A new paradigm for smart cycling applications in urban mobility

Abstract

Mobile cycling applications have been very popular, but their prevailing paradigm is mostly centred on the individual cyclist and largely assumes cycling as a leisure or sports activity. However, cycling itself is undergoing a major paradigm change. This calls for novel features that are no longer just focused on the individual cyclist, but also on the cyclist as an agent of urban mobility embedded in a set of local practices and part of a larger socio-technical system supported by digital platforms. In this work, we aim to study the existence of a novel solution space for cycling applications, designed to connect cyclists with what is now becoming a richer and more diverse digital ecosystem for urban cycling. To validate and characterize this solution space, we studied multiple sources about current and desired features for cycling applications. Following the content analysis of 139 study cases from 5 source types, we produced 2448 observations, from which we were able to identify 55 user stories, spanning across 11 application domains. This contribution should provide an initial sketch of a roadmap to inform the design and specification of this new generation of urban cycling applications.