It is well known that transportation can be, in itself, a major cause of socio-territorial inequalities (STIs). Indeed, social exclusion and transport poverty are highly correlated, and this correlation is both a cause and consequence of social exclusion. Recently, several new shared mobility services such as bike-sharing, car-sharing and e-scooters, have appeared as new transportation options. If properly integrated with public transport (PT), these can constitute an alternative to car ownership and use by offering multimodal mobility access instead of ownership, i.e. offering Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). However, the role and impact of MaaS are yet to be determined and fully understood. MaaS impacts in STIs are inevitable but currently unknown. The limited literature points to an increase in STIs, and to both competing and complementary roles of SMS and PT.

MASTI will specifically deal with the relationship between MaaS and STIs, which is currently unknown and not being researched in any other research project. MASTI will answer two research questions:
1) Is MaaS contributing to a reduction or an increase in existing STIs?
2) Can MaaS contribute to a reduction of STIs and support more sustainable travel patterns?

Lisbon will be used as a case study, methodologically, a mixed-methods approach will be adopted to evaluate the fairness of a situation (without MaaS) and of the intervention (with MaaS). The quantitative methodology will analyse the entire metropolitan area (18 municipalities), and the qualitative methodology we will focus on the city of Lisbon and two distinct suburban municipalities: Cascais, a medium-to-high social class municipality, in which there are already some SMS, and Vila Franca de Xira, a medium-to-low social class municipality, in which SMS is nonexistent.