WeCount Project
Monitor traffic and air pollution in your local community and use the data to create healthier and more sustainable communities.
Посібник із 5 кроків
Прочитайте посібник, щоб розпочати свій власний проєкт WeCount Project
Посібник із 5 кроків
Прочитайте посібник, щоб розпочати свій власний проєкт WeCount Project
Scope out your project and build your team
The first step is to get a better understanding of traffic-related issues in your neighbourhood. You could do this in the following ways:
- An online neighbourhood survey
- Desk research of the traffic-related information from publicly available sources as well as of the most affected areas in your community;
- Interviews with local community members;
Start building your team & building support for the project within your local community - how?
- Focus group conversations;
- Street chats;
- Mapping of perceived issues by neighbourhood
- Interactive map canvas to be populated with perceived issues;
- Dreaming together;
- Traffic timeline.
You should team up with people in your local community to have at least 5-10 sensor and collect data for the most impacted roads in your area. Teaming up with a local school would be also important as children are the most affected by air pollution.
Community Building - why?
- To start an ongoing process to form the community of participants (this will be ongoing throughout the project to leave it open for other citizens to join WeCount);
- To identify and establish community champions early in the process.
- Massive local communication campaign through website social media, flyers, stickers, posters, letters etc. – dissemination strategy informed by stakeholders’ mapping;
- Snowballing from first participants recruited (e.g. through initial survey);
- Storytelling: videos, pictures, mind-maps;
- Call for pilots;
- WeCount Launch event / party;
- Flyers for neighbours
- Mapping important routes;
- Recruitment Cards (only physical workshop)
Order your sensors and decide their location
- You will need to order a pack of sensors
- You can purchase a single Telraam S2 device to count traffic on your street
- The name of the package you need is "Telroom S2 - Personal"
- Click here to ensure you purchase the correct one
- You can also access this, by clicking here and scrolling to the bottom of the page to read about the 'Telraam S2'
They need to be installed indoors at a window with a clear view of the road to be monitored. Here is some further info on the installation.
Install your sensors and complete online training / watch installation videos
The instructions on how to install and operate the traffic sensors are available here:
https://telraam.net/en/our-traffic-counter
And you can find more general instructions here:
https://faq.telraam.net/
Begin to collect and analyse the data
We are currently developing new tools to allow local communities to analyse the data. We will post news about them and where to find them here, so stay tuned: https://twitter.com/DublinWecount
The tools will help you to present the data as evidence to enable your local community to advocate for some sustainable mobility in your area.
Use the data to begin taking action
The final goal will be to leverage the data and the data-analysis tools to put together a short policy proposal to be presented to the local authority as supporting evidence to ask for lower speed limits, traffic calming measures, protected bike lanes, School Zones, etc.
Про WeCount Project
"I've been interested in gathering transportation data for years around my village. The traffic has always been terrible and unacknowledged by the council which wouldnt accept (rightly in fairness) the anecdotal evidence of locals. WeCount has empowered me to go out into the community and through the support of local volunteers, establish quantifiable evidence of how bad and unsustainable the traffic is in the Castleknock area. I'd never have been able to afford the sensors out of pocket myself so being empowered by receiving the equipment was the spark I needed to set about measuring and thus highlighting an issue that effects all of us in the locality. I've personally found that people are often willing to help when given an opportunity. The WeCount experiment gives us that opportunity. It's been a wonderful experience for me to get in touch with fellow residents and bring together a diverse group of people. We're already gaining really valuable insights into how traffic flows through my area. I am hoping that the data generated can support my Local Authority to deliver improved, sustainable traffic management systems. I am immensely grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in and facilitate the WeCount experiment out in Castleknock and I hope many more in the future get that same opportunity. "
Чудово підходить для
- Someone who is interested in citizen science
- Someone who is interested in sustainable mobility and air quality
- Someone who is passionate about advocating for healthy, more sustainable communities
Час
You'll need to dedicate a couple of hours to setting up the sensors and initial engagement with your local community. Ongoing monitoring of the data and working with your local community to advocate for policy change will require approximately 2 hours a week.
Список ресурсів
- Your sensors - order link in the 5 Step Guide
- Buy-in from local community / school etc
- A small team of volunteers
- Access to the WeCount resources for data analysis and policy advocacy