Mobility-as-a-Service Advancements

Summary: MnDOT will expand and enhance its regional Mobility-as-a-Service Platform, leveraging over $2 million in state and federal investments to date. These improvements provide a ride-hail-like booking experience to rural public transit providers. The expanded service area will grow the platform to include 13 public transit agencies, covering most of Southern and Western Greater Minnesota. 

Public transit is a key part of meeting greenhouse gas reduction goals, but it has been slower to recover ridership than other transportation options post-COVID. MnDOT research with UMN showed that digital trip planning and payment is one of the options to improve usage by Greater Minnesota transit riders and those who are transit-interested. However, the transit industry has been slow to develop solutions for rural transit systems to date. 

Value: Enhance the Mobility-as-a-Service platform by integrating demand response booking, improving user experience and accessibility. This will enable users of the mobile app and web-based trip planner to find, book, and manage trips electronically, with direct integration into the public transit agency's vehicle scheduling software. 

Impact: Integrate transit planning and ticketing with a range of transportation options, including private shuttles and buses, taxis, TNCs, bike and scooter shares, van pools, carshares, shared connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs), and emerging shared mobility technologies.