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DOI 10.60531/INSIGHTOUT.2024.2.8| LAI: SMART CITY TRANSITION_ INSIGHTOUT 2(2024) 48 Addressing accessi­bility barriers and tailoring services to meet gender-specific needs are crucial to enhance the inclusivity of smart mobility. play an important role not only in the de­velopment of the smart city concept, but also in individuals’ daily lives. During the Covid-19 pandemic in the early 2020s, smartphones were deemed the sole device to trace the movement of an in­dividual. 4 In some senses, smartphones became a tool that controlled the move­ment of a citizen. This theory is magnified by the concept of smart mobility. Being one of the six branches under the smart city definition, 5, 6 smart mobility is de­fined as the use of technologies to assist mobility systems so that seamless and on-demand access can be delivered. 7 Mobility as a Service(MaaS) is a key con­cept that emerged under smart mobility Introduction for the transportation of people. 8, 9 The usage of mobility applications(apps) installed on a While the smart city was first promoted as a contem- smartphone is key to unlocking this digital service. 10 porary concept by IBM in the mid-2000s, referring This precondition raises the hidden concern of social to the increasing application of information and com- exclusion sugar-coated as smart mobility. munication technology(ICT) in urban infrastructure, the concept only truly thrived after modern smart- Hong Kong is a densely populated city in the south phones became available. 1, 2 Smartphones can thus of China. It is particularly worth studying because even be claimed to be an essential“infrastructure” of the availability of sophisticated multimodal trans­in daily life because they influence citizens’ habits, portation services, and the undoubtedly high smart­as per the definition by Cass. 3 Indeed, smartphones phone penetration rate of the city. 11 In addition, Hong 1 Office of the Government Chief Information Officer,“Smart city development in Hong Kong”, IET Smart Cities , 1/1(2019), 23–27. 2 A. Birenboim and N. Shoval,“Mobility Research in the Age of the Smartphone”, Annals of the American Association of Geogra­phers , 106/2(2016), 283–291. 3 N. Cass, T. Schwanen and E. Shove,“Infrastructures, Intersections and Societal Transformations”, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 137(2018), 160–167. 4 M. Shahroz et al.,“COVID-19 Digital Contact Tracing Applications and Techniques: A Review Post Initial Deployments”, Transporta­tion Engineering , 5(2021), 100072. 5 R. Giffinger et al., Smart Cities. Ranking of European Medium-Sized Cities. Final Report (Vienna, 2007). 6 C. M. T. Lai and A. Cole,“Measuring Progress of Smart Cities: Indexing the Smart City Indices”, Urban Governance , 3/1(2022), 45–57. 7 L. M. Calabrese,“Smart Mobility: The Cases of Hong Kong and the Netherlands”, JET , 2/1(2013), 145–150. 8 I. Docherty, G. Marsden and J. Anable,“The Governance of Smart Mobility”, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 115(2018), 114–125. 9 P. Jittrapirom et al.,“Mobility as a Service: A Critical Review of Definitions, Assessments of Schemes, and Key Challenges”, UP, 2/2 (2017), 13–25. 10 K. Pangbourne et al.,“Questioning Mobility as a Service: Unanticipated Implications for Society and Governance”, Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice , 131(2020), 35–49. 11 https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/202003/26/P2020032600444.htm(accessed 12 Apr. 2024) .