In the increasingly congested world of modern cities, the search for smart solutions to tackle traffic, emissions, parking, and daily stress has become a priority.
In this context, Mvmant was born, a smart urban mobility project and solution developed by Edisonweb, which aims to provide an on-demand shared transportation service, allowing multiple people to travel simultaneously along predefined routes.
The Success of Mvmant
The Mvmant project was selected among the top 28 out of over 600 proposals to participate in the Frontiercities acceleration program, funded by the European Union. The European Commission had launched this program in search of smart solutions to tackle the problems of medium and large-sized cities, such as traffic congestion, pollutant emissions, parking difficulties, and citizen stress.
How Mvmant Works
Mvmant offers an intuitive service accessible via smartphones. Users can book their place in vehicles, estimate waiting times, and even pay for tickets directly through the mobile app. It is a demand-based transportation mode, capable of optimizing routes and vehicle occupancy. This is made possible by analyzing variables such as days of the week, season, weather conditions, city events, and other factors that contribute to a predictive calculation to optimize the service based on the context.
Applications
Mvmant has been designed to seamlessly integrate with existing public transportation. During pilot tests, it was successfully experimented in different cities, each with its specific needs.
In the city of Ragusa, the project allowed for a better understanding of why residents prefer tailored transportation services over using their private cars. Collaboration with Mercedes-Benz and the involvement of local companies helped showcase the potential of the platform from a sustainability standpoint as well.
In Venice, MVMANT was tested in collaboration with the Cooperativa Radiotaxi Venezia-Mestre, demonstrating that the taxi sharing model can be a positive innovation for taxi drivers and an added value for travelers.
Its implementation in Dubai, in partnership with the local government, led to steady growth, high user satisfaction, and inspired the government to base their Bus On Demand service on the Mvmant model.
The Contribution of University Research
All experiments were subject to in-depth analysis and scientific research, involving professors and researchers from the University of Catania. This allowed for the development of a public transport model characterized by fixed routes and stops but capable of dynamically adapting to demand, reducing waiting times and management costs. The collaboration between traditional transportation science, simulated multi-agent systems, and artificial intelligence models led to surprising results, as demonstrated by numerous scientific publications.
The Present and Future of Mvmant
Today, the technology and experience gained with Mvmant have been integrated into Moovle, a system that aims to offer seamless multimodal interaction. This aligns perfectly with the concept of "Mobility as a Service" (MaaS), where urban mobility becomes an integrated and personalized service, simplifying the lives of citizens and reducing the negative impacts associated with excessive private car use.
In conclusion, Mvmant has demonstrated that innovation in urban mobility can have a positive and lasting impact on people's lives and the environment. The next step is the total integration of these concepts into the urban fabric through the widespread adoption of solutions like MaaS, which promise to make our cities more livable and sustainable.