‘I'm Tight on Time, So Let's Make It a Fast Interview on the Go’: Rapid Serial Interview for Quick Ethnographies With Busy People

ABSTRACT Participating in research is rarely a priority in time‐pressured urban lives, posing practical and ethical challenges for qualitative inquiry. This paper examines how rapid qualitative methods can be used reflexively and rigorously to generate analytic depth while reducing participant burden. Focusing on two urban transport studies—bike‐sharing in Hong Kong and public transport in Wrocław—we document the early, exploratory use of quick ethnography, serial‐in‐motion interviews, free listing and vignette‐based elicitation as context‐sensitive tools for researching people–place relations in mobile settings. Rather than treating the cases as comparative, we use them as methodological testbeds to reflect on how rapid approaches operate across different political, cultural and temporal constraints. In Hong Kong, insider‐led, solo rapid inquiry enabled discreet engagement under political sensitivity, revealing socio‐political meanings attached to bike‐sharing through brief, participant‐led walk‐along encounters. In Wrocław, outsider‐led, team‐based rapid inquiry used vignette‐based interviews to explore intergenerational norms in public transport and to inform subsequent survey design. Across both cases, analytic depth was accumulated through systems‐oriented serial engagement, constant comparison and reflexive memoing, rather than prolonged interaction with individuals. The paper argues that rapidity can function as a form of care, empowering participants through choice, mobility and implicit exit, while also supporting researcher self‐care under uncertainty. By foregrounding systems thinking, positionality and ethical reflexivity, the study demonstrates how rapid qualitative inquiry can be both analytically robust and care‐full, offering practical guidance for urban researchers working in time‐scarce, politically sensitive and mobile contexts.