From Unlock15
Welcome to the UNLOCK15-Toolbox - we are collecting tools to empower „agents of change“ from civil society as well as city officials to unlock existing lock-ins. We hope you will find some relevant tools to drive change towards mobility transition in your context!
From experience, three types of tools are need for real change: tools to create and communicate evidence, tools to envision possible futures and scenarios and participatory tools for on-site action.
Evidence
This type of tools help you to collect evidence, which supports the change you are aiming for. Some tools also allow crowd-based approaches to involve citizens in a broad manner. Evidence helps to convince decision makers to back-up change.
Staging evidence for safer school streets
Excel sheets come to your mind when thinking of evidence? Think twice! The initiative "Wir machen Wien" showed powerfully how to not only collect valuable evidence, but also how to stage it in a dramatic way.
Measuring the 15-min city: Flowers of Proximity
The flowers are a planning tool that invites participants to look beyond their current travel routines by imagining instead how they would like to get around. This perspective grounds accessibility planning in people's needs and desires, helping make cities more livable, sustainable, and fair.
Low effort survey in public space
The picture stems from Ljubljana, where the urban design studio prostorož set up benches in public space. They attached a QR-Code, where people could vote if they wanted this bench to stay. The outcome will suprise you!
Vision
In this category you find tools that help you to create a vision of what you are aiming for. A strong vision is key for driving change because it helps you to grow as a movement and to shift public opinions. This category also includes tools that help you envision how you want to work together as a group.
Forecasting change
Some forecasting can't be done by looking into an weather app. This tool helps you to capture possible scenarios of what could happen in your neighbourhood.
Align on Your Impact Goals
Get crystal clear on the change you want to achieve, in the near-term and long-term. Impact is a very loosely used term universally, and can be used to describe an influence or effect on virtually anything. Taking time to explore and align on your impact goals will ensure that your team and stakeholders are all working towards the same vision of success.
Make your city bloom! Before/After Visualization
Necessary changes often fail due to a lack of imagination. This AI tool translates your ideas into images and show how car-dominated spaces can be transformed into livable, sustainable places. The tool by "Blooming Cities" helps you showcase the possibilities of a flourishing city.
Action
Small steps towards the realisation of local change can help to make the vision tangible and also easier to be discussed. Tools for action help to make the impact of change tangible and involve local communities.
Crowd Funding
Crowdfunding — and specifically civic crowdfunding — is an approach where communities, individuals, and organizations collectively finance local public projects through online platforms, often in combination with contributions from municipalities, foundations, or companies.
Platform for free meeting spaces
A simple, user-friendly tool for overview and booking of free spaces for use by initiatives.
Doorstep chats
Do you know this situation? You organise a meeting to discuss traffic calming in your neighbourhood and the people most affected by the noise don't show up. You are not the only one and there is a solution: Doorstep chats are an useful method to reach out to people that are not yet part of the discussion but are needed very much.