Why TRACE?
The TRACE project sees a need for:
- Taking advantage of the emergence and market uptake of technologies for mobile and ubiquitous computing that allows affordable and accessible ways of walking and cycling tracking.
- Expanding the knowledge and leveraging the potential of walking and cycling tracking.
- Seizing the potential of tracking services in fueling the behavioural change in favour of walking and cycling.
The Trace Mission
The European funded TRACE project will assess the potential of movement tracking services to better plan and promote walking and cycling in cities, and develop tracking tools that will fuel the take up of walking and cycling measures.
How?
The project targets established measures to promote cycling and walking to the workplace, to school, for shopping purposes or simply for leisure. More particularly, TRACE will assess the potential of ICT based tracking services to optimise the planning and implementation of such measures and enhance their attractiveness and potential impact. Issues such as data privacy, cost, interoperability, financial/tax incentives, infrastructure planning and service concepts will be addressed.
Dedicated TRACE tracking based tools to promote behaviour change and support mobility planning will be tested in eight pilot sites: Breda (NL), Agueda (PT), Southend on Sea Borough (UK), Bologna (IT), Esch (LU), Belgrade (RS), Plovdiv (BG) and Belgium, and evaluated in terms of impacts, success factors and benefits, while preparing for their full commercial exploitation. To that end, common, flexible and open access tools will be developed that address related ICT challenges and enable the development of products based on tracking services tailored to the requirements of specific measures by market-oriented application developers.
Users, policy makers, and walking and cycling practitioners will be closely involved in all stages of the project.
Expected results and impacts
TRACE is expected to increase and optimise the use of ICT tracking services for the promotion and planning of cycling and walking in cities through:
- An open knowledge base on cycling and walking tracking possibilities, challenges, solutions and benefits
- Open access tools addressing fundamental ICT challenges to be used by market-oriented application developers
- Market-oriented tools to be used in the TRACE sites and elsewhere
- Direct involvement of commercial actors interested in developing top-notch tools for cycling and walking promotion
- 8 pilots that will become successful examples for other sites to follow
- Widespread promotion and take-up of TRACE’s tools and approaches by cities and related stakeholders, thanks to the project’s extensive dissemination and take-up activities.
