ULTIMOB

The ULTIMOB flagship project is led by tbw research and netwiss and funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) and the Federal Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology as part of the ‘Mobility of the Future’ funding programme. As part of the project, (1) highly innovative mobility solutions that have been lacking to date are being implemented on a pilot basis in four pilot regions using a bottom-up approach, accompanied by large-scale, visible dissemination via a comprehensive follower process, (2) a practical toolset is being developed to overcome implementation barriers in the area of conflict between technology, user behaviour and governance, and (3) a significant contribution is being made in the field of ‘MaaS’ in terms of social added value and in continuous exchange with the ‘MaaS made in Austria’ initiative.

Client: bmk

Duration: September 2019 to August 2023 (48 months)

Project partners: Research Studios Austria Forschungsgesellschaft mbH (iSPACE), Vienna University of Technology – Department of Transport Systems Planning (TU Wien / IVS), University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Institute of Transport (BOKU), Salzburger Verkehrsverbund GmbH (SVV), PLANUM Fallast Tischler & Partner GmbH (PLANUM), SDC Smart Digital Concepts GmbH (SDC), Klimabündnis Österreich GmbH (KLIMA), University of Innsbruck – Institute for Infrastructure, Intelligent Transport Systems Division (UIBK), Vienna University of Economics and Business – Institute for Ecological Economics (WU), Graz University of Technology – Institute for Road and Transport Engineering (TU Graz), Ötztaler Verkehrsgesellschaft m.b.H. (ÖVG), Verkehrsverbund Tirol GesmbH (VVT), ummadum Service GmbH (UMMADUM), Market Town of Feldkirchen (FELDKIRCHEN), FH OÖ Forschungs & Entwicklung GmbH (FH OÖ), SHS GesbR (SHS)

Project Description: The Austrian mobility system is facing complex challenges: rising traffic volumes and emissions, socially relevant trends such as demographic change, and the pluralization of lifestyles. In addition, numerous barriers exist (e.g., unfavorable pricing mechanisms, monopolistic market structures, lack of trust between stakeholders, or insufficient cross-sectoral integration of policy areas), which often hinder the desired integration of innovative mobility solutions at the system level. Integrative, holistic solutions in the field of mobility can make a decisive contribution to achieving societal, ecological, and economic objectives. ULTIMOB pursues a comprehensive, open, and innovative approach within a broad consortium that reflects the structure of the Austrian mobility system very well. This enables solutions developed within ULTIMOB to diffuse directly into the entire mobility system, achieving a significant leverage effect in terms of traffic impact.

ULTIMOB will increase the usability of the transport system, incentivize sustainable mobility behavior (resource-efficient and health-promoting), and improve the framework conditions for new developments. In doing so, the competitiveness of the transport sector (and other sectors) is strengthened, and a long-term growth perspective for technologies, products, processes, and services in the mobility domain is created.

The first overarching goal is to achieve measurable traffic impacts (monitored through accompanying impact evaluation) already during the project lifetime of ULTIMOB. In the four pilot regions, previously missing mobility solutions with high innovation potential are implemented in a bottom-up, pilot-based approach, accompanied by wide-reaching dissemination through a comprehensive follower process (>20 municipalities in the core group, >1,000 municipalities in the extended group).

The second overarching goal is to overcome implementation barriers at the interface of technology, user behavior, and governance. For this purpose, ULTIMOB develops a practice-relevant toolset in a transdisciplinary approach, which identifies solution pathways across all areas of the mobility system (TNG guidance process).

Digitalization is not an end in itself, as digital offerings cannot—or can only to a limited extent—compensate for the absence of physical mobility options. It is by no means certain that merely digitalizing and bundling mobility services automatically leads to greater sustainability in the transport sector; in unregulated scenarios, the opposite effects are even to be feared. On the other hand, a trustworthy, fair, and technically harmonized MaaS ecosystem offers great opportunities for the utilization and integration of existing mobility services, as an incubator for new market entrants, to raise awareness and drive behavioral change among users, and to facilitate cooperation between transport and service providers. However, the current framework conditions for purely private providers in the Austrian MaaS ecosystem can be considered very challenging.

The third overarching goal of ULTIMOB is therefore to contribute significantly—through continuous system learning and interaction with the “MaaS made in Austria” initiative—to positioning MaaS sustainably in Austria in a way that creates societal value. As a project-specific instrument and complement to the “MaaS made in Austria” process, ULTIMOB is designing, establishing, and operating the “MaaS Experimentation and Learning Platform” (ELM) as a neutral, open, and non-discriminatory test environment. The lessons learned and specific regional requirements are fed back into the “MaaS made in Austria” process. An explicit objective is also to enhance willingness to cooperate and trust in the emerging MaaS ecosystem at all stakeholder levels, while keeping international interoperability in focus.

ULTIMOB builds substantially on insights, technologies, and innovations from more than 60 previous R&D projects (with a focus on mobility of the future, MdZ). ULTIMOB brings already mature technologies into practice, continues ongoing developments incrementally, and integrates them synergistically in the context of heterogeneous challenges in the pilot regions, ensuring broad scalability and transferability.

The outcomes of ULTIMOB are diverse: they range from multimodal action plans, newly created physical offerings (e.g., multimodal hubs to encourage modal shift in commuting and education traffic, solutions for last-mile tourist luggage logistics, etc.), integrative planning tools for holistic mobility system planning and TNG toolboxes and processes to identify and overcome tangible and intangible implementation barriers across all areas of the mobility system (including potential anchoring in RVS guidelines), to the establishment of the “MaaS Experimentation and Learning Platform” to optimally support the “MaaS made in Austria” initiative.

Contact: DI Dr. Alexander Neumann, MA MSc