Urban Mobility Data Collection Using Mobile Apps: A Scoping Review on Mid-Sized Latin American Cities
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70577/asce.v5i3.1061Keywords:
urban mobility; mobile apps; participatory data collection; mid-sized cities; Latin AmericaAbstract
Medium-sized cities in Latin America face a shortage of urban mobility data, which hinders the design of evidence-based transportation policies. Mobile apps for participatory citizen data collection are emerging as a low-cost alternative to traditional methods. This study presents a scoping review following the PRISMA 2020 guidelines, with the aim of identifying and characterizing mobile apps used for participatory urban mobility data collection, with an emphasis on mid-sized cities. Based on a systematic search of five databases (Scopus, Web of Science, SciELO, Redalyc, and Google Scholar), 32 records were analyzed that met all established inclusion criteria. The results show that: passive GPS-based data collection is the dominant method; three out of every four studies place citizens at Level 1 of participation on the Haklay scale; and technical data validation is absent in Latin American studies. Three tools in the corpus (CitySpeed, STRIDE, EcoBike) meet the criteria of being open source, compatible with mid-range devices, and backed by published methodological validation. It is concluded that, although there is a growing body of experience, significant gaps remain regarding the representativeness, sustainability, and transferability of these tools to the Latin American context.
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