Opening the cycling and walking tracking potential

Project Information

TRACE

Grant agreement ID: 635266

DOI

10.3030/635266

Project closed

EC signature date 17 April 2015

Start date 1 June 2015

End date 31 May 2018

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 2 896 984,75

EU contribution

€ 2 896 984,75

Coordinated by

INESC ID INSTITUTO DE ENGENHARIADE SISTEMAS E COMPUTADORES INVESTIGACAO E DESENVOLVIMENTO EM LISBOA
Portugal

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - TRACE (Opening the cycling and walking tracking potential)

Reporting period: 2016-12-01 to 2018-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The project TRACE explored the potential of walking and cycling tracking services to promote walking and cycling mobility.
We focused on established walking and cycling promotion measures and thoroughly assessed the potential of ICT based tracking
services to overcome barriers to implementation and finding new factors driving the effectiveness of those measures.

Through specific research, the related ICT challenges like scheme dynamics, privacy, trust, low-cost, interoperability and flexibility
were tackled for each type of measure. Measures were established to promote walking and cycling travel to workplace, shopping,
school and leisure promotion measures.

We investigated both the ability that tracking tools may have to address traditional challenges of these measures and their
potential to bring new features in the fields of awareness raising, financial/tax incentives, infrastructure planning and service concepts.

A common, flexible and open access tool was developed to provide an ICT input and output platform that addresses the
related ICT challenges. Over this platform it is easy for anyone to build products based on tracking services tailored
to the requirements of the specific measures.

This project developed and tested a representative set of such products in real measures. These test cases,
at the same time, validated and provided additional inputs for the project’s research issues and triggered the widespread of
tracking services to support walking and cycling measures in Europe. Users, policy makers and walking and cycling practitioners
and final users were be deeply involved in all stages of the project.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

All the deliverables and milestones have been attained. The reasons for some delays that have occurred are described in the comments attached to each deliverable/milestone; please note that the delays that have occurred were all duly communicated to the PO and have not had any negative impact on further deliverables and milestones.

In particular, the results that have been achieved can be summarized along the following groups:

1) Obtain feedback from the "real-world" regarding the behavior changes applications (also designated as tools):
- Sending of surveys to stakeholders
- Identification of stakeholders' needs for cycling and walking planning
- Workshop with Take Up Groups
- Workshop on indicators and redefining planning approaches
- TRACE Take-Up Group meetings

2) While taking into account the results from the previous milestones (group above) make the specifications and develop the applications/tools:
- Finalization of specifications for behavior change tools
- Finalization of specifications for tracking for planning tools
- Finalization of ICT prototypes of integrated solutions

3) The most recent results were the applications (i.e. the tools previously mentioned:
- Finalization of tools for testing
- Realization of pilot implementation strategies
- Conclusions

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

TRACE’s identity comes from the realization that the emergence of tracking-enabling technologies and their market uptake opens a window of potential for cycling and walking tracking-based solutions to increase cycling and walking. New as they are in the market, the possible uses of these technologies are still depending on further developments which manage that potential. There are still theoretical and practical knowledge limitations of various types that are constraining a higher uptake.

TRACE aimed at leading the progress on this knowledge and to quickly and widely spread it to the relevant players: cities, national/regional authorities, local stakeholders potentially benefiting and relevant business players.
TRACE achieved so in several ways:
- By providing an open knowledge base on cycling and walking tracking potential, challenges, solutions and benefits that can be consulted and applied by stakeholders
- By providing (open access) tools addressing fundamental ICT challenges which can be used by market-oriented application developers
- By developing market oriented tools that will be used by the TRACE sites and could be used anywhere else
- By running a set of 8 pilot cases which will become (successful) examples for other sites to follow
- By using the consortium’s network of cities and stakeholders, including the project followers, as well as umbrella organizations (besides the participant POLIS) of relevant stakeholders (like CIVINET), to convey TRACE’s messages and tools
- By setting up web-based communication channels and using related information platforms (e.g. ELTIS) to widespread news and project outputs
- By directly involving partners which will be commercially interested in developing top-notch tools and spreading the most their application towards cycling and walking promotion

Even if they are subjective in terms of meaning and basis for estimation, TRACE focused on the following indicators and targets until the end of the project:
- Each of the four TRACE's products continue to be used as economically sustainable products after the end of the TRACE pilots
- To have at least 20 effective users of the TRACE products (followers) with a good spread over the EU
- That at least 4 other products/applications are developed using the knowledge and open access tools developed
- That the project and its pilots become known to at least 100 other European cities

fig1-stakeholder-assessment-to-characterize-the-interests-of-stakeholders-related-to-tracking-data.gif