TACTIQ: Tactical neighbourhood development makes the mobility transition fast, cost-effective and effective at scale

Vienna aims to become climate-neutral by 2040. The transport sector accounts for around 40 % of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, making it a key lever for the mobility transition – while heatwaves, heavy-rainfall events and health burdens in densely built neighbourhoods are intensifying at the same time. Transforming neighbourhoods for the mobility transition – away from car-dominated streets towards climate-adapted, liveable quarters – is a pressing planning task for Austrian cities. European frontrunners such as Barcelona, London and Berlin show with superblocks, low-traffic neighbourhoods and Kiezblocks that rapid, low-cost neighbourhood transformation at scale is feasible; Austria, however, lacks transferable integrated planning concepts and proven governance structures.
TACTIQ – Tactical Quarter Development for Climate action, Transformation, Inclusion and Quality – closes this gap and develops a transferable approach to tactical neighbourhood development. The approach combines two dimensions: a planning concept (spatial dimension) with objectives, evaluation criteria and a modular catalogue of at least 30 individual measures, including an interactive Decision Support Matrix, and a governance model (procedural dimension) with institutional arrangements, cross-sectoral coordination mechanisms and standardised reference processes. Only the combination of both dimensions enables the step from an isolated pilot to scalable, city-wide transformation.
This is complemented by an impact-measurement framework (including gender-sensitive, climate- and mobility-related indicators), a legal assessment with a permitting guideline and a nationwide scaling concept. The results are coordinated with follower cities from the Climate-Neutral Cities Network and the Smart Cities platform, made available in a practice-oriented handbook, and provide the basis for a demonstration follow-up project.

Image: BOKU – University (ILA)