Building a shared vision is central to partnership building, participatory democracy and transformational innovation. Introducing a new way to inspire discussion and imagine urban transport transformations.

The Sustainable Mobility Kit is a workshop tool we’ve created at the Open Source Lab for facilitating collaboration, learning and speculative design about urban transport possibilities in cities. It is a deck of 23 cards that support group discussion and ideation activities. They situate open approaches including open data, open code and open innovation alongside conventional urban transport system components.

The Kit provides a snapshot of the complexity of 21st century urban transport systems, their challenges and opportunities. It seeks to incite stakeholders to reflect on, critique and construct the framework and concepts that could make urban mobility more sustainable and create and open innovation ecosystems for the mutual benefit of diverse stakeholders.

The cards are based on the Sustainable Open Mobility Taxonomy research and interactive visualization, which includes best practice examples for each topic. The taxonomy can be explored here.

Design your future

The cards can be used to generate strategic insights or more in-depth contextual understandings. Each of the 18 cards with icons represents a different part of a city transport system model that is open to diverse companies and public providers, has locally tailored solutions to transport challenges and pursues long-term sustainability environmentally, economically and socially. There are also 3 stakeholder cards that represent potential actor spheres in the ecosystem.

The graphic side of the cards can form the basis of simple card sorting activities by individuals or groups. For example, to prioritise which themes are most and least important, or perhaps which actions are necessary for sustainable mobility in a city and which are desirable.

The underside of the cards provides questions for group discussions. They prompt more nuanced consideration of each theme. Cumulatively these questions could provide a thematic mapping of a specific city’s current transport system as a basis for further ideation or problem solving activities.

A tool for your next collaboration

Unravel the complexity of urban transport system transformations needed for sustainability. You can download the the cards and print them for your next brainstorming session, strategy meeting or to facilitate design or policy sprints.

Download the Sustainable Mobility Kit Protoype Deck

If you do find them useful, let us know. We’d love to hear where or how the Kit has been used.