Abstract
More than one hundred and fifty cities around the world have expanded their emergency cycling and walking infrastructures to increase their resilience in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the role of mobile apps is prominent in respect to developing a smart city during this pandemic, which raises the questions of how mobile apps contribute to the improvement of walking/cycling behavior and how such a relationship is influenced by the situation imposed by COVID-19. The role of mobile apps in the three relevant fields of physical activity, transport, and urban planning are reviewed. Next, the associations between walking/cycling behaviors and their contributing factors and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on these relationships are reviewed. Studies on physical activity have emphasized the role of motivational social factors in improving the function of mobile apps. In regard to transport, mobile apps have the potential to facilitate data collection in macroscale environments. In addition, mobile apps may facilitate people’s recognition of positive/negative environmental aspects, and this may in turn lead to greater pedestrian/cyclists’ awareness and better organization of their walking/cycling behavior. Moreover, based on a participatory approach, the classification of current mobile apps and certain suggestions on the development of future mobile apps are presented. Finally, complementary suggestions are provided for maintaining and improving the use of mobile apps to improve the level of walking/cycling.
Highlights
Resilience refers to a system’s ability to efficiently absorb shocks [1]
By reviewing and comparing the contents of the previous sections, the raised questions of this study could be answered with the required details. These questions include: How do mobile apps contribute to improved walking/cycling behavior? How are such relationships influenced by the situation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic?
According to behavioral science theory and evidence, there are three types of motivational aspects including cognitive or analytical motivational factors such as providing certain information on cost-benefit issues for users, social motivational factors, and emotional motivational factors such as making the app more fun [14]. All of these motivational aspects embedded in design of the mobile apps have been effective in the impacts of mobile apps on the level of physical activity [14], but the impact of social motivational factors on enhancing the level of walking/cycling and physical activity has been emphasized by several studies in this field [14,17,19]
Summary
Resilience refers to a system’s ability to efficiently absorb shocks [1]. The recent. As one of the primary characteristics of smart city governance, participation in the decision-making process is one of the most important components [3,7] In this regard, the first section (Section 2), reviews the use of different types of mobile apps in these fields of study in order to better understand the function of different types of mobile apps in improving issues related to walking/cycling behavior. 2. Reviewing the Contribution of Mobile Apps to Physical Activity, Transportation, and Urban Planning as the Areas Related to Walking/Cycling Behavior. Walking is an excellent form of physical activity for older adults because it is familiar, cheap, safe, easy, convenient, and can be performed in social settings [10] In this regard, the first subsection reviews the function of different types of mobile apps to the improvement of physical activity through the relevant studies. The association was moderate and no longer observed after six weeks
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