Smart mobility, the role of mobile games

Abstract

Cities are increasingly making accommodations for increasing bicycle use as one of the smart city strategies on mobility planning. Our study addresses the use of mobile applications (apps) to incentivize the increased use of cycling for commuting to work/study, we conducted a survey to identify trends and gaps in smart mobility research, especially on urban cycling promotion through mobile devices and games supported by geospatial analysis. The analysis of 140 publications, provided insights from the smart mobility concept like the constant support of mobile devices and location-based services on this research field as well as a strong bias towards experiments and a few theoretical reviews, the frequent use of intrinsic motivation when designing games, and customised platforms for experimenting instead of commercial applications. Finally, the lack of integration between game narratives and the capabilities of geospatial analysis is considered the biggest research challenge for game designers and smart city advocates.