Hi, I’m quite new to Telraam and I have a device recently installed in a low traffic road in my small town (about 15.000 inhabitants).
I would like my local government representatives to take an interest in Telraam and involve them in participatory traffic monitoring; I’m looking for advice/good practices/short factsheets to be able to explain why and this is important and how make it possible.
Do any of you have local use case to be used as good example about how actually things have been improved with the use of Telraam monitoring?
As an additional information, in the coming years (by 2026), big changes will happen in the main street of the town, due to the creation of a tram line, which likely will radically change the traffic patterns in the same road and also in the adjacent ones: a detailed and extensive monitoring of the traffic should be (in my opinion) a mandatory step to create mobility measures with reliable data measured before, during and after the construction of the tram line. For this reason, I’d like very much to be able to raise the attention of the local administration on the possibility to do so in a participatory way together with local people.
Many thanks in advance for any hint!
This is a great question and a fine challenge! Thanks for raising it @alessandro.sarretta
As you say, it would seem sensible that any major mobility intervention should include an analysis of the effects (positive and negative) on traffic, and other citizen mobility, before, during and after the intervention.
Was there any investigation done in order to create the plan for the creation of the tram? What are the measured goals of the tram investment? I’m assuming they’ve got something along the lines of:
X car trips avoided
X citizens using the tram as a regular commuting / shopping travel mode of transport
reduction of X parking spaces to encourage switch to public transport and make space for the tram
x% improvement in air quality / noise pollution levels within the city/town
and so on …
many of these measures will require some understanding of the current baseline as well as the eventual results so that the local administration can demonstrate the value of their investment
I imagine that there will also be a huge disruption to local mobility during the building work (which will take a lot longer than planned!!) so it would make sense to monitor the effects as they happen, and to measure the effectiveness in “real time” as these are rolled out and tested.
If you see this post about the school streets closure, you can see how regular reviews highlighted issues of the initial closures and mitigated issues from displaced traffic. This could be a great way to promote the use of the devices to the local administration, since it will help them to react to conditions and to demonstrate they are doing their best for residents during the works.
Depending on the local conditions, the administration may also be looking for ways to engage with residents about the plans - why they are doing this, how it is working, etc.
If they had a volunteer “corps” of active citizen scientists who live on these streets who are counting data, they’d have a lot more people ready to discuss their data, their experience, and willing to co-create solutions. By recruiting those most motivated to make a success of the programme and to support it with data gathering, you are making sure that it is not only the most angry / noisy who will turn up to public meetings!
Do take a look at the Telraam blog to find other case-studies that might be relevant
I’m sure others have ideas to share, particularly the expert team at Mobiel21 who have extensive experience of citizen engagement activities like this
I do think this is a very common issue that others may have some insight into.
I believe @Droit_au_Velo has some very similar issues in France, and @Romain_Dalston is trying to get a local authority in London to create a Low Traffic Neighbourhood in his area.
The network in Châteaubourg have set up and used their local network effectively as well
Hi Alessandro,
Thanks indeed for raising this interesting and important question! May I ask where you are based? Just to get an idea of the type of town and government. I understand that you want to get a dialogue going with your local policymakers about mobility issues and how Telraam can help solve them? It’s a very good idea to gather some arguments and good practices, as well as illustrating the usefullness of your own data before the conversation starts.
Here are some tips, links and advices I can directly share:
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Think about the benefits for policymakers
Telraam has a great page on their website in Dutch, English and French for professionals / policymakers about what Telraam can do for them. It includes testimonals from policymakers and highlights what’s in it for them. Read it here: Telraam -
Analyse your own data and illustrate some interesting aspects
The best way to show you local government what they can do with Telraam is to present your own data: maybe you found out that there are many cyclists in combination with a lot of cars which leads to a lot of conflicts? Or you noticed a lot of heavy traffic in a small street profile? Or you spotted a lot of speeding at a certain time during the day? Or you’ve noticed changes in the numbers because of a certain intervention? … All of this is easy to analyse in your dashboard and you can share reports and images with externals.
Here are some tools to get you started with basic data analysis:
- Data Analysis Tutorial for citizens
- Define your street profile
- Defining Your Street Profile: A Quick Guide
- Get your neighbours on board
Having some back-up from your neighbours or the people living in the main street is a good way to get your policymakers listening. We have a great flyer you can put in the mailboxes to inform them about the existance of your Telraam. It should be available in English somewhere as well. And we also have it in French. Here’s the dutch one:
Telraam Flyer buren (1).pdf (1.2 MB) Let me know if you need it in a certain language. And If you have a window on street level you can also put a sign out or write the numbers on your window with a window marker like this person in Leuven did.
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Gather successtories
There are already a lot of successtories from all over the world were Telraam helped to improve local descicion making about mobility. As @Rob_Telraam already mentioned it is worth looking at the Telraam blog for these stories. And also right here on this platform we are sharing stories and expierences. Like this one about evaluating trial measures in a medium sized town in Belgium might be helpful to illustrate how Telraam can be used as a before, during and after measurement for mobility interventions: Zandhoven: Evaluating trial mobility measures with Telraam - #3 by sanne.vanderstraeten.
Furthermore we are trying to get more citizen experts on this platform to share their successtories themselves. So hopefully soon you’ll get some insights from them directly about convincing policymakers. -
Set a meeting with your local government and prepare a presentation
Once you have gathered relevant arguments and you’ve triggered the interest of your policymakers it’s a good idea to set a meeting and prepare a structured presentation. Here are some tips from my colleague: Meeting with your local government. We are always happy to help with this!
Hopefully this already gets you started! Don’t hesitate to ask more specific questions and definately keep us informed about how it is going. 
In this post at the end you can find the flyer and window cardboard in English by the way: