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Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1951069 There’s an App for That: Mobile Applications for Urban Planning Jennifer S. Evans-Cowley, PhD, AICP [email protected] Jennifer S. Evans-Cowley is a Professor and Head of City and Regional Planning in the Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture at the Ohio State University, where she teaches courses in technology, public engagement, and theory. She worked in municipal government prior to moving into academia. Abstract: The number of worldwide mobile device users is increasing rapidly, as are the number of applications to serve these devices. Urban planners have the opportunity to use a wide array of mobile applications to increase productivity, share information, and engage with the public. This article explores a number of mobile applications that can add value to the work that urban planners undertake. It also considers the types of applications that could be developed to assist planners in their efforts to understand cities and engage with the public.
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Page 1: SSRN-id1951069

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1951069

There’s an App for That: Mobile Applications for Urban Planning

Jennifer S. Evans-Cowley, PhD, AICP

[email protected]

Jennifer S. Evans-Cowley is a Professor and Head of City and Regional Planning in the Austin E. Knowlton

School of Architecture at the Ohio State University, where she teaches courses in technology, public

engagement, and theory. She worked in municipal government prior to moving into academia.

Abstract: The number of worldwide mobile device users is increasing rapidly, as are the number of

applications to serve these devices. Urban planners have the opportunity to use a wide array of mobile

applications to increase productivity, share information, and engage with the public. This article explores

a number of mobile applications that can add value to the work that urban planners undertake. It also

considers the types of applications that could be developed to assist planners in their efforts to

understand cities and engage with the public.

Page 2: SSRN-id1951069

Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1951069

There’s an App for That: Mobile Applications for Urban Planning

Introduction

The way that planners understand our cities has come from field observations, surveys of

residents, and other traditional methods. Mobile device users’ ability to collaborate through context-

aware mobile applications has changed the way that they can interact (Hakkila and Mantyjarvi, 2005). A

recent study found that at the end of 2010, more than 63 million Americans owned a smartphone

(comScore, 2011). The increasing pervasiveness of smart phones will allow planners to collect data and

to engage with the public in new ways.

Apple launched the iPhone in 2007. According to Apple, there were more than 300,000 new

iPhone apps in 2011 alone (Viticci, 2011), and there have been more than 5 billion downloads of those

300,000 apps. Add to that the more than a billion app downloads on Android. A 2010 Nielsen survey

found that the average iPhone owner has 40 apps installed, while Android users have 25 and Blackberry

users have 14 (Duryee, 2010). One of the other apps that’s being downloaded is Angry Birds, which has

been downloaded more than 350 million times according to Mobile Entertainment, making it the most

popular application out there (Dredge, 2011).

Mobile Applications for Urban Planning

As urban planners, why should we care about mobile phone applications? Apps can increase

productivity and allow one to engage with one’s your work outside of the office. For example, an app

could give access to rezoning application information. It is also a way for planners to interact with others

in their community. For example, a project management website subscription service called Basecamp

allows users to access their projects from an iPhone app. By paying a monthly subscription fee, planners

can manage multiple projects with lots of different people in different organizations involved. The

benefit is that project team members can inexpensively have access via their mobile devices to

everything going on in a project. There are many productivity applications that work in a similar way,

with a one-time app fee and then an associated monthly service fee for additional services.

Productivity of the planner is just one aspect of applications that can be used in planning. Apps

can also be used to enhance the productivity and efficiency of commuters. In a study of the Translink

Transit Authority in South East Queensland, Australia found that commuters’ experience can be

improved through real-time passenger information that uses a mobile application (Foth and Schroeter,

2010). For example, a bus rider on Portland’s Trimet developed an app that offers a bus tracker that

displays arrival times and includes a nighttime visibility flasher that a user can hold up so bus drivers can

see them at night. Now Trimet has a whole suite of mobile apps, including a wayfinding system for the

visually impaired (Trimet, 2011). Similarly, the Central Ohio Transit Authority’s app BusTracker tells users

the nearest bus stops to their current locations as well as upcoming arrival information (Central Ohio

Transit Authority, 2011). On cold days it is great to be able to stay inside and time your and get in that

extra five minutes of work.

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While transit apps are widespread, there are lots of other types of information that can be

shared. Maybe you want to catch up on your favorite magazine on your smartphone while riding the

bus. The State of Louisiana made this possible with Louisiana EQ. The State contracted with Aysling

Digital Media Solution to develop an app version of its quarterly magazine in which readers can keep

current with the latest in economic development (Louisiana Economic Development, 2011). Another

example of information sharing is CFA FireReady, created by the Victoria Fire Authority in Australia in

partnership with Collaboraforge (CFA, 2011). This application shows emergency warnings and locations

of incidents of brushfires. It also provides brushfire advice.

Most of the apps out there simply allow information sharing with the smartphone user. Yet,

many planners are looking for more from e-government, they are looking to interact with companies,

citizens and others (Conroy and Evans-Cowley, 2006). There are emerging examples of apps that allow

for more interaction. You the Man is an app that was developed by the City of New York Transportation

Department as a way to fight drunk driving among men ages 21 to 35. In focus groups, City staff found

that drunk driving happens when friends fail to plan ahead, with the least drunk friend ending up driving

at the end of the evening (Evans-Cowley, 2011). The City created an app with fun games to help

determine a designated driver and a blood-alcohol calculator that gives amusing results if you’ve

consumed, say, 20 drinks in an hour. Users can post on YoutheMan’s Twitter feed; for example,” we

partied, ate, drank and took a yellow cab home. That’s all I’m telling!” (YouTheManNYC, 2011). The best

feature is the app’s ability to map the user and the nearest public-transit locations. It also has a button

to call the nearest car service. The app is linked to the City’s Taxi and Livery Service Department’s

database. Users love the app – “So glad this is finally here! Not just late drinking nights but late freezing

nights. Been waiting for something like this!!!” (YouTheManNYC, 2011).

[Figure 1 about here]

A number of cities have worked to create apps that allow users to interact in order to report

code violations. In an experiment, researchers developed an application that allows residents to take

pictures of code enforcement violations, attach a description, and submit the information as a request

to their city (Foth et al., 2010). The study found that this type of application has high potential for broad

implementation, and a number of cities are launching exactly these kinds of applications. Phoenix claims

to be the first city to have launched a free app that allows users to interact with the city by sending

photographs of graffiti and other blight violations to the city’s neighborhood services department (City

of Phoenix, n.d.). Other cities, such as Delaware, Ohio, have followed. MyDelaware is an app developed

by App-Order.com that gives residents a way to notify the City about all kinds of code violations. Users

simply take a picture, document the problem, and press submit. The app attaches a location to the

report and sends it to the City. Users can request text updates about the results of the city’s

investigation, letting citizens know what happened to their complaints (personal communications,

Shawn Leininger, City of Delaware, May 25, 2011). A number of cities have developed apps that connect

residents with their 311 nonemergency systems, allowing them to request service for a broad array of

problems. For example, with Boston’s Citizens Connect mobile app, users can report potholes, graffiti,

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and other service issues using Android phones or iPhones (City of Boston, 2011). Beyond photographic

capture of code violations, there is significant potential around integrating video to allow citizens

document the city (Krieger et al., 2010).

[Figure 2 about here]

These apps are part of a growing field of tools that help us better navigate the real world. At this

early stage, the apps are primarily limited to information sharing. As this technology evolves and the

number of available applications increases, planners can expect to see a growing number of tools to

help engage with the public. One way that cities are encouraging this is with open data initiatives. As

London’s mayor recently said, when referring to the City’s open data initiative, “Sunlight is the best

disinfectant” (Halper, 2011). The goal of the initiative is to encourage creative use of the London

Datastore to generate new applications that will benefit the citizens of London. Similarly, Seattle

decided to increase public access to its datasets in a machine-readable format (City of Seattle, 2011).

Why shouldn’t the City of Seattle make the locations of its public toilets available? Surely some creative

programmer could find a fun way to use that data to create an app, and that’s exactly why apps such as

Sit or Squat have emerged. Charmin sponsored this app, which is designed to connect people to public

and private toilets (Sit or Squat, 2011). The app relies on users to upload data on the location of public

toilets for cities all over, including Seattle.

Beyond toilets, Seattle makes other planning data, such as neighborhood mapping, the location

of public toilets, the state of land use, and demolition permits promptly available. For example, 911 call

data are available within 24 hours of when they were placed (City of Seattle, 2011). The data have been

made available to app developers through Socrata (www.socrata.com). To stimulate app development,

Seattle, like a number of other cities, is organizing an Apps for Seattle competition to encourage

contestants to use the data the city has posted (Opsahl, 2010).

New York City’s goal is to make data more transparent, accessible, and accountable through its

DataMine website (City of New York, 2011), to which departments provide a wide array of data. To

encourage use of the data, the city hosts BigApps 2.0, a competition that awards a cash prize for the app

using the data that receives the most public votes. The 2010 winner was WayFinder, an app that allows

users to point their phone to see which subways and trains are in front of them. In February of 2011,

more than 50 apps were submitted for consideration as part of the competition. The winner is required

to make the app freely available for at least one year. The City’s BigApps 3.0 competition is now

underway (NYC BigApps, 2011).

Future Applications

The planning-related apps that are currently available represent first steps in engaging the

public with mobile technology to encourage them to use planning data and contribute to improving

their communities. However, this is just the start. There is much more that can be developed to connect

planners and the public to increase productivity and responsiveness to public concerns. For example,

Task Ave is an app that creates geotagged to-do lists (Task Ave, 2011). Imagine if planning-related 311

complaints that people submit via an app could be automatically directed to an app like Task Ave that

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would alert a planner when he or she is near a citizen’s complaint? Location-aware technologies can be

utilized to collect place-based knowledge about the urban environment and aid in addressing place-

based problems (Evans-Cowley, Hollander 2010)

In transportation planning, what if we could get people to volunteer to let us track their daily

route to help us in addressing connectivity issues? Researchers have been working to collect mobile

device data for the purposes of traffic management and monitoring (Bar-Gera, 2007; Herrera et al.,

2010; Issaacman et al., 2010; Rose, 2006). In a study of Amsterdam, data from mobile phones was used

to understand mobility in traffic incidents (Steenbruggen et al., 2011). However, it is always a challenge

to collect daily activities. The Blacktop app shows a map of a person’s daily route (FourSquare, 2011).

Using an app like this could help planners collect detailed travel pattern data that can’t typically be

gathered from travel surveys. In an experiment with mobile devices, an application was developed that

allowed for tracking of travel activities (Williams, 2010). In another experiment, researchers were able

to obtain information about transportation choices and then provide commuters with information about

their travel behaviors (Froehlich et al., 2009).

Participatory sensing, or allowing the public to use their mobile devices to collect and analyze

data, is yet another area where planners can benefit from public data collection (Estrin, 2010). This can

be achieved with the embedded sensors in such mobile devices as the accelerometer, digital compass,

gyroscope, GPS, microphone, and camera (Lane et al., 2010). For example, there has been a recent

debate in Columbus, Ohio about whether or not to allow a race track to come into the community. One

major concern is the noise. Planners and the public alike could benefit from using an app like

WideNoise, which measures how noisy an area is (Widetag, 2011). This data could be aggregated to help

the public and decision-makers better understand the impact of noisy uses. In an experiment with the

NoiseSpy application, environmental noise levels were monitored in real time. The result was a map of

sound levels created while on a bicycle journey (Kanjo, 2010).

In other cases, users are relying on government data to create engagement tools. As part of the

response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a mobile web app that collects geotagged data for many

parties as part of the Oil Reporter website was created (Oil Reporter, 2010). Users can submit reports via

Oil Reporter on oil conditions by sharing photos, typing text describing what they see, and rating how

much oil they see, whether wildlife is present, and the impact to wetlands. The mapping data from

NOAA allow maps that can be mashed up with user reports, which can be viewed live. Members of the

public have been able to crowdsource the data and create mashups, generating important information

that can be used to support decision making and disaster response.

Taking the idea of crowdsourcing user information and turning it into valuable information, a

number of apps have been developed. Intersect allows users to attach a story about a location on a map

and to see stories that have been placed there by others (Intersect, 2011). Crowdbeacon

(www.crowdbeacon.com) allows users to show where they are and then to ask for help, should they

need it. Other users then provide answers to questions. For example, a user could ask how best to go by

bus to another area of the city and then be answered by another user. While these apps aren’t planning

specific, they do provide glimpses into the possible uses of location-based data. A planner could

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potentially use these types of apps in developing neighborhood plans in which both residents and

businesses are able to include stories about their neighborhood or problems and solutions. A study of an

experimental mobile application in a neighborhood in Denmark found that GPS-based data combined

with pictures and text allowed neighborhood residents to create personalized narratives of their

community (Knudsen et al., 2011). Beyond simply information sharing, mobile applications can be used

to engage in deliberation processes. For example, residents could be notified about a pending rezoning

via their mobile device. Users could then find out more about the proposal and participate in a

discussion forum on the topic (Bohoj, et al., 2011).

Conclusion

While there isn’t an app for everything yet, cities are finding creative ways to encourage

programmers to develop applications using public data. Planners should be looking for opportunities to

open their cities. Mobile applications provide a way for planners to build strong relationships with their

citizens. As more cities engage in open data initiatives, there will be greater opportunities for mobile

applications that can benefit the public and planners alike.

Location-based information from mobile devices has garnered significant interest from a variety

of disciplines, including planning, for its ability to show how people concentrate and move throughout

cities (Reades et al., 2009). For example, in a study of an energy application, users receive feedback on

energy consumption that allows them to make more conscious decisions about their energy use (Weiss

et al., 2010). However, there are currently technological challenges to participatory sensing. Continuous

sensing applications on mobile devices are a challenge because of the energy requirements of sensing

applications, such as GPS tracking (Lu et al., 2010). Another challenge is that in dense urban areas it can

be difficult to detect individual movements.

Researchers are working to come up with new techniques to study social dynamics in dense

urban environments (Vieira et al., 2010). Experiments with using telecommunications data, such as the

Real Time Rome project, have allowed for the aggregation of mobile phone data to understand urban

dynamics (Reades et al., 2007). Mobile phone data in New Jersey were analyzed to determine the city’s

“partyshed”, when late-night communications occur (Becker et al., 2011). In post-disaster situations,

mobile phone tracking can be used to identify the location of displaced populations (Gething and Tatem,

2011; Bengtsson et al., 2011). This type of passive data collection allows researchers and planners to

understand how people are moving and interacting in a city.

The rapid evolution of mobile technology is quickly overcoming many of the barriers to using

mobile devices for data collection and engagement with the public. While there is not an app for

everything, if a planner can dream it up, then it may be possible. The applications discussed in this

article are just the start. As planners continue to create plans, they can use mobile applications to collect

data needed for the plans as well as engage the public in the planning process.

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Figure 1. You the Man NYC is an effort of the transportation department to reduce the incidence of

drunk driving (http://www.youthemannyc.org)

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Source: City of New York, New York

Figure 2. MyDelaware is a code violation reporting application allowing members of the public to report

problems such as graffiti.

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Source: City of Delaware, Ohio