Evaluating urban transport systems: A systematic review for the identification of sustainable mobility indicators for Latin America

In recent decades, the acceleration of climate change has posed significant challenges to policy makers. Transport systems are important for the economy, urban development, and daily life activities, but they also have a negative impact on human health and the natural environment. In Latin America, the prevailing approach to urban transport and land use planning continues to favour faster, longer and more private motorised trips. Therefore, policy-making aid tools with a sustainability approach are necessary to meet international sustainability commitments. Despite the existence of numerous scientific works on the evaluation of sustainable urban mobility, a few are applied to Latin American transport systems. Therefore, this paper proposes the S ustainable U rban M obility I ndicators for LAT in AM erica (SUMI-LATAM), developed using the Slow cities concept, which advocates for slower cities and lesser transport intensity. A systematic literature review was conducted to develop the SUMI-LATAM, which is composed of 5 dimensions, 21 categories, and 50 indicators. The review also reveals that walking and cycling, being alternative sustainable transport modes, are still underestimated and underrepresented in most of the reviewed studies. New transport systems, such as smart mobility, electric vehicles, and shared vehicles, are 20% of the reviewed works. The most common evaluation framework are composite indexes (50%), followed by indicator´s systems (16%), and multicriteria decision making methods (14%). The framework contributes to the literature by identifying, categorising, and integrating current challenges in Latin American urban transportation with a sustainability and a “slow cities” approach.