MaaSLab
The MaaSLab team study all surface modes of transport, for both passengers and freight, across space and time.
MaaSLab’s research focuses on new mobility technologies for passenger and freight, such as autonomous vehicles and drones, new mobility concepts, such as Mobility as a Service and Urban Air Mobility, and their integration with the existing transport systems (multimodality).
MaaSLab’s expertise lies in four main topics:
- Behavioural demand modelling and social acceptance: survey design, advanced data collection tools for social research, stated preference experiments design, behavioural demand and choice models, willingness to pay.
- Business models: research regarding the penetration of the new mobility technologies and concepts in the market, the operators of these technologies and concepts, the value creation, product design and pricing, the costs and profits.
- Data: harmonisation of multimodal data and development of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) for safe exchange of data across different modes; big data handling; data ethics.
- Multimodal transport modelling and simulation platforms: integrated spatial and transport modelling platform for evidence-based decision making; machine learning and optimisation algorithms for multimodal operational platforms; algorithms for multimodal simulation platforms used for scenarios testing and planning.
MaaSLab’s team consists of economists, engineers, mathematicians, software developers, data and social scientists.
MaaSLab has several research projects on the aforementioned topics, while it works closely with the industry and public authorities to make sure that the innovative solutions and methods are utilized in real-life and have an impact on society.
Our activities, approaches and aims synergise with the low carbon and smart cities vision. We also work closely with the public sector and private companies to transfer our research outcomes to the real world. Indicatively, we collaborate with public and private organisations.
Key collaborators
- UK Department for Transport (DfT)
- Transport for London (TfL)
- Transport for West Midlands (TFWM)
- Transport for Greater Manchester (TFGM)
- Transport Systems Catapult
- TravelSpirit
- UCL CASA (Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis)
- MIT ITS Lab (Intelligent Transportation Systems)
- Singapore–MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) Centre
- University of the Aegean – TransDeM Lab
- University of Naples – Transport division
Contact
Prof. Maria Kamargianni
Head of MaaSLab
Associate Professor of Transport and Energy
m.kamargianni@ucl.ac.uk
Dr Melinda Matyas
Deputy Head of MaaSLab
Senior Research Associate
melinda.matyas.13@ucl.ac.uk
Projects
Harmony
HARMONY envisages developing a new generation of harmonised spatial and multimodal transport planning tools which comprehensively model the dynamics of the changing transport sector and spatial organisation, enabling metropolitan area authorities to lead the transition to a low carbon new mobility era in a sustainable manner. Small-scale demonstrations with Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) and take place to understand in real-life their requirements and collect data to be used for modelling. The HARMONY model suite is also linked to the EC's EU-wide model TRIMODE to further identify the impact of the concepts and technologies on the TEN-T level. HARMONY's concepts and the model suite are applied and validated on six EU metropolitan areas on six TEN-T corridors: 1. Rotterdam (NL), 2. Oxfordshire (UK), 3. Turin (IT), 4. Athens (GR), 5. Trikala(GR), 6. Upper Silesian-Zaglebie Metropolis (PL).
Key contacts:
- Prof. Maria Kamargianni, Associate Professor of Transport and Energy, Head of MaaSLab, m.kamargianni@ucl.ac.uk
- Mr. Manos Chaniotakis, Lecturer in Transport Modelling and Machine Learning
GECKO
GECKO stands for "Governance principles and mEthods enabling deCision maKers to manage and regulate the changing mObility systems“ GECKO’s main goal is to support authorities with tools and recommendations for new regulatory frameworks to lead the transition to the new mobility era of cooperative, inclusive, competitive, sustainable and interconnected mobility across all modes, through evidence-based research. GECKO provides a holistic approach with innovative concepts, methodologies and forward-looking tools to enable this transition to take place, leading to new, adaptive and anticipatory regulatory schemes and balanced governance. GECKO is funded by the EC H2020 programme.
Key contacts:
- Prof. Maria Kamargianni, Associate Professor of Transport and Energy, Head of MaaSLab, m.kamargianni@ucl.ac.uk
- Dr Ping-Jen Kao, Research Fellow, p.kao@ucl.ac.uk
Prof. Andreas Schäfer
Mr Manos Chaniotakis
Ms. Melinda Matyas
Mr. Weibo Li
Mr. Jakub Muscat
Mr. Lampros Yfantis
Mr. Sridhar Raman
Mr. Dimitris Dimakopoulos
Mr. Richard Goulding
MaaS4EU (1 June 2017 - 31 May 2020) is a research and development project funded by the Horizon2020 research and innovation programme bringing together 17 partners from several sectors and backgrounds to provide viable evidence and solutions about the MaaS concept.
MaaS4EU will provide quantifiable evidence, frameworks and tools to remove the barriers and enable a cooperative and interconnected EU single transport market for the MaaS concept.
RCUK Centre of Energy Epidemiology – Residential Location Choice and Transport Energy DemandThis project uses an integrated modelling approach to capture trade-offs between housing/domestic and transport consumption costs, developing a novel methodological framework to explicitly include energy demand.
RCUK Centre of Energy Epidemiology – MOT testsThis project provides a novel analysis framework for the spatial aspects of car travel, measured by vehicle miles travelled, extended to include a variable decomposition approach that captures potential asymmetries and hysteresis in a spatial setting.
The results provide support to the car use saturation hypothesis through both the negative VMT trend and the positive impact of motorisation rate that captures car dependence, rather than car use intensity.
The report provides insights about Londoners’ attitudes towards car-ownership, shared mobility services and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) as well as an impact assessment about a potential introduction of MaaS in the city.
Feasibility Study for "Mobility as a Service" concept for London – FS-MaaSThe objective of the FS-MaaS project is to propose the design of a Mobility as a Service (MaaS) concept for London, and examine its feasibility.
The feasibility study indicates that the introduction of MaaS-London will benefit both the supply and the demand side. It’s a feasible product that can well serve London transport market and contribute to London’s 2020 vision.
The main objective of this project is to develop a state-of-the-art activity-based simulation platform, aiming to quantify the impact of new mobility services and technologies (e.g. autonomous vehicles, on-demand mobility services, route-guidance systems) with respect to travel habits, traffic congestion, transportation energy use and emissions. InoMobility steps on the advancements in technology and focuses on representing the complex and dynamic interactions between demand and supply in different levels by providing a simulation tool in which different transportation planning and technology scenarios may be tested and evaluated.
Reinventing Multimodal Sustainable Urban Transport: Demand Analysis of a ‘Mobility as a Service’ Concept for LondonThis research contributes to the understanding of consumer demand for buying and using MaaS, as well as its potential impact on private vehicle ownership. Special attention will be paid to the effect of mobility service bundling on the diffusion of innovative transport modes.
Exploring the factors affecting Electric Vehicle Purchasing Behaviour in Greater LondonThis project investigates the factors affecting consumers’ electric vehicle (EV) purchasing behaviour.
By defining consumers’ preference factors, targeted corporate marketing and government policies can be developed to accelerate diffusion of EFV.
The aim of this project is to analyse the demographic and trip characteristics of cyclists in London to identify the most promising population segments and areas that cycling policies could target.
Integration of Car Sharing and Bike Sharing System: A case study of Taiyuan, ChinaThis project proposes an integrated urban transport system based on car sharing and bike sharing for developing countries using a Chinese city as case study. It will forecast the benefit of such a system to energy savings and climate change mitigation.
Technology Opportunities and Strategies to Climate friendly transport – TOSCATOSCA, which was presented as a success story by the European Commission’s “Towards Low Carbon Transport in Europe” publication in 2012, simulated the energy use and CO2 emissions impact of emerging surface and air transportation technologies.
Kamargianni, M., Matyas, M., Muscat, J. and Li, W. (2017) Londoners’ attitudes towards car-ownership and Mobility-as-a-Service: Impact assessment and opportunities that lie ahead. MaaSLab - UCL Energy Institute Report, Prepared for Transport for London.
Matyas, M. and Kamargianni, M. (2017) Stated Preference Design for Exploring Demand for “Mobility as a Service” Plans. Presented at the 5th International Choice Modelling Conference.
Matyas, M. and Kamargianni, M. (2017) A Holistic Overview of the Mobility as a Service Ecosystem. Presented at the Transportation Research Conference, Gyor, Hungary.
Matyas, M. and Kamarginanni, M. (2017) The Mobility-as-a-Service Business Ecosystem. Presented at the 96th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting.
Kamargianni, M., Li, W., Matyas, M. and Schafer, A. (2016) A Critical Review of New Mobility Services for Urban Transport. Transportation Research Procedia, 14, pp.3294-3303.
Kamargianni, M., Matyas, M., Li, W. and Schäfer, A. (2015) Feasibility Study for Mobility as a Service Concept for London. UCL Energy Institute report, Prepared for the UK Department for Transport.
