# Methodology to Assess Sustainable Mobility in LATAM Cities
## 1 Introduction
_Need:_ In summary, most studies have assessed urban mobility based on quantitative and qualitative indicators, and they evaluate the mobility of the city of interest by comparing those local indicators with the reported for other cities. However, these works do not fully describe the process to obtain representative values for those indexes. There is still little available information and a lack of transparency on the mobility assessment schemes used. The low level of replicability of the assessment schemes used in some studies, as well as the use of information focused mostly on developed countries, limits their application to LATAM countries. Table 2 shows that the few studies carried out in developing countries still focused with broader importance on motorized vehicles [10] and included infrastructure and political aspects [6; 11]. Additionally, the list of indicators used in the already evaluated cities is limited and, in some cases, obtainable through a membership fee [27] or consultancy assessment [28]. These circumstances result in limited information for benchmarking medium-sized LATAM cities. [PERSON] et al. [33], concluded that models developed in Europe, the United States, or Canada to assess sustainability in any aspect are not designed to capture the existing inequalities in LATAM because they do not have the potential to consider local particularities. Even small differences found in LATAM socioeconomic characteristics directly influence the way in which people move from one place to another [34]. To address LATAM mobility, [PERSON] and [PERSON] [35] carried out a study in five LATAM cities using the Sustainable Development of Energy, Water, and Environment Systems (SDEWES) index, which was developed by a non-governmental and a non-profit scientific organization based in Croatia. As in many other similar cases, when applying a European sustainability index, [PERSON] and [PERSON] had complications when using the 35 indicators proposed by SDEWES since these were based on data publicly available in the Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAP) that are carried out on European cities. LATAM cities have unique characteristics that induce needs of transport which are different from other regions. Cities are highly populated, unplanned, spread, and usually located in mountainous regions. Cities are highly stratified, with people with the lowest income living on the outskirts of the city. Consequently, the working class must travel long distances for work. Railway systems have not been considered an appropriate mode of transportation for these cities located in mountainous regions. Thus, mobility in LATAM cities is based on diesel-fueled buses. Metro, subways, and trains are rare. The use of bicycles as an alternative mode of transportation just started to emerge in the main cities. The transportation of people has been dominated by a few private companies that have a very strong political power. The participation of people in mobility-related decisions is negligible. Under these circumstances, the straight use of the methodologies reported in the literature to assess mobility in LATAM cities could result erroneously in transport systems with high scores in terms of urban mobility. For example, when compared with European cities, the LATAM transport system based on buses exhibits excellent performance in cost per km traveled, and average distances traveled. However, LATAM transport systems are frequently socially unacceptable because the service is scarce, with low coverage, and based on highly polluting outdated buses. Furthermore, the straight use of these methodologies could mislead the decision-making process of governmental authorities, who usually have ended up concentrating their resources in new roads for private vehicles when the root cause of mobility problems could be the city's distribution.