Imagine a city where everything you need is just a short walk or bike ride away. This is the vision of the 15-minute city, a revolutionary urban planning model that’s gaining traction worldwide. As cities face growing populations and environmental challenges, this concept offers a fresh approach to sustainable living and improved quality of life.
Historical Background
Urban planning has come a long way since the industrial revolution. Cities once expanded with the primary goal of accommodating growing populations, often at the expense of liveability.
The car-centric development of the mid-20th century further stretched urban areas, leading to longer commutes and a disconnect from local communities. The 15-minute city builds on the lessons of the past, aiming to create compact, liveable urban spaces.
Key Principles of the 15-Minute City
At its core, the 15-minute city revolves around three main principles: accessibility, mixed-use development, and sustainability. Accessibility means residents can reach essential services—such as schools, healthcare, and shops—within 15 minutes.
Mixed-use development promotes diverse neighbourhoods where living, working, and leisure coexist. Sustainability encourages a reduction in car dependency, promoting greener habits like walking or cycling.
Benefits of the 15-Minute City
Living close to work, school, and leisure activities can greatly enhance one’s quality of life. It reduces stress from long commutes, allows more free time, and encourages physical activity. Moreover, easy access to parks and recreational facilities supports mental well-being, while fostering a sense of community.
By reducing the need for cars, it cuts down on traffic congestion and air pollution. Neighbourhoods designed for walking and cycling contribute to a smaller carbon footprint, paving the way for a more sustainable future.
Local economies thrive in a 15-minute city. By concentrating services and businesses within neighbourhoods, it supports small enterprises and creates local jobs. This economic model not only boosts resilience in times of crisis but also keeps wealth circulating within communities.
Real-World Examples of 15-Minute Cities
Paris has been a frontrunner in adopting the 15-minute city model. Under Mayor Anne Hidalgo, the city has focused on creating self-sufficient neighbourhoods, reimagining public spaces, and prioritising pedestrians and cyclists. These changes have not only reduced traffic but also improved air quality.
Melbourne’s approach to the concept is the “20-minute neighbourhood”. This initiative seeks to ensure that daily needs are met within a short distance from home. The city has invested in cycling infrastructure, public transport, and green spaces, encouraging residents to live locally and sustainably.
Challenges and Criticisms
While the 15-minute city boasts many benefits, it isn’t without challenges. Not all areas may reap the same rewards, leading to potential equity issues. There’s a risk that such developments could drive up property prices, pushing out lower-income residents.
Transforming an existing city into a 15-minute city is no small feat. It requires significant infrastructure changes, political will, and public buy-in. Resistance can come from those invested in the status quo, making the transition a complex process.
Books to Learn More on 15-Minute Cities
The 15-Minute City imagines places to live and work, where you can reach everything you need by foot or bike, within a short period of time. What if people could reclaim the time presently spent commuting, to use it for other methods of life.
The pandemic brought massive changes in reducing the amount of people commuting, and all for the good. Many people chose to stay at home, even though big corporate companies and MPs tried to bully them to return to the stress of commuting and renting expensive offices, just to bring ‘economic growth’.
Using models from ancient Athens to modern Paris, this book shows how one idea could change our daily lives and the world for good.
The 15-Minute City (same title, different book) again looks at how we could create towns where shops, offices and schools are all a short walk or bike ride away from home. Hundreds of mayors worldwide have now embraced this concept since the pandemic, to make cars less needed for people living in urban areas.
Not only good for the planet, the idea reclaims precious time that can then be spent with children, pets, grandchildren or grandparents, or just taking up new hobbies or simply relaxing. And this all fosters good mental and physical health, which in turn saves the NHS millions.
The 15-Minute City (another book with the same title!) asks if this idea is a Utopian dream or a nightmare to plan? Designed to make cities more sustainable and healthier and more equal (just as nice to live in for people without access to cars), such plans do require significant investment which often small town councils don’t have.
Plus such planning ideas are sure to be met with resistance by those who are interested in maintaining the status quo (like people who make cars, rent out expensive long-lease office blocks and shops, and the people behind the major chainstores that rely on out-of-town customers. Yet despite this, the benefits are so good that it could justify effort to overcome these obstacles.
In Colombia, former mayor Enrique Peñalosa tore up the budget to build more roads for cars, and instead used to the money to create cycle lanes and parks for local people. To this day, the city is car-free each Sunday, letting people walk or cycle without concern for car traffic.
And if you think he had opposition, boy did he! He even faced opposition from local neighbourhood associations who didn’t even want local parks. People sometimes are resistant to change. But today most people are happy. He proved everyone wrong!
In the Alabama town of Mt Laurel, everything has been designed to be within walking distance. The trees that were uprooted to build the town were later replanted, and today everyone can walk to the local park (there are two dog parks – one for boisterous dogs and one for senior dogs who just like to potter and sniff).
People can easily walk to the local farmers’ market. If there’s a fire, you can even run to the fire station to report it!
