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.
Joint Survey between initiatives and district politics
In Vienna they managed something extraordinary: They did a survey collaboratively between district politics, administration and civil society. This has a lot of potential for different reasons:
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.
Tools to help communicate within a group
Communication platforms like slack or discourse have dedicated channels for different projects and teams, keeping discussions focused and easily searchable. On the scale of a small initiative they don't cost anything.
Efficient decision making in low hierarchy settings
A tool that helps you make collective decisions that everyone genuinely support, distribute responsibility across the group, and build a culture of equal participation.
Building durable groups with low hierachies
Defining goals, structures, roles and means of decision making are all crucial parts of founding and maintaining collectives, cooperatives, and other groups. Many aspects of organisation however remain ad hoc, informal and opaque, creating the possibility of power imbalances, misunderstandings and exclusion. The link will lead you to website with key questions that any group should consider and define during its formation.
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.
Making specific demands that are backed up by evidence
The "Platz für Wien" Initiative had a lasting impact on Vienna because they specified their demands and backed them up with scientific findings (e.g., demand for 50 km of bicycle lanes by 2030). They even has scientists speaking up for them, which made their demands even more valid.
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.
Tree Budget Graz
Tree budget Graz is an innovative financing model introduced by the City of Graz to systematically fund the planting and maintenance of urban trees. It draws from three sources: compensation fees collected under the city's tree protection ordinance (which requires replanting or financial compensation when trees are removed), voluntary tree sponsorships open to individuals and companies, and project-specific budget approvals by the city council. Together, these streams create a dedicated financial pool that ensures greening efforts are not dependent on a single, uncertain budget line.