Turning Intuition into Proof: Measuring the Impact of Urban Revitalization with GeoIndicators

When Saint-Vallier Ouest Street in Québec City launched one of the city’s largest commercial redevelopment projects, local merchants and decision-makers were cautiously optimistic. Who would actually visit the redesigned street? When? And what would the real economic impact be?

As local outlet Monsaintsauveur pointed out in their January 15, 2025 article, this uncertainty isn’t unique to this neighbourhood—it’s the same for every Business improvement areas or district manager asking: How do we prove that our investments are paying off—beyond positive weather, good intentions, or anecdotal feedback? Yes, merchants can cross-check sales and customer testimonials. But that still leaves part of the picture missing. This is where location data steps in, bringing a critical dimension: real visitor movements in space and time—and more importantly, how they evolve before, during, and after the project.

Le média local Monsaintsauveur résume bien cette incertitude dans son article du 15 janvier 2025. Et cette question touche toutes les SDC et les gestionnaires de quartiers : comment prouver que les investissements portent fruit – au-delà des impressions, de la météo favorable ou des résultats ponctuels de sondages ?

Les commerçants peuvent certes croiser leurs chiffres de ventes et quelques témoignages clients. Mais ce portrait reste partiel. Les données de localisation viennent combler ce manque en ajoutant une dimension essentielle : les mouvements réels de visiteurs dans l’espace et dans le temps. Et surtout, leur évolution avant, pendant et après les travaux.

Asking the Right Questions: Real-World Use Cases

Once you have the right tool, you need to know what to look for. Every neighbourhood, every redevelopment has its own goals. Is the objective to attract younger visitors? Expand the commercial catchment area? Make a cultural program profitable? GeoIndicators help answer these questions with strategic, measurable insights.

• What is the actual foot traffic?
  Daily or seasonal visitation, peaks tied to events, weekday vs. weekend flows—what’s the baseline and what changes?
• Where do visitors come from?
  Are you reaching new neighbourhoods, RCMs, or counties? Do people travel more than 5 km to visit, or are they mostly local residents?
• What’s their demographic profile?
  Are you drawing in families, students, seniors? Has purchasing power shifted?
• When do they visit, and for how long?
  Is new public furniture or animation encouraging longer stays? Is the area active in the evenings or quiet after 5 PM?
• What cross-patterns emerge?
  Are public market visitors also entering nearby shops? Did the new bike lane increase traffic to cafés?
  

These questions—and many more—are the foundation of any revitalization strategy. Without tangible data, you’re navigating blind or interpreting signals subjectively.

Before Construction: Establishing a Solid Baseline

As with any transformation, you need to understand the starting point before you can measure progress. Who’s circulating through the area? When? Why?

GeoIndicators help draw a clear and objective portrait of a territory, grounded in facts rather than intuition. This “point zero” becomes a reliable reference for evaluating the impact of future interventions.

Hypothetical example
Pre-revitalization analysis reveals 68% of visitors arrive on foot, mostly during weekday lunch hours, staying an average of 12 minutes. The area is deeply rooted in its immediate community but struggles to retain visitors or attract people from outside. This insight informs decisions around more seating, late-afternoon offerings, and a targeted campaign to broaden the area’s reach.

 

Here are some key pre-construction indicators to assess:

During Construction: Guiding the Project in Real Time

Revitalization isn’t just about blueprints—it’s about what’s actually happening on the ground. Once the work begins, the data starts talking.

Foot traffic shifts, visitor patterns evolve. GeoIndicators keep your finger on the pulse, turning a linear plan into an agile, responsive initiative.

Here’s how location data supports real-time management:

• Spotting Opportunities
  Sudden Wednesday evening traffic spike? Try a pop-up event or extend business hours.
• Tracking Pedestrian Flows
  Heatmaps reveal hotspots near certain storefronts? Consider adding greenery, seating, or programming to reinforce the draw.
• Monitoring Temporary Measures
  Did pedestrianizing the street for the summer increase visits? Did it push regulars away? The data lets you document the outcomes—and negotiate smarter renewals.
  

In short, data becomes a true field management tool—far beyond performance tracking.

After Construction: Proving Impact and Refining Strategy

The ribbon-cutting isn’t the end—it’s the beginning of the proof phase. Did the changes deliver on their promise? Did they lead to unexpected outcomes?

Thanks to your pre-project baseline, comparisons are now possible—and meaningful. This helps validate past decisions and guide the next ones.

Examples of post-construction analysis:

• Visitor Catchment Evolution
  Are visitors now coming from further away? Time to consider shuttle services or expand transit offerings.
• Shift in Visit Habits
  Are people staying longer? Are evenings and weekends now more active?
• Ripple Effects on the Local Ecosystem
  Has the new park or bike path increased revenue for nearby businesses?
  

Hypothetical example

A report reveals a new stream of weekend visitors from a neighbouring MRC since the revitalization. The BIA responds by partnering with a regional attraction and launching a joint marketing strategy to consolidate this new visitor pathway.

With this level of insight, revitalization becomes measurable, replicable, and strategically actionable—fuelled by real-world evidence, not assumptions.

In Conclusion

Whether it’s widening sidewalks, adding greenery, or rebalancing transport modes, every urban revitalization starts with deep local knowledge—from merchants, street managers, and community leaders. That expertise is essential. But to fully leverage it, you need the ability to document it, compare it, and translate it into action.

GeoIndicators don’t replace local wisdom—they amplify it. By layering in objective data like foot traffic, visitor profiles, and movement patterns, they enrich your understanding, validate your instincts… and make the impact of your project visible in all its complexity.

You move from gut feeling to hard proof. From hypothesis to framework. Urban revitalization becomes a process you can measure, communicate, and repeat.

It also changes the conversation—with merchants, citizens, and partners. You’re no longer debating what you think is happening. You’re working with what you know is happening. And that’s where location data truly shines: it equips decision-makers at every phase—before, during, and after—to turn vision into sustainable, real-world impact.

👉  Planning a street transformation or looking to measure the outcomes of one already completed? Propulso can help you define your baseline, choose the right indicators, and put data to work for your territory’s future.