Scotland embracing the future of travel by MaaS

After a six-month trial period, the MaaS solution of NaviGoGo travel planning turned out to be a success. NaviGoGo was tested in Dundee and North East Fife and was aimed at young people from 16-25 years of age - who were also given a role in the design of the service.  The MaaS service allowed planning, booking and payment of different transport services all using one single interface for a seamless travel experience in the region. The trial phase included 98 participants and saw more than 2,000 journeys planned and performed. Now, with the experiences of the trial, the consortium behind NaviGoGo can better understand transport issues of young people and how to tackle these by improving the service accordingly.

Pilot users expressed their satisfaction, like Georgia, a newcomer to the region. Georgia told that she felt more confident to try new travel options thanks to NaviGoGo and that it helped to understand the price patterns behind different travel options.

Scotland Transport Minister, Humza Yousaf, expressed his satisfaction with the successful trail phase: “We’re on the cusp of a transport revolution, with more young people than ever interested in using public transport. There is a real desire and interest from the Scottish Government in smart interoperable public transport projects like NaviGoGo to take forward our collective ambitions. The collaborative, co-design element with young people has been instrumental to the success of the NaviGoGo pilot, and it’s essential we put ourselves in their shoes to understand issues faced by 16-25 year olds”.

NaviGoGo’s project manager David Smith stressed that the co-design nature of NaviGoGo being developed by young people for young people is one of the crucial success factors. NaviGoGo thus was successful in engaging young people in using different modes for being well connected to their daily and periodic businesses. And to change their perception towards mobility services like public transport, shared offers and active transport modes.

The next steps should bring the service to more young people across the country and NaviGoGO will be continuously working on improvements to the service following feedback from young people, themselves.

Story first published by “digit.fyi”; click here for the original article.