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.
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.
Collecting data about parking occupancy
Opponents of street transformation often claim, that there are to little parking possibilities. But is that true? Evidence in Ljubljana showed that the city has rather a problem with how parking space is unevenly occupied. The urban design studio prostorož suggested the following steps to collect data about parking space occupancy.
- define the area of observation (street / block / neighbourhood)
- prepare the site plan of all the parking spots you will observe / have access to, regardless of ownership
- set a hypothesis (e.g. parking is occupied by employees, not generating income for local shops)
- create an observation plan: check occupancy one Wednesday and Saturday; and granular occupancy of observed parking lots every 2 hours, starting from 5 AM to 12:00 PM
- graphically present data and interpret results
Observing and visualising human behaviour in public space
Collecting data on how people use space can give you a solid foundation to discuss how it should be designed. The free public live app helps you to collect the data you need when observing people. The second link leads you to a website where you can download an analog version with excel sheets. The picture is an example how you could visualise the collected data, done by urban design studio prostorož.
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.
Understanding your target groups
Card Sort is a simple yet powerful method for uncovering what matters most to your target audience. Participants rank a set of word or image cards by preference, quickly revealing key priorities and opening the door to deeper conversations about personal values and motivations.
Make your city bloom! Before/After Visualization
An AI-based tool for demonstrating and visualizing street redesigns.
Public Engagement Onion
The Public Engagement Onion is a visual framework originally developed by the Wellcome Trust that maps the different levels and forms of public engagement — from broad, one-directional communication to deep, two-way collaboration.
Like the layers of an onion, the model moves from the outside in: the outer layers represent activities such as broadcasting information or raising awareness, where the engagement is relatively wide-reaching but shallow. Moving toward the center, activities become more interactive and participatory, culminating in shared decision-making and co-creation at the core.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.
Streetgames
How your neighbourhood should look like should be a concern of everybody living there, right? In reality it can be hard getting in touch with people about this topic. Especially if they have a different social or cultural background than you. The initiative "MeiMeidling" faced this challenge and had a breakthrough: They blocked an alley from cars and organised street games. Especially the big skipping rope was loved by the kids. In no time the parents joined. For the first time members of the initative talked to neighbours, that were strangers to them until this moment. Knowing your neighbours does not only increase life quality but also paves the way for better communication about how this neighbourhood should look like in the future.
Art Spin bike tour
The aim of the tour is to challenge traditional contexts of exhibiting art by producing new creative content in unconventional locations, while at the same time promoting urban cycling and sustainable communities. See also RAD performance in Vienna as an example.
Regulars table for district politics and initiatives
In this format district politics and initiatives meet up in a casual setting. This benefits everyone: On the one hand politicans can efficently update several initiatives at the same time and get wind of citizens troubles related to urban space at an early stage. Initiatives on the other hand get insights and can discuss their visions and potential future collaborations.