The potential of combining qualitative GIS and map elicitation in daily mobility studies

Abstract

Mapping daily mobile experiences is a way to counter-map the mainstream status quo in transport planning and thus produce alternate ‘truths’ of mobility. Studies on the microgeographies of daily mobility and situational perspectives on transport can generate crucial knowledge, which might be used by planners and policymakers in facilitating low-carbon mobility transitions. There is great potential for rethinking and exploring new methods and techniques to study the mobile experiences and lived dimensions of mobility interventions. This paper explores the potential of an approach consisting of visualizing user-generated GPS tracks and geolocated photos in GIS and using the output for map elicitation in interviews. The participants are actively involved in the data production by using GPS trackers and taking photos. In turn, map elicitation enables the participants to be actively involved in analyzing the maps in retrospect. Thus, the method presents a bottom-up mapping tool for producing mobile knowledge, which in turn might be implemented in transport planning as a participatory planning support tool. The strengths and challenges of the proposed combination of methods are evaluated by considering (i) its potential at different stages of an idealized research process and (ii) how it can facilitate the production of microgeographical and im|mobile knowledge. This paper focuses on the practical and methodological implications of the proposed method and uses examples from a previously conducted study of an electric bike intervention in Norway to discuss the potential of combining these methods.