ERC Starting Grant for new models of Mobility as a Service
Oded Cats is one of the seven TU Delft researchers awarded with an ERC Starting Grant. The European Research Council has awarded the grants (1,5 million euros for a five-year programme) which are intended to support scientists who are in the early stages of their career and have already produced excellent supervised work.
CriticalMaaS
Online marketplaces enable in the travel context the dynamic matching of transport supply and passenger demand, potentially shifting from an ownership model to Mobility as a Service (MaaS). Existing transport models are designed with the premise that transport consists of either fully scheduled and controlled fleets or individual privately owned vehicles. Since MaaS breaks the conventional division between individual (ownership) and collective (usage) travel alternatives, existing theories and models of travel behaviour, transport network and operations cannot explain the behavioural dynamics, interactions and evolution of both supply and demand sides of the marketplace. How will (potentially fully-automated) on-demand transport services perform and impact transport systems and societal objectives? How can shared mobility and vehicle automation be turned from a potential threat to an opportunity for public transport by embracing flexible transport solutions?
The research project of Oded Cats, CriticalMaaS, will develop and test theories and models of transport network in the domain of two-sided mobility market, including:
- Behaviour: Individual consumers’ and suppliers’ preferences and behavioural dynamics in the era of MaaS;
- Network and Operations: Network-wide supply-demand interactions and the management of MaaS systems;
- Mass effects: Evolution of collective patterns and market adoption of MaaS.
