# Methodology to Assess Sustainable Mobility in LATAM Cities
## 4 Discussion
_Access to data:_ The KPIs should be evaluated through well-established procedures and based on data easy to obtain at a reduced incremental cost. The use of web map services to evaluate the infrastructure available in the city for mobility is easy to implement. Similarly happens with the use of telematics data to evaluate the average speed and real fuel consumption. In addition, most cities operate air quality monitoring networks and have implemented inspection and maintenance programs for their circulating vehicles. The proposed methodology use in its assessment of these data, which can be obtained at a relatively negligible incremental cost. However, access to this data and the permanent actualization of the data depends on third companies, and their analysis requires qualified personnel. _Need for reference values for each \(\textit{KPI}_{i}\) free from subjectivities:_ the establishment of reference values for each \(\textit{KPI}_{i}\) is a major issue. People have a good sense of what sustainable urban mobility is. However, there is not a clear and well-accepted definition for it. As a consequence, it is hard to establish objective reference values. For example, the length of roads per habitant is a common KPI. Cities with few km/hab of roads limit people's mobility and the transportation of goods. However, more km/hab of roads do not imply better mobility. Highly concentrated cities do not solve their mobility problems by increasing the number of roads. Perhaps there exists an intermediate value for this \(\textit{KPI}_{i}\) that could be considered as a reference independently of the size of the city and its particularities. As a first approximation, in this work, we used as reference values for the \(\textit{KPI}_{i}\), the values reported for cities similar to Saltillo that people consider as having good mobility. Additional work is needed to identify the appropriate reference values for each \(\textit{KPI}_{i}\). _Inclusion of the smart mobility concept within the proposed methodology:_ Smart mobility is related to the use of data to reorganize the way people and goods move within the city. Therefore, this methodology must include additional KPIs and reference values to evaluate the degree of smartness of the urban mobility in the city under assessment. _Suitability of the methodology to identify strategies oriented toward improving sustainable mobility:_ The knowledge of the present situation of the mobility system thorough the methodology here proposed leads to identify the aspects of the mobility system that need to be improved. This is because the use of indicators per category connects observable effects related to mobility with its root causes. However, this knowledge does not by itself identify the most effective sustainable strategies to be implemented. An additional intermediate step needs to be performed. Usually, authorities working in this area use common sense to fulfill this gap and explore the applicability of successful mobility strategies implemented in similar cities. We recommended the use of tools, such as MAITEC ([PERSON], 2021), that evaluate the effect of the potential strategies on the city's mobility, energy consumption, air pollution, and impact on people's health, using micro traffic simulation plus the air pollutants dispersion modeling. However, the use of these tools is computationally expensive and required specialized personnel. For the case of Saltillo, the mobility assessment and this additional step of exploring sustainable strategies to improve mobility resulted in the strategies listed below. They were conceived and ranked with the direct participation of the multiple stakeholders described in Figure. Details on the process of defining these strategies will be published in a companion paper.