Mobile Technology and Studies on Transport Behavior: A Literature Analysis, Integrated Research Model, and Future Research Agenda

Abstract

The prevalence of mobile technology has been significant in transport research. Despite a growing application spectrum of smartphone uses and interests in mobility inference, little effort has been put into discussing theories, models, and research topics based on a systematic study of scholarly sources rooted in the interdisciplinary area of mobile technology and transport. Therefore, a timely and comprehensive synthesis of the current state of research is deemed to be required. A literature analysis, following PRISMA guidelines, aims to identify the successful development and implementation of the mobile technology that can be employed for behavior studies in transport. A review of the Web of Science Core Collections, JSTOR and SAGE databases, is performed. A rigorous screening process is used to collect key articles to construct the general image of existing knowledge. In addition, this study suggests an integrated research model to summarize how previous studies attain behavioral outcomes and a research agenda to identify unresolved research questions that future research can address. Two hundred fourty-eight papers meet the inclusion criteria. This study demonstrates that mobile technology is helpful for a better understanding of the various types of transport behaviors. They can be categorized according to their system designs and research topics: (1) Smartphone apps in sustainable transport and travel planning were studied in a remarkable collection of articles. (2) As individual’s mobility was under question, cellular signaling data were prominent for the formulation of analytical models. (3) CDRs, WiFi, and GPS data have increasingly been used, but the share of the modeling techniques for all mobile information systems has remained low. It shows that system designers could supply more desirable and appealing features in most areas. However, applications for the movement of goods are limited, although freighting has moved toward digitalization.