Opportunities and challenges of smart mobile applications in transportation

Smart mobile applications are software applications that are designed to run on smart phones, tablets, and other mobile electronic devices. In this era of rapid technological advances, these applications have become one of the primary tools we use daily both in our personal and professional lives. The applications play key roles in facilitating many applications that are pivotal in our today's society including communication, education, business, entertainment, medical, finance, travel, utilities, social, and transportation.This paper reviewed the opportunities and challenges of the applications related to transportation. The opportunities revealed include route planning, ridesharing/carpooling, traffic safety, parking information, transportation data collection, fuel emissions and consumption, and travel information. The potential users of these applications in the field of transportation include (1) transportation agencies for travel data collection, travel information, ridesharing/carpooling, and traffic safety, (2) engineering students for field data collection such as travel speed, travel time, and vehicle count, and (3) general traveling public for route planning, ridesharing/carpooling, parking, traffic safety, and travel information.Significant usage of smart mobile applications can be potentially very beneficial, particularly in automobile travel mode to reduce travel time, cost, and vehicle emissions. In the end this would make travel safer and living environments greener and healthier. However, road users' interactions with these applications could manually, visually, and cognitively divert their attention from the primary task of driving or walking. Distracted road users expose themselves and others to unsafe behavior than undistracted. Road safety education and awareness programs are vital to discourage the use of applications that stimulate unsafe driving/walking behaviors. Educating the traveling public about the dangers of unsafe driving/walking behavior could have significant safety benefits to all road users. Future research needs to compare accuracies of the applications and provide guidelines for selecting them for certain transportation related applications.