Open Access

Christoph Heinbach, Henning Gösling, Oliver Thomas

• Urban transportation is increasingly challenged by growing populations and the rapid growth of e-commerce, thus, driving data-driven innovations for sustainable mobility services. Shared mobility consequently emerges as a promising city transport concept, while combined service opportunities between public transport, crowd mobility, and last mile logistics are scarcely investigated. In this paper, we explore the co-creation of urban mobility services within federated ecosystems focusing on a transshipment hub, and propose a novel approach called “co-bility.” Following a design science research (DSR) approach, we conceptualize a co-bility hub based on literature and expert interviews with practitioners from the mobility sector. The exchange of data and services in urban spaces is based on the technical framework Gaia-X. Our study findings show that a Gaia-X-enabled co-bility hub can be achieved by (a) a federated ecosystem orchestrating mobility services and resources, (b) municipalities ensuring coherent platform governance, and (c) eclectic incentives to make co-bility successful.