TacMob - Tactical Mobilism - Interventions for a new mobility culture

The distribution of public space continues to encourage the use of motorised private transport instead of more sustainable modes of transport. This distribution of urban public spaces has led to major social and environmental impacts, confronting cities with urgent need for action: The misguided development of the transport system had considerable impacts on (1) the possibilities of social inclusion and (2) the loss of function of public spaces for active mobility. Inflexible decision-making and planning processes still make it difficult to initiate processes for the redistribution of public urban spaces. This is where the project Tactical Mobilism comes in, aiming for temporary, simple and cost-effective interventions (e.g. installation of Parklets, temporary road closures, plants) on urban roads. The participatory development of joint interventions through trial and error in a living lab environment opens up new perspectives, supports rethinking among the decision-makers and can lead to a long-term change in the mobility culture. Tactical Mobilism with its interventions aims for increased awareness and consideration of active mobility in planning and decision-making processes. The city of Villach is an ideal pilot city and multiplier, because for its role as a future-oriented catalyst of social, technological, economic and ecological innovations. The project results can serve as a model for many cities with similar structures and size. The Follower-Cities can learn from the insights gained through the application of concepts and adapt these in their transformation and innovation processes adapted to their specific requirements. The haptic elements tested in Villach as well as a supplementary manual as an analogue and digital „hardware tool box“ will be provided for Follower-Cities, which can be the groundwork for their own Tactical Mobilism interventions. The key innovation of the research approach is the comprehensive and in-depth exploration of mechanisms of Tactical Mobilism from a spatial, creative, procedural and integrative perspective. This is manifested by (1) gradual, adaptive and flexible testing of measures, (2) the involvement of citizens by the method of community organizing in a living lab and to promote acceptance of changes towards a more sustainable mobility culture among decision-makers and (3) the focus on medium-sized cities, which occur in large numbers in Austria as well as in Europe and therefore facilitates the transfer of research results.