural mobility services and the market, identified strengths include sufficient and available taxi services, extensive and regular postal services, and publicly subsidized transportation, together
Table 5 SWOT analysis of operational environment and context (modified and translated from Eckhardt, Nykänen, et al., 2017b). SWOT: Operational environment and context Strengths
stakeholders and knowledge • Local situation regarding population and services, good predictability of • Stable demand spontaneity (e.g. associations, clubs) • Solidarity, • Active culture of experimentation and support of authorities
Weaknesses
of business and residents to population centres resulting in fewer services and • Concentration alternatives in rural areas thin flows, long distances, low occupancy rates, mobility based on personal cars, • Inefficiency: seasonal changes infra: poor condition of road network, poor coverage of rail network, accessibility of • Limited air traffic
Opportunities
Threats
of an extensive existing rail network, which could be better used for • Possibility organizing travel chains to rural areas
and maintenance of the road network deteriorate • Condition is decreasing and aging in the countryside, urbanization • Population preconditions deteriorate ➔ service level drops • Operational new market-based services • No of generation ➔ will entrepreneurship continue? • Change people with limited means stay outside the services? • Will without a driving license (e.g. children, youth, elderly) are dependent on the • People mobility of others
5
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
Table 6 SWOT analysis of services and market (modified and translated from Eckhardt, Nykänen, et al., 2017b). SWOT: Services and market Strengths
economy and peer-to-peer services: trust • Sharing taxi fleet in each location • Sufficient transportation: creates basic transport load for the integration of other • Subsidized transportation Group (Finnish postal service): distribution network during weekdays covering the • Posti whole country
Weaknesses
resources and expensive current system • Insufficient of commercial stakeholders in rural areas are more challenging • Conditions offering is limited and no competition (transport and other • Service services) • Lack of travel chains and interoperability of modes
Opportunities
rides and creating travel chains: mobility of people and goods, postal delivery, taxi, sharing • Combining services; combining stakeholders in social and health services/care, municipality, ELY Centre and Kela; ambulance buses for non-urgent transportation
of service level (accessibility) due to economies gained through combining transportation and • Improvement technical solutions • Bringing services to customers
Threats
and subvention is decreasing • Support rise in costs • Remarkable services will drop, prices will increase, availability • Taxi will decrease Transport Code will benefit large companies and • The small ones will lose out
Table 7 Current challenges to rural mobility (modified and translated from Eckhardt, Nykänen, et al., 2017b). Current challenges to rural mobility Actors
silo effect of publicly subsidized transportation • The cost sharing between responsible stakeholders • Unclear stakeholder responsible for developing and coordinating mobility services in municipalities/regions • No to identify good service combinations also from the society's point of view • Challenging and lack of expertise in organizing and planning mobility (tendering, IT) • Incompetence social services and regional government reform and the Transport Code create uncertainty that will complicate the development and combination of publicly subsidized • Health, services, at least until the end of 2018 of publicly subsidized transportation are unsustainable • Expenses • Too high a service level when considering the system as an entity
Technology
• Incompetence and lack of expertise in organizing and planning mobility (tendering, IT)
Operational environment and context
of a common will and rules • Lack changing attitudes/unwillingness toward new solutions • Slowly • Irregular transportation demand (e.g. school transportation, seasonal changes)
Services and market
goes first (e.g. infra investments) • Freight/business market • Restricted service level of public transport • Poor and weekends have an even poorer service supply • Evenings transport does not fulfill accessibility requirements • Public • Centralized services may lead to growth in transportation (partial optimization of costs, environmental aspect)
creating a solid core of transport that could potentially be integrated into new transport solutions. Also, trust between people in rural areas creates a good basis for establishing sharing services. The challenging operational environment creates weaknesses in rural mobility services and the market. The current system offering publicly subsidized individual transportation is too expensive, making it unsustainable. On the other hand, due to the low volumes, completely market-based solutions are not realizable and subvention is needed to organize transportation. The small market in rural areas creates a shortage of services and competition, resulting in limited choices for users. Opportunities are related to combining different kinds of transportation and services, as well as creating travel chains. This improves
efficiency and brings economies, which is expected to improve the service level. The mobilization of services is also an opportunity to improve the service level. Services could be brought to users, either physically with e.g. library buses or virtually through technology. The main threat to rural mobility services and the market is cuts to subvention. For commercial stakeholders this might mean higher prices, fewer service offerings and concentration to the most profitable services and areas. The principal aim of the Transport Code is to promote new mobility and transport services. However, liberalizing taxi services may have a remarkable effect on the availability and prices of taxis in rural areas. In addition to the SWOT analysis, current challenges to rural mobility were studied and the main findings are presented in Table 7. 6
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
increasing the use of public transport (service lines) or sharing taxi rides. Publicly subsidized taxi rides can also be ordered directly from a private taxi reducing the possibility to combine rides and gain savings. The connection between municipal/regional and national level development would ensure the implementation of a national transport strategy, as well as uniformity and interoperability between regions. Transport service centers for publicly subsidized transportation could be utilized to offer services on a one-stop-shop principle, for which technical interoperability and integration of actors and transport modes is essential. Transport service centres refers to consolidation of multimodal transport services of different actors via multichannel interface (e.g. smartphones, SMS, website, phone calls). The aim is to increase the use of ride-sharing, public transport (also as an on-demand service), travel chains, and autonomous driving in the future. Accessibility to all user groups is important. More extensive rural mobility pilots are needed to find good solutions and to share best practices.
Table 8 Measures of rural mobility (modified and translated from Eckhardt, Nykänen, et al., 2017b). Measures Collaboration and combination
publicly subsidized transportation (social and health services/care, • Combining Kela, municipality) transport service centres • Utilizing travel chains (flexibility, ease) • Developing between national and municipal/regional level development • Connection Adequate service level considering the system as an entity • Services and market of mobility is important for parity (taking special groups and people • Accessibility without a driving license into account) services for all and on a one-stop-shop principle • Transport the attractiveness of public transport (bus, train…); on-demand (and • Developing autonomous) transport Technology and information Interoperability and integration of stakeholders and transport modes (one-stopshop principle enabling the purchase of multiple services via one user interface) Research and development More extensive pilots On-demand (and autonomous) transport
•
5. Potential solutions for rural MaaS
• •
These solutions are based on interviews and workshops. They are further processed in project group work meeting based on the knowledge obtained during this project and other projects (e.g. MAASiFiE project, 2016).
Regarding stakeholders, the main challenge is the silo effect and too high a service level of publicly subsidized transportation. As several stakeholders are in charge of organizing them, it is challenging to find good solutions for the entity while taking reforms and legislative changes into account. From the technological point of view, incompetence and lack of expertise is the main challenge due to lack of resources and possible resistance to change. From the operational environment point of view, every stakeholder in the MaaS ecosystem does not necessarily share the same vision, and some are not as development-oriented as others. Demand is not stable, due to school holidays and other seasonal transport needs. When there are too few users to maintain the core transport, offering transport services is challenging. Inequality between freight and mobility services, e.g. related to infrastructure investment, is challenging for mobility services and the market. Lack of customers in rural areas, especially outside working hours, results in a limited market and services. From the user perspective, accessibility might be problematic especially for special groups. For example, accessibility to a bus might be good in the city but poor when arriving in a rural area. The tendency to centralize services (e.g. healthcare) in order to gain economies causes a rise in transportation needs and costs, as well as in emissions. Thus, partial optimization is a major challenge.
5.1. Collaboration and combination Collaboration is needed between municipalities, social and health services/care, ELY Centres and Kela, and collaboration by the public sector should be made mandatory. Transport services should be analyzed by taking the entity into account. Combining the services would require a national system or database where all the relevant information is available to the stakeholders involved. Also, the collaboration between the public and private sector and people (PPPP) is necessary. The collaboration could also be international. Interoperable payment and ticket systems are a necessity for fluent collaboration and combining transport services. A typical service level should be agreed upon jointly, as well as delivery frequencies and destinations. Then procurement tendering could be performed aiming at overall efficiency and innovative approaches. Different transport services, such as individual transportation, group transportation and last-mile deliveries should be combined. Services should be open to all, and publicly subsidized transportation could be available to anyone on public transport fees, for example. Mobility services should be included at strategic level, and in the development projects of municipalities, which would avert a silo effect or optimization of a single viewpoint. For example, there could be changes in school schedules when taking the transportation entity into account.
4. Rural mobility vision and measures The Rural-MaaS project defined the rural mobility vision as: “Ensure for everyone adequate mobility services and accessibility relative to well-being, cost-efficiently with an appropriate service level” (Eckhardt, Nykänen, et al., 2017b). Other important aspects of the vision include maintaining the vitality of rural areas and offering reasonably priced services to everyone regardless of their place of residence, as mobility is a prerequisite e.g. for healthcare, business and accessibility. The main measures of rural mobility are presented in Table 8. Combining publicly subsidized transportation improves efficiency. This applies to hospital districts (between hospitals and other health centers), Kela (in case of illness) and municipalities including e.g. school transportation and social and health services (e.g. the elderly, disabled). The current system offers too high a service level from the economical point of view as private taxi rides are offered too easily 24/7 in some parts, which could be adjusted to a more appropriate level, e.g. by
5.2. Services and market Transparency and synchronization of demand and offering are essential; they would enable on-demand transportation and the use of suitable vehicles, leading to e.g. savings in resources. In addition, realtime transport information can assist in data visualization, which can contribute to a meeting of demand and offerings. Mobility service shops and platforms include the routes, schedules and prices of services. Solutions need to be easy to use and adopt. Publicly subsidized transport would have access to comprehensive customer profiles including special needs (e.g. disabilities). Service classes with time windows could be created based on urgency. In order to create travel chains, concrete tools and applications are needed, including schedules and purchasing possibility. For public administration, mobile service vehicles could be established for pupils and residents. Offered services could include e.g. 7
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
health nurse services, diabetes counseling and dental care. Mobility services based on sharing economy create new possibilities to develop mobility, especially in rural areas where public transport is limited. Currently, transport is the second biggest cost item for households, but private cars are in use only some 5% of the time, averaging roughly 1.5 passengers per time. Digital solutions for sharing economy are one way of increasing occupancy and utilization rates of vehicles, and creating an interesting option to public transport where accessibility is poor.
pursues for digital interfaces for transport through national or common access points in order to move toward a Single European Transport Area (EU, 2017). This development is still in process in several European countries (EC, 2018). Finland has had a strong will and administrative push to be a forerunner and better enable MaaS services through Transport Code requiring the opening of essential information and access to sales interfaces of ticket and payment systems. There are also several other types of legislation affecting transport services in rural areas, and these should be analyzed as an entity. The legislation is also open to interpretation, which is why it should be easy to understand and guidance put in place for its application. Changes in operation models, as well as roles and responsibilities, require efficient collaboration and a common will to achieve effective and user-oriented mobility services in rural areas. Collaboration between different stakeholders — businesses, the public sector and people — is needed in addition to that between various levels of administration at national, regional and municipality level. As the operational environment changes, services and stakeholders need to keep up. Legislation should also guide and encourage stakeholders to collaborate. The division of cost and profits could cause challenges between public organizations and companies providing services. Thus, solutions should be sought for. These could include for example innovative incentives for MaaS development or profit/loss sharing schemes during the pilot stage. New pilots with impact assessment are needed, as currently there is not enough quantitative data on rural MaaS to support decisionmaking. Studies and pilots also assist in defining the roles of related actors. Several studies and pilots already exist in Finland, and in other countries. However, pilots are often limited to restricted geographical areas, transport modes, actors or services. Best practices should be identified, widely disseminated and scaled up to create more extensive services both geographically and regarding service offering. As the legislation is still under preparation, it is still possible to affect the organization of publicly subsidized and commercial services and promote best practices identified in the pilots and services. A toolkit for MaaS pilot/service development is needed to support the development and implementation of new MaaS services. The toolkit would provide concrete steps and actions needed, and guide how to start organizing mobility services in a MaaS ecosystem. In addition, training related to changes in the transport sector is required for the public sector and service providers. The particular characteristics of rural areas need to be taken into account in national and European development activities. This refers e.g. to legislation and financing regarding e.g. research and services. Technology is an enabler of efficient MaaS services. Thus digitalization of data and utilizing open/defined interfaces is recommended. The equality gap between rural areas and cities may increase in the future. Measures to maintain lively rural areas in ways that are both resource- and cost-efficient should be sought. However, the possibility to create zones for different service levels should be examined in terms of land use, planning and construction. The need for service level zones may vary in different countries. In Finland, rural areas often have decentralized regional structure causing challenges and excessive cost for organizing transport. Services are also concentrated in bigger cities and villages, and consolidations of municipalities integrates public services, which results in even longer transport distances. There is little competition in rural areas, which is challenging for business. Companies need to explore possibilities, change patterns dynamically along with changes in the operational environment, and join MaaS ecosystems (partners, networks). The sharing economy (i.e. cars and rides) is expected to take off in the near future. Services provided by private people would complement other services offered in rural areas. Rural areas have great potential for organizing transport services more efficiently through collaboration, open-minded development and innovative solutions.
5.3. Planning and decision-making Combining the mobility of people and goods should be widely enabled. Legislation and decision-making that support mobility services are needed, as well as transparent procurement. Innovative procurement is recommended, as it concentrates on problems and objectives instead of a predefined solution. Related to publicly subsidized social and health service/care transportation, the possibility of a personal mobility budget should be studied. The user would have more flexibility to organize transportation based on individual needs and preferences within the budget allocated according to the extent of support needed. However, how to encourage car- and ride sharing needs to be solved. Also, sufficient information on the number of customers and their mobility needs would be required for organizing and procuring the services. The service level does not necessarily have to be the same in all areas. For example, kilometer-based zones with different service levels would mean that a municipality, when granting building permits, could tell which subsidized mobility services are available in that zone. The most rural areas do not necessarily have to have the same services as areas closer to a municipal center. The capacity of private cars (including cars owned by municipalities and companies) could be exploited in sharing services. Air traffic should be analyzed based on the number of passengers and demand. For example, some airports could remain open only during the peak season and when there is sufficient demand. When they are closed, transit could be organized from other airports to these areas. Commuting should be taken into account related to schedules and park and ride. The pricing logic also requires development. For example, how to assign a price if a taxi ride includes both people and a parcel? 5.4. Technology and information Informing the public about mobility services is a priority. General information is needed on the availability of services and their content, but also with a view to changing attitudes to new services. It is recommended to create a safe and secure payment system where charging and possible reimbursement would be dealt with afterwards in the most economical way for the customer. For example, if only a few trips are made per month, the fare could be based on single tickets. If there are many trips, a monthly fee could be charged instead. Payment could be by credit card, or by identification and the background system would take care of charging. IT know-how should be developed on a practical level among different stakeholders, such as municipalities and transport operators etc. 6. Conclusions and discussion Even though the project was conducted in Finland, the most of the results are also relevant and applicable in the rural areas of different countries. In Finland, several structural and legislative changes will affect rural transport in the near future. These include health, social services and regional government reform and changes in legislation such as the Transport Code and public procurement legislation. Transport Code will facilitate the creation of new transport services and travel chains, thus similar examination and deregulation of transport legislation is recommended in other countries as well. EU regulation 8
Research in Transportation Business & Management xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx
J. Eckhardt et al.
Acknowledgements
from=EN. Eurostat (2017). Eurostat regional yearbook (2017 Ed.). (Belgium). Finnish Government. Regional government, health and social services reform. (2018). Available https://alueuudistus.fi/en/frontpage (visited on 2018-08-21). Government, F. (2015). Strategic programme of prime minister Juha sipilä's government. Hietanen, S. (2014). ‘Mobility as a service’ – The new transport model? ITS & transport management supplement. Eurotransport, 12(2), 2–4 2014 pp. Karlsson, M., Sochor, J., Aapaoja, A., Eckhardt, J., & König, D. (2017). Deliverable 4: Impact Assessment. MAASiFiE project funded by CEDR. LVM (2017). Act on Transport Services. Press release of Ministry of Transport and Communications. https://www.lvm.fi/-/act-on-transport-services-955864. MAASiFiE project. Available at http://www.vtt.fi/sites/MaaSiFiE/ (visited on 201701-09). McCarthy, N. (2017). Mobile Data Subscriptions: Which countries use the most gigabytes? Forbes, 11(10), 2017. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/10/11/ mobile-data-subscriptions-which-countries-use-the-most-gigabytes-infographic/# 2fd00e997220. Polis (2017). Mobility as a Service: Implications for Urban and Regional Transport, Discussion paper offering the perspective of Polis member cities and regions on Mobility as a Service (MaaS). (Brussel). Pöllänen, M., Mäkelä, T., Nykänen, L., Liimatainen, H., & Mäntynen, J. (2015). Liikenteen markkinat Suomessa. Trafi research reports. (16/2015. (in Finnish only)) http://www. trafi.fi/filebank/a/1452675021/34e771ac250db32ab331b2d71ae92ffc/19497Liikennemarkkinat_raportti_2015-12-10.pdf. Regional Council of Lapland. Available at http://www.lappi.fi/lapinliitto/en/statistics (Visited on: 2017-09-26). Rezo Pouce. Available at https://www.rezopouce.fr/ (Visited on: 2017-09-26). Rural-MaaS project. Available at http://www.vtt.fi/sites/maaseutumaas/ ((in Finnish only) visited on 2017-09-09). Sochor, J., Karlsson, M., & Strömberg, H. (2016). Trying out Mobility as a Service: Experiences from a Field Trial and Implications for Understanding demand transportation research record. Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2542. SUMC (2016). Shared mobility and the transformation of public transit. Shared Use Mobility Center, TRB, TCRPhttps://www.apta.com/resources/reportsandpublications/ Documents/APTA-Shared-Mobility.pdf.
The authors gratefully acknowledge the development fund of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Finland for enabling this study and stakeholders contributing to the results. References Act 1397 (2016). Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts. Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment, Finland. https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/ kaannokset/2016/en20161397?search%5Btype%5D=pika&search%5Bpika%5D= public%20procurement. Aho, E., Lyly, L., & Mero, I. (2017). Liikenne- ja viestintäarkkitehtuuri 2030 ja 2050. Selvityshenkilöiden loppuraportti. Transport and Communications Architecture 2030 and 2050Ministry of Transport and Communication of Finland. in Finnish only https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/79795/Raportit%20ja %20selvitykset%207-2017.pdf?sequence=1. EC (2017). Smart, green and integrated transport, Horizon 2020 work programme 2016–2017. https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/ref/h2020/wp/2016_ 2017/main/h2020-wp1617-transport_en.pdf. EC (2018). National access points under delegated acts of the ITS directive 2010/40/EU (updated 9 March 2018) https://ec.europa.eu/transport/sites/transport/files/itsnational-access-points.pdf. Eckhardt, J., Aapaoja, A., Nykänen, L., Sochor, J., Karlsson, M., & König, D. (2017a). Deliverable 2: European maas roadmap 2025. MAASiFiE project funded by CEDR. Eckhardt, J., Nykänen, L., Aapaoja, A., & Niemi, P. (2017b). Liikkumispalvelut maaseudun elinvoimaisuuden ja saavutettavuuden mahdollistajana [Mobility as a Service as an enabler for livelihood and accessibility of rural areas] (in Finnish only). VTT research report VTT-R-03429-17http://www.vtt.fi/sites/maaseutumaas/. EU (2017). Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2017/1926 of 31 May 2017 supplementing Directive 2010/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to the provision of EU-wide multimodal travel information services. https:// eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32017R1926&
9