WeCount
The aim? The inclusion of citizens in the policymaking process of new urban mobility solutions.
WeCount addressed these challenges by putting citizens at the heart of research and policymaking on urban mobility. WeCount took an innovative citizen science approach to gather data on local mobility issues through road traffic sensors. Road traffic counting sensors were mounted on participating
households’ windows facing a road, allowing authorities to quantify local road transport and the speed of cars, large vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. Crowd-sourcing methods of data collection provide a cost-effective option for local authorities at a far greater temporal and spatial scale than what would typically be possible in classic traffic counting campaigns and will therefore open up new opportunities for transportation policymaking and research. Data gathered has been used to formulate informed solutions to tackle a variety of local road transport challenges, thus improving the quality of life at the neighbourhood level.
WeCount builds on the success of the Telraam project in Flanders and was carried out in five pilot cities: Madrid, Ljubljana, Dublin, Cardiff and Leuven.
Explore below some of this project's key outputs!
- WeCount Policy Brief #1 (2020): This brief focuses on the UVAR Box digitisation tool, outlining national approaches to digitisation and offering a forward-looking perspective on the production, updating, and practical use of digitised data in the future. You can read it here.
- WeCount Policy Brief #2 (2021): This brief presents recommendations developed as part of the project, focusing on citizen science for sustainable urban mobility, in particular on empowering citizen traffic counters to shape local policy. You can check it out here.
- WeCount Advocacy Toolkit (2021): This toolkit is designed for citizens who wish to advocate for change in urban mobility. Inside, you will learn about data collection and analysis, as well as the different forms of advocacy you can take part in. It also explores ways to diversify campaign groups and audience participation. Explore it here!
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