Testing a new mobile application to study public spaces

There is growing interest in the study of the use of streets and adjacent public spaces. This paper highlights a case study conducted at a public square in Montreal. The objective is to evaluate a mobile data collection tool developed for the study of public spaces and its performance, while characterizing the use of the space. To do so, five observers made over 1200 unique observations. The analysis shows the variability between observers differs according to the observed variable and nearly 4 % of the clicks were made to correct an erroneous input.