MobilitApp: a deep learning-based tool for transport mode detection to support sustainable urban mobility

The visible effects of climate change in urban areas are driving a paradigm shift in societal and political priorities. Urban planners, public transport providers, and traffic managers are increasingly focused on redesigning cities to promote sustainable mobility and create green spaces for pedestri...

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Autores: Caravaca Ibáñez, Gerard, Cruz Llopis, Luis Javier de la|||0000-0003-4171-8310, Catalin Diaconeasa, Adrian, Bazán Guillén, Alberto|||0000-0001-8634-6907, Aguilar Igartua, Mónica|||0000-0002-6518-888X
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2025
País:España
Institución:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repositorio:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/428448
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/428448
https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3561238
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Transport mode detection
Activity recognition
Deep learning
Mobility sensors
Sustainable urban mobility
MobilitApp
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria de la telecomunicació::Telemàtica i xarxes d'ordinadors
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network_name_str España
repository_id_str
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv MobilitApp: a deep learning-based tool for transport mode detection to support sustainable urban mobility
title MobilitApp: a deep learning-based tool for transport mode detection to support sustainable urban mobility
spellingShingle MobilitApp: a deep learning-based tool for transport mode detection to support sustainable urban mobility
Caravaca Ibáñez, Gerard
Transport mode detection
Activity recognition
Deep learning
Mobility sensors
Sustainable urban mobility
MobilitApp
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria de la telecomunicació::Telemàtica i xarxes d'ordinadors
title_short MobilitApp: a deep learning-based tool for transport mode detection to support sustainable urban mobility
title_full MobilitApp: a deep learning-based tool for transport mode detection to support sustainable urban mobility
title_fullStr MobilitApp: a deep learning-based tool for transport mode detection to support sustainable urban mobility
title_full_unstemmed MobilitApp: a deep learning-based tool for transport mode detection to support sustainable urban mobility
title_sort MobilitApp: a deep learning-based tool for transport mode detection to support sustainable urban mobility
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Caravaca Ibáñez, Gerard
Cruz Llopis, Luis Javier de la|||0000-0003-4171-8310
Catalin Diaconeasa, Adrian
Bazán Guillén, Alberto|||0000-0001-8634-6907
Aguilar Igartua, Mónica|||0000-0002-6518-888X
author Caravaca Ibáñez, Gerard
author_facet Caravaca Ibáñez, Gerard
Cruz Llopis, Luis Javier de la|||0000-0003-4171-8310
Catalin Diaconeasa, Adrian
Bazán Guillén, Alberto|||0000-0001-8634-6907
Aguilar Igartua, Mónica|||0000-0002-6518-888X
author_role author
author2 Cruz Llopis, Luis Javier de la|||0000-0003-4171-8310
Catalin Diaconeasa, Adrian
Bazán Guillén, Alberto|||0000-0001-8634-6907
Aguilar Igartua, Mónica|||0000-0002-6518-888X
author2_role author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Transport mode detection
Activity recognition
Deep learning
Mobility sensors
Sustainable urban mobility
MobilitApp
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria de la telecomunicació::Telemàtica i xarxes d'ordinadors
topic Transport mode detection
Activity recognition
Deep learning
Mobility sensors
Sustainable urban mobility
MobilitApp
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria de la telecomunicació::Telemàtica i xarxes d'ordinadors
description The visible effects of climate change in urban areas are driving a paradigm shift in societal and political priorities. Urban planners, public transport providers, and traffic managers are increasingly focused on redesigning cities to promote sustainable mobility and create green spaces for pedestrians, cyclists, and scooter users. In alignment with these objectives, the European Climate Law mandates a minimum 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050. Achieving these targets requires robust tools to collect and analyze mobility data, enabling the evaluation of citizens’ travel habits and the planning of sustainable urban infrastructure. This study presents MobilitApp, a tool developed based on a deep learning (DL) model for real-time detection of transportation modes using smartphone sensor data. Our approach leverages a hierarchical model combining convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for feature extraction and long short-term memory (LSTM) layers for temporal processing, enhanced by skip connections. To ensure computational efficiency on mobile devices, the system integrates statistical techniques for early motion detection, minimizing reliance on DL models. The model was trained on a dataset of multimodal trips in Barcelona, achieving over 80% accuracy for most transport modes and a weighted average accuracy of 88%. These results highlight the effectiveness of our approach for accurately predicting users’ transport modes during their trips. The MobilitApp tool provides an intuitive platform for collecting and analyzing urban mobility data. By analyzing travel patterns, transport modes, and mode-switching behaviors, it delivers actionable insights to city planners, aiding in the enhancement of urban mobility, promotion of sustainable development, and transition to greener cities.
publishDate 2025
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2025
2025-04-15
2025
2025-04-25
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv journal article
http://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501
VoR
http://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85
dc.type.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
format article
dc.identifier.none.fl_str_mv https://hdl.handle.net/2117/428448
https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3561238
url https://hdl.handle.net/2117/428448
https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3561238
dc.language.none.fl_str_mv Inglés
eng
language_invalid_str_mv Inglés
language eng
dc.relation.none.fl_str_mv Agencia Estatal de Investigación http://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2021-2023 PID2023-148716OB-C32 DISCOVERY: PROTOCOLOS EN REDES DE COMUNICACIONES Y PRIVACIDAD DE DATOS
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.rights.openaire.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv open access
http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv application/pdf
dc.publisher.none.fl_str_mv Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
publisher.none.fl_str_mv Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
instname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
instname_str Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
reponame_str UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
collection UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
repository.name.fl_str_mv
repository.mail.fl_str_mv
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spelling MobilitApp: a deep learning-based tool for transport mode detection to support sustainable urban mobilityCaravaca Ibáñez, GerardCruz Llopis, Luis Javier de la|||0000-0003-4171-8310Catalin Diaconeasa, AdrianBazán Guillén, Alberto|||0000-0001-8634-6907Aguilar Igartua, Mónica|||0000-0002-6518-888XTransport mode detectionActivity recognitionDeep learningMobility sensorsSustainable urban mobilityMobilitAppÀrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria de la telecomunicació::Telemàtica i xarxes d'ordinadorsThe visible effects of climate change in urban areas are driving a paradigm shift in societal and political priorities. Urban planners, public transport providers, and traffic managers are increasingly focused on redesigning cities to promote sustainable mobility and create green spaces for pedestrians, cyclists, and scooter users. In alignment with these objectives, the European Climate Law mandates a minimum 55% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050. Achieving these targets requires robust tools to collect and analyze mobility data, enabling the evaluation of citizens’ travel habits and the planning of sustainable urban infrastructure. This study presents MobilitApp, a tool developed based on a deep learning (DL) model for real-time detection of transportation modes using smartphone sensor data. Our approach leverages a hierarchical model combining convolutional neural networks (CNNs) for feature extraction and long short-term memory (LSTM) layers for temporal processing, enhanced by skip connections. To ensure computational efficiency on mobile devices, the system integrates statistical techniques for early motion detection, minimizing reliance on DL models. The model was trained on a dataset of multimodal trips in Barcelona, achieving over 80% accuracy for most transport modes and a weighted average accuracy of 88%. These results highlight the effectiveness of our approach for accurately predicting users’ transport modes during their trips. The MobilitApp tool provides an intuitive platform for collecting and analyzing urban mobility data. By analyzing travel patterns, transport modes, and mode-switching behaviors, it delivers actionable insights to city planners, aiding in the enhancement of urban mobility, promotion of sustainable development, and transition to greener cities.This work was supported in part by Spanish Government funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 under Research Projects ’’DIstributed Smart Communications with Verifiable EneRgy-optimal Yields (DISCOVERY)’’ under Grant PID2023-148716OB-C32 and ’’Enhancing Communication Protocols with Machine Learning while Protecting Sensitive Data (COMPROMISE)’’ under Grant PID2020-113795RB-C31; partially funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union (EU) NextGenerationEU/PRTR (Plan de Recuperación, Transformación y Resiliencia) under Research Project ’’Anonymization Technology for AI-Based Analytics of Mobility Data (MOBILYTICS)’’ under Grant TED2021-129782B-I00; in part by the Predoctoral Scholarship ‘‘Generación de Conocimiento- Projects Call 2022’’ under Grant PRE2021-099830; and in part by the Generalitat de Catalunya under AGAUR(Agència de Gestió d’Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca) Grant 2021-SGR-01413.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats SosteniblesObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats Sostenibles::11.2 - Per a 2030, proporcionar accés a sistemes de transport segurs, assequibles, accessi­bles i sostenibles per a totes les persones, i millorar la seguretat viària, en particular mitjan­çant l’ampliació del transport públic, amb especial atenció a les necessitats de les persones en situació vulnerable, dones, nenes, nens, persones amb discapacitat i persones gransInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)20252025-04-1520252025-04-25journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501VoRhttp://purl.org/coar/version/c_970fb48d4fbd8a85info:eu-repo/semantics/articleapplication/pdfhttps://hdl.handle.net/2117/428448https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3561238reponame:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPCinstname:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)InglésengAgencia Estatal de Investigación http://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033 Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2021-2023 PID2023-148716OB-C32 DISCOVERY: PROTOCOLOS EN REDES DE COMUNICACIONES Y PRIVACIDAD DE DATOSopen accesshttp://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_abf2Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessoai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/4284482026-05-27T15:37:01Z
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