A new concept that urban municipalities are going to be considering and possibly implementing in the years ahead for new neighbourhoods in our cities the concept known as the 15 minute city. At the core of this concept is that businesses that people use frequently and public services such schools, libraries and medical facilities be located within a 15 minute walk of where they live. This would create residential areas similar to those built prior to the Second World War.
The fifteen minute city plan is a remedy to the the problem with how suburban residential neighborhoods have been designed and built out since the days after the end of the Second World War. Residential development has been spreading outwards for the last several decades meaning that those living in the newest built neighborhoods now travel further and further to access businesses, recreational facilities, healthcare services, and other public amenities.
Despite talk of the benefits of the fifteen minute city, there’s detractors spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories that citizens are going to be confined to the area within fifteen minutes of their homes. Paranoia surrounding the fifteen minute city concept is so widespread that municipal councils discussing it have been met with with irate citizens in a panic that they will be prisoners in their own homes in a “climate lockdown” that would come about as a result of implementing a fifteen minute city plan.
The conspiracy theory surrounding the fifteen minute city plan comes from traffic control measures in Oxford, England to alleviate congestion in the centre of the city. While Oxford is working to make residential neighborhoods fit the fifteen minute city model, the traffic control measures are not meant to keep people contained within their fifteen minute neighborhood or even control where people can and cannot go, it’s meant to keep unnecessary vehicle traffic out of the centre of the city that was built hundreds of years ago, where the streets are narrow and were never designed for motor vehicles. The intention was never to keep people out of the centre of the city but to use alternative means of getting around from walking, cycling or public transportation.
The main benefit of the 15 minute city is by accessing businesses such as grocery stores with one’s own neighbourhood rather than a big box store at edge of the city there is less reliance on driving long distances thereby reducing vehicle emissions. Since large stock up shopping trips wouldn’t be needed large low fuel economy vehicles wouldn’t be necessary further extending the environmental benefits.
Environmental sustainability is the biggest benefit of the fifteen minute city concept being promoted, however social sustainability benefits can be achieved through the fifteen minute city. Most at the bottom of the socioeconomic ladder are better off having the businesses and services they use within east reach means that living without an automobile and the funds needed to finance a vehicle and costs fuel, insurance, maintenance, repairs and registration are diverted to the other expenses of living. For many facing transportation insecurity due to financial reasons not having recreational facilities nearby often means staying active as a part of a healthy lifestyle is not an option.
People with disabilities and senior citizens once they give up driving who face challenges with transportation will benefit having medical services available closer to home. Making trips for medical appointments, for these groups an hour long ride on public transit or paying fifty dollars or more for a taxi or rideshare each way is already a reality. where As the baby boom generation ages further into their senior years the ultra suburbanization of the modern urban landscape just won’t work any more.
Fifteen minute cities addresses an issue municipal governments are struggling with in the past few decades. As suburban neighborhoods keep sprawling out at the edges more and more infrastructure such as streets, water and sewer lines need to be built taking up funding earmarked for infrastructure projects by municipal governments the existing infrastructure goes without required maintenance and upgrading. By building mixed density residential areas less new infrastructure will need to be built freeing up funding to maintain and improve existing infrastructure.
The field of education sees a similar impact to the donut effect of suburban sprawl. In newly built neighborhoods at the edge of cities, many schools get built to accommodate the many students from young families that move into newer neighborhoods. As neighborhoods mature there’s less fewer students and as a result schools close and students get bussed to the next available school. School boards are left spending money building schools in new neighbourhoods and busing students from older neighborhoods closer to the centres of communities to schools in the outer suburbs.
Despite the benefits of building new neighbourhoods and retrofit existing that fit the 15 minute city plan many municipal councils may shy away from debating or even considering adopting the fifteen minute city plan because of potential backlash from those who have fallen for the misinformation and the conspiracy theories about fifteen minute cities. In order to build communities that work better for the elderly, disabled and those on the low end of the socioeconomic ladder, to build communities that are more environmentally, socially and financially sustainable honest discussions will be required among citizens free from misinformation and conspiracy theories. Credible information needs to be relayed for discussion and debate for progress in building communities that work for all citizens.