News

The Cardiff case study primarily explored the interlinkages between road transport and air pollution.

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As WeCount officially comes to an end, partners reflected on the project’s main results, drafting policy recommendations building upon evidence from its real-life examples for achieving change by proactive citizens in co-designing local traffic policies.

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Do you want to engage in local activism, but you don’t know where to start? Fear not, for WeCount’s partners from the University of West of England, in Bristol, have developed a handy Advocacy Toolkit to support groups working for more liveable streets.

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Traffic volumes around schools are a major concern for citizens in Dublin. The newly-launched video sheds a light on WeCount’s activities in the Irish capital, and how citizens are striving doe more sustainable urban mobility.

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If urban mobility is to be truly sustainable, it must be designed around the needs of the public. However, understanding these requirements, and securing accurate and accessible data, is often complex. Citizen science is proving an effective tool for generating and analysing data on urban mobility, with findings helping to shape policymaking.

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Road transport has been a contentious issue in Cardiff for several years. Born out of frustration that the city is not making sufficient use of its immeasurable potential for active travel, citizens across the city have campaigned for more sustainable urban mobility options. Now Cardiff citizens have the quantitative data to support their arguments and are using it to challenge the status quo and push for more ambitious and accelerated change.

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Traffic volumes around schools are a major concern for citizens in Dublin. The Dublin case study is providing traffic and air quality monitors to local schools to help them collect objective measurements outside the school gate.

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WeCount is a EU-funded project based on citizen science, which helps create engagement, data, momentum and support research on street safety and pollution. To better understand the citizen science approach, we talk with two European citizen science projects, Cittadini per l’Aria and CurieuzenAir, to have a look into their experiences and perspectives.

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Next step, destination Ljubljana! In a brand new video, WeCount's partner, the University of Ljubljana introduces the project's local impact on mobility. The data obtained from the Telraam sensors is essential to support sustainable, safe and active mobility across the city.

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The WeCount project, in the scope of the activities of the Residents striving for sustainable cities group, is organising a workshop on October 12th, to present their findings and the most successful strategies to engage citizens in the transition to green smart cities.

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Speeding cars, traffic jams, air pollution… these are but a few of the grievances the average city dweller contends with daily. Below the driving age, children do not contribute to these problems, yet they are among the most vulnerable to their consequences. To allow children to safely make their way to school, without the need to breathe in polluted air and to arrive on time, the EU citizen science project WeCount, together with DETI Inspire, has launched a series of educational resources for primary and secondary pupils.

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In WeCount, our aim is to empower locals to take the lead in producing data, evidence and knowledge on mobility in their own neighbourhoods. Ideas for Change has led the implementation and development of the pilot projects in Barcelona and Madrid, following a participatory citizen science approach to co-create and use traffic counting sensors. We are thrilled to see the involvement of local communities in the project and looking forward to see further impacts!

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Students from the Department of Urbanism at the University of Ljubljana used the data obtained from the Telraam devices, to assess the traffic flows and the adequate road infrastructure. This is a valuable tool for the city to improve the quality and quantity of cycling areas by making the streets cycling-friendly, which is usually reflected in the increase in the share of cycling trips in the city.

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What do engaged citizens think about their experience at WeCount? A survey carried out by the University of West England Bristol allowed us to develop a clear overview thanks to the feedback received from the citizens involved in WeCount pilots in the Belgian city of Leuven and the Spanish cities of Madrid and Barcelona. This allows us to develop a clear understanding of the motivations and characteristics of the participating citizens as well as their satisfaction levels!

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WeCount's new impact story is out now! In the city of Barcelona, engaged community was able to use new artefacts, tools and methodology to become directly involved in their own city's road safety and find solutions to traffic volumes and speed compliance.

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WeCount's preliminary results from the Madrid and Barcelona pilots are available! The cooperation with local champions allowed us to gather valuable mobility data and insights into pollution levels across cities.

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As cities roll out new urban access regulations it becomes evident that their deployment only tells half the story. Often, local authorities struggle with enforcing new rules due to a variety of reasons: ranging from appropriate infrastructure to a lack of user awareness about the new regulations in place. Can grassroots activism assist local authorities in better enforcing specific rules? Can low-cost traffic-counting sensors like Telraam provide evidence to back these efforts? An experience resulting from the Leuven pilot of the WeCount project can answer these questions.

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As WeCount nears the finishing line, we will be featuring insights from each one of the case studies of the project. We now turn our attention to Leuven, the Belgian city that brought us the Telraam sensor which has been instrumental in the traffic counting activities that our local champions have carried out.

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Citizens are at the heart of WeCount’s activities. Our worldwide army of citizen scientists are collecting data on urban traffic, helping local authorities to make informed shifts towards sustainable mobility. At a time when cities are seeking effective and accessible alternatives to private passenger vehicles, such data is critical.

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Traffic is a major headache for cities and regions around the world. However, the impacts of congestion extend far beyond the monotony of sitting in a static queue. As we learn more about the impacts on humans and urban wildlife, tackling traffic is more important than ever. But this requires data…

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WeCount develops useful infographics on challenges faced during times of crisis and advice for overcoming them.

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The Sustainable Urban Mobility Indicators (SUMI) are guiding cities and urban areas towards implementing truly sustainable mobility systems, and WeCount data can assist.

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WeCount partner, Transport & Mobility Leuven has been awarded Information Flanders’ ‘best API’ prize for its traffic measurement program with Telraam.

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As part of WeCount’s effort to calculate urban air quality, 1,000 Barcelona and Madrid residents will use strawberry plants to measure pollution in their cities.

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On 5 November, WeCount joined ClairCity for a webinar exploring citizen-led science. Panellists discussed how projects are pioneering urban mobility by the people, for the people; revealing issues policymakers across Europe- and the globe- will need to heed if they are to establish truly sustainable mobility agendas.

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As research is being pushed online, citizen science is an increasingly popular tool. However, if such initiatives are to be successful, they must learn from one another.

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This webinar, organized in association with Horizon 2020 funded project ClairCity, brings together experts from across the field to share experiences and advice.

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As the COVID-19 pandemic brought face-to-face scientific research to a screeching halt, analysts scrambled to find an alternative. Citizen science offered a solution. With portable, accessible and low cost software increasingly available, projects like WeCount have brought the public to the forefront of mobility studies. However, is this technological explosion really the nirvana it promises for citizen science?

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Two citizen science pilots are fully underway in Belgium (Leuven) and Spain (Madrid & Barcelona), involving 400 households. Citizens were given sensors to be mounted in their household’s windows to quantify local road transport and the speed of cars, large vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. Hybrid events took place to guide them through the process. The activities were developed in the scope of the EU-funded project WeCount.

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WeCount’s first Policy Brief builds upon the Citizen Science approach and methodology employed by the project, its shift from face-to-face to hybrid interactions and how the citizen-science and concept can help to tackle challenges brought about by COVID-19.

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WeCount will participate in the first edition of the Urban Mobility Days in the discussion focusing on “Data-driven decision making tools for small and medium-sized cities”, taking place on Thursday, October 1st, 10:30 – 11:30 (CET).

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WeCount is featured in the latest issue of the Thinking Cities Magazine, released in mid-July. The article focuses on how Citizen Science projects such as WeCount and the use of Telraam by engaged citizens proved essential in monitoring urban mobility patterns during the COVID-19 lockdown in Belgium.

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Are you curious to know more about how the Telraam sensor is installed? Look no further!

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At a time where monitoring changes in traffic is vital, WeCount will play a key role in informing decision-making in this challenging situation. Keep up to date with the latest on WeCount by signing up to our newsletter.

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Earlier this month, WeCount participated in one of POLIS’ webinars, as a part of a series prepared for its members, on COVID-19 and mobility, with a specific focus on planning mobility for post-lockdown.

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With major changes to travel habits across Europe, citizen science projects like WeCount are going to be increasingly important to monitor changes and inform decision-making, writes Griet De Ceuster.

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In the framework of the Horizon 2020 WeCount project Telraam is, spring 2020, returning to the place where it all started, Leuven in Belgium. In spring 2019, a small-scale test pilot with 100 newly-developed traffic counting devices, named Telraam, was carried out in Kessel-Lo, a dense neighbourhood in the city of Leuven. Aim was to investigate both the added value of those traffic counts for the sake of planning and policy making. Second part of this pilot was to test the citizen engagement aspect. Would the audience appreciate this citizen-science tool, and would they volunteer to host such device at their homes. Ever since, the return on both of these aspects has been overwhelming.

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Six high-level participants launch the Citizens Observing Urban Transport project WeCount, established in the aim to empower citizens in five European cities to take a leading role in the production of the data, evidence and knowledge that is generated around mobility in their own communities.

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