What are Our Current Cities Like?

In a normal city, most of the amenities, like shops, services, and entertainment, are placed in the center of the city. Around the city are the suburbs, where only houses are built and where most people live. It may sound like a good idea to separate land based on its uses, but because of this separation, residents of this type of city are very dependent on car ownership to get anywhere. For instance, if someone wants to have dinner at a restaurant, they need to have a car since there are no restaurants near their house. Although these types of cities might have proper sidewalks, they are rarely pedestrian-friendly, making walking difficult and causing people to rely on cars. Large amounts of land are also required within the city to build highways and car parking, which makes the city even less walkable.

How Did 15-Minute Cities Come About?

The idea of 15-minute cities has existed for a long time, but the term was officially coined by Professor Carlos Moreno in 2016. 15-minute cities became popular during COVID-19 when many restrictions limited where people could go. Many people could not access the services they wanted, and the pandemic made it more difficult for people to move around. This caused lots of people to leave large cities and move to less crowded ones, where transportation is easier and faster. The pandemic led to an increase in the use of private cars, especially in the suburbs. But when the pandemic subsided, many people moved back into cities. This is because of the easily accessible and well-located amenities that were not present in the suburbs. Getting from one place to another was one of the obstacles that people encountered after moving back to cities, so they wanted more efficient transportation systems. 15-minute cities became a way to achieve the goal of having both good transportation and access to amenities.

There are some characteristics every 15-minute city should have. First is connectivity, which means connecting neighborhoods by public transportation, so they are not separated from each other. Second is proximity, which means that most services must be 15 min away, maximum. Third is diversity—the city should contain mixed-use land instead of single-use land, which means the land has shops and homes together instead of separated. Finally, these cities should have density, which means clustering people and places in a specific area [1].

Importance of Walkability

15-minute cities aim to be walkable, so that people can walk or cycle to most places. These cities are designed for people rather than cars. This can be done by building pedestrian-friendly streets, which includes planting trees, preventing cars from using certain roads, and reducing speed limits. Walkable communities, where people can walk or cycle to their errands, encourage people to rely less on private cars. This means that a walkable community will produce less carbon emissions than a car-dependent city. 15-minute cities as depicted in Figure 1 are designed so that transportation journeys are short and, therefore, only small amounts of emissions are released per trip.

Walking is free, so people who walk save money. Spending on car ownership, repairs, parking fees, and fuel are all reduced or eliminated. Governments also save large sums of money because they do not need to build and repair highways and roads. Governments can also earn money as more people opt to pay for public transportation. This money can be reinvested back into the 15-minute city.

Walkability paves the way for more social interactions between people, helping a community to form—whether that involves friends walking to a coffee shop together or saying “hi” to another person walking their dog. Walking is a physical activity associated with healthier populations because it decreases heart disease and obesity, and even improves mental health [2].

Examples of 15-Minute Cities

Paris, a crowded and polluted city, is implementing the 15-minute concept, which will allow the city to reduce pollution caused by cars. Many people in Paris travel across the city to get to work, which causes traffic jams and excess emissions. The “La Ville du quart d’heure” project (meaning “the 15-minute city”) Is now being used to reduce the distance between offices, restaurants, schools, supermarkets, stores, and other amenities—making each Paris district self-sufficient. There will also be a less need to travel outside a personal district for those services. To achieve this goal, Paris plans to construct a cycle path on every single street, to encourage bicycle use. Paris will also use nature-based solutions, including green roofs, parks, and permeable pavement (read more here), to reduce the risk of extreme weather events like excessive heat and flooding [3].

The Line is an upcoming 170 km (105 mile)-long vertical city built, as the name suggests, in a line from the sea to the inland mountains in Saudi Arabia. The city will have no cars or roads and will use 100% renewable energy. Green spaces like parks will be only 2 min away from anyone living in The Line. All the services people need will be accessible within 5 min of their homes. The Line has a high-speed rail connecting all the communities, and it takes only 20 min to travel from beginning to end. The Line project aims to be the epitome of sustainable city development and act as a model for the world.

How are 15-Minute Cities Healthier for the Planet?

15-minute cities, unlike many cities, are designed with mixed-use land. This means that in one plot of land, houses, supermarkets, sports facilities, offices, and other shops will all be present next to each other. This is the opposite of single-use land, in which land is only used for one type of purpose. Mixed-use land can make the journey between two locations much shorter. However, many places are too cold or too warm to walk or cycle all year round. Additionally, because of climate change, more extreme weather events are occurring, including hurricanes, droughts, and floods. These extremes make walking and cycling impossible. This is why it is important to have strong, efficient public transportation networks in 15-minute cities. When the weather is bad, or if someone does not want to (or cannot) walk to their errands, they can use public transportation instead of buying a car.

15-minute cities have fewer roads and car parking lots. This results in free spaces that can be used to build green spaces like parks. Green spaces are beneficial because they help to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and cool the air. Trees also act as air filters, cleaning pollutants from the air and improving air quality [4].

What are the Limitations of 15-Minute Cities?

It is difficult for governments to change how a city is designed because there are laws regulating how land is used and how a city is meant to be organized. For example, some areas have zoning laws that make a plot of land single-use, such as only for houses. If someone wants to build a supermarket on this single-use land, it is very difficult and may take years for the government to allow it—if at all. So, imagine if people want to transform a large area of single-use land into mixed-use land for a 15-minute city. To do so, the zoning laws need to be modified, which is difficult and time-consuming. It is also a lot of work and very expensive to transform a traditional city into a walkable city because a lot of the city’s infrastructure needs to be changed.

Agriculture and industries will be located far away from 15-minute cities. This means that many resources people need every day will need to be transported into 15-minute cities from other cities or even other countries. Long-distance transport produces a lot of carbon emissions, illustrating that it is very difficult for a city to be a true 15-minute city. These limitations are just a few of the difficulties 15-minute cities face. Further research must be conducted to overcome these limitations and make the 15-minute city a more realistic idea that can be applied around the world.

Final Takeaways

15-minute cities are a method of planning cities in which most of a person’s daily necessities are located nearby. 15-minute cities stress the importance of walking and cycling and discourage private car use. Many cities around the world, such as Paris, are implementing 15-minute cities to reduce the pollution and traffic jams caused by cars, and to shorten the journey between a person’s home and the services they need. Multiple cities are being encouraged to take on the 15-minute city concept, to make city life more liveable. What ideas do you have to make your city more like a 15-minute city?

Glossary

Amenities: ↑ Useful features in a space such as parks, pools, and gyms, that make those spaces more enjoyable and comfortable.

Mixed-use Land: ↑ Areas with different types of spaces, like homes, shops, schools, and parks, all together in one area.

Single-use: ↑ Areas with only one type of space, like homes, shops, schools, or parks, in an area.

Carbon Emissions: ↑ Invisible gases, like carbon dioxide, that are released when things like coal and oil are burnt. These gases go into the air and harm the plant, impacting the weather.

Sustainability: ↑ Meeting our needs without using up all the earth’s resources, such as water and trees, so that future generations can also use them.

Zoning Laws: ↑ Laws that regulate how certain areas of land can be used, for example where houses, factories, or offices are allowed to be built.

Infrastructure: ↑ The backbone of a city, which includes roads, buildings, sidewalks, streetlights, phone lines, cables, and pipes—things that allow a city to run smoothly.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.