Following recent mega-trends in the mobile and sharing economy and thanks to the latest ITS developments, “Mobility as a Service” is conceived as the way people will move themselves and their goods in the future. The “as a service” paradigm can be a real revolution when it is able to ensure higher continuity among the different means of transport, and enable offering combined mobility packages as a viable alternative to fragmented mobility and car ownership. Though some MaaS initiatives have already been tested in Europe, they encountered several obstacles in reaching scale and stable business operation. IMOVE will learn from such initiatives as UBIGO in Gothenburg or Hannovermobil, launched a decade ago in Hannover, and will step forward contributing to radically change mobility paradigms bringing in disruptive elements of mobility services. Innovative business and technology enablers will be investigated able to concretely put into action, accelerate and scale up the MaaS market deployment in Europe, ultimately paving the way for a “roaming” capability for MaaS users at the European level. IMOVE research and innovation action is based on investigation, development and validation of bottom up novel solutions able to define sound MaaS business models, smoothing their efficient and profitable service operation. A suite of ITS elements empowering MaaS schemes will be delivered by IMOVE, including technology components for real-time collection of fine-grained data on mobility user needs, habits and preferences as well as components enabling the exchange of information and enhancing seamless interoperability among different MaaS subsystems and multiple MaaS schemes. IMOVE solutions will be investigated and validated in 5 European Living Labs, currently engaged in or having plans for MaaS development. The participation of UITP will ensure active participation of PTAs as well as key private stakeholders from other sites and will further guarantee a multiplier effect.

The cities of Madrid, Stockholm, Munich, Turku and Ruse have formed the CIVITAS ECCENTRIC consortium to tackle the challenges of mobility in suburban districts and clean, silent and CO2 free city logistics. In many cities, these two important areas have received less attention in urban mobility policies. Though European cities have made significant steps forward in making city centres attractive and liveable urban nodes, there is a remaining conflict between providing high quality public space and meeting the accessibility requirements for freight deliveries. The suburban areas have remained largely unaddressed with a much higher car usage as a consequence. Recent or expected urban growth processes are posing additional pressure to peri-central areas, which face the specific challenges of: • Becoming sufficiently appealing to avoid an unnecessary traffic flow towards to the city centre; • Providing sustainable and high quality mobility options to enable and encourage car independent lifestyles; and • Planning the urban future according to carbon neutral mobility principles. ECCENTRIC will demonstrate and test the potential and replicability of integrated and inclusive urban planning approaches, innovative policies and emerging technologies to reach sustainable urban mobility objectives. The solutions will be implemented in 5 living laboratory areas in the outskirts that face high population growth and an increasing pressure on the existing transport networks. As highlighted in the SUMPs of the ECCENTRIC cities, this action on a wider geographical scale than the city centre is needed in order to meet the targets of the Transport White Paper in terms of air quality, energy use and CO2 emissions, road casualties and wide uptake of clean vehicles. To reach CO2 free city logistics by 2030, ECCENTRIC will test clean vehicles and fuels, formulate new regulations and services and develop consolidation solutions in close partnerships with the private sector.