Virtual reality and data analysis based platform for urban mobility awareness as a tool for road education

The constant growth of public and private transport can be understood as a fundamental pillar for the development of integrated mobility systems, as it is giving way to an expansion and improvement of the way people move and, therefore, generating a better quality of life. However, road education and awareness of traffic and transport regulations are at a critical point, because its dissemination needs to cover an increasing number of people, both in urban and rural areas. Conversely, it is known that the development of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has made it possible to globalize Internet access and services from government entities to citizens, so its integration with public mobility, transit, and transport companies is of vital importance. Consequently, this article discusses a proposal to generate a road education platform for Conscious Urban Mobilization (MUC) developed by the Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS) and the Empresa Publica Municipal de Movilidad, Tránsito y Transporte (EMOV EP) of the city of Cuenca (MUC-UPS-EMOV). In this way, it seeks to address two specific objectives: i) the development of virtual reality (VR) systems for learning transport and transit rules through serious games; and, ii) the creation of a mobility web observatory for disseminating information through digital activism, and data visualization and analysis. In addition, prototypes of the VR systems that will be part of MUC-UPS-EMOV are presented, which are based on the analysis of the traffic accidents that occurred during the years 2017 and 2019 within the city of Cuenca.