15-minute town: Upset or Reachable?

To make cities more stable, healthier, and more suitable we must think about them from scratch. One idea is city 15 minutes. But what does that actually mean?

Worldwide, cities are growing ever faster, and with them problems arise when planning is bad. Social inequality and exclusion, overloaded transportation network, smog, and corresponding health and environmental damage are involved.

According to the UN, if by 15 years ago the same amount of people living in the city lived in the village, by 2050 two thirds of earth's nearly 10 billion inhabitants will live in urban areas. One idea of how this future can become more stable, with greater value of life and healthier, is the idea called “15-minute town”.

The greatest quality of life for the city's inhabitants and the fulfillment of all needs in a short distance: The basic idea of a city of 15 minutes is for its inhabitants to do whatever is necessary by walking 15 minutes on foot or by bicycle. Many people living in big cities today can only dream of this: Because traffic jams on the road to work or often bad public transportation connections cost a lot of time and anger.

Whether the road leads you to work, to shopping, to school, to the doctor, to the sport, to the park, to the restaurant, or to the cultural institutions, we're dealing with the <x0 business for everyone, never again”, writes Carlos Moreno of the University of Sorbonne in Paris, who designed this idea for the first time in 2016. A concept that puts people and their needs on the basis of urban planning, a type of “Human valued design”.

To design cities with greater value for living and stability, urbanists must change their thinking: Green surfaces, sports, cinemas and shops should go where people live, not vice versa, says Benjamin Büttner, the furniture at Munich Technical University.

This does not require that everything fall to the ground and be built up from the top, he says, only that the existing spaces simply be rebuilt.

In addition, a clear concept of mobileity is linked to the city of 15 minutes - especially fewer cars and more places for bicycles and pedestrians, safe roads for children, disabled people, or older ones, and the creation of space for movement and social exchange. “Makins are a problem for downtown. They have a lot of room. They particularly hinder active mobileity,” explains Büttner.

16 cities around the world are applying or planning to put the concept of a city of 15 minutes into existence. The concepts are different: For example, some cities have focused on the concept of 20 minutes, others on the ten-minute idea, some first focus on specific neighbourhoods, others remodel the entire city.

Among the first pioneers is the French capital, Paris. After presenting the concept by Carlos Moreno in 2016, Mayor Anne Hidalgo included the idea of the 15 - minute city in her election campaign and began with its implementation. In the center of the Paris concept, it is the school that is the center of the local neighborhood. So school courts return to parks so that they can be used for other activities after school hours and weekends.

In addition, half of the 140 thousand parking sites will be remodeled and converted into green surfaces, playgrounds, meeting places with neighbors, or bicycles. By 2026 all the streets of the French capital will be used by bicycles.

In 2016 Shanghai revealed the introduction of the so - called “15-minutes community life cycle”. There in the future, it will be achieved that all activity will be carried out within 15 minutes of walking. Another 50 Chinese cities want to use this concept.

More quality of life for city dwellers seeks to achieve an initiative in Great Britain. The British government has made it known that under the country's renourishment programmes, in the future it will be possible for the residence to be reached on green or water surfaces with public access within 15 minutes.

“Supershelf” or Barcelona Superleagues

Spain's Barcelona has been experimenting for some time with the so-called “supperillas”, in Albanian “superishujt” or “superables”. That's why several apartment blocks are made together in a superblock. Only residents or supply vehicles are allowed in by car, and maximum speed is 10 miles per hour.

On many roads cars are not allowed to enter, and roads are used for other purposes. Where parking lots have previously been seen, trees are now planted, children play playgrounds, and the elderly sit in shade on park benches and flowers or vegetables thrive on flower beds and vegetables.

“Urbial tacticalization”, calls this concept Büttner. The concepts are proven by 2 to 6 months respectively, “to see if the situation has improved or deteriorated. So we can still say let's go back to where we were. But if the situation has improved, it can become a measure of permanent change. ”

Currently in Barcelona 60 per cent of public space and 85 per cent of roads are used for transport. More than half of the residents are forced to live with noise and environmental pollution, exceeding the maximum values set by WHO, the World Health Organization, and leading to the increase in death rates. In the new neighbourhoods, motorised transport will be reduced by 21 per cent. In the future, instead of 56 per cent of people, only 6 per cent will be forced to live with environmental pollution over the allowed border.

Does the ban on car traffic damage business?

Anyone who doesn't need a car for everyday life saves money. Cities that invest in road construction for bicycles and pedestrians, for public transportation and green surfaces, are more attractive to tourism and seduce visitors.

Studies show that bicycle and footing routes in cities and regions reduce costs because less money is paid for maintenance of roads and the public health sector.

According to the European Cycling Association, the positive effects of bicycle movement are estimated to reach the EU alone, the figures of over 90 billion euros. And motorized transport causes the increase of annual costs by 800 billion euros more for health, environment and infrastructure.

Many business owners are initially skeptical because they fear falling sales if customers cannot drive. In fact, they too can benefit from the 15 - minute rule, as has happened in the western city of Portland, U.S.A., where transportation has dropped by 20 percent. Local businesses there have also had an increase in sales by $1.2 billion more because pedestrians and bicycles have bought more along the way.

Various 15-minute concepts for each country

In order for more people to benefit from rebuilding cities and preventing new inequalities and gardening, the important thing is according to neighborhood social mix experts and the involvement of more neighborhoods in remodelation. This should change the way you think about the rules of use and classical categories of urbanization, such as city center, residential neighborhoods, suburbs, industrial zones, peripheral areas, categories that have contributed worldwide to the growth of social inequalities and the marginalization of cities.

According to Büttner, what is needed is the political desire and courage of politicians and ministers, as well as knee-to-side dialogue with all participants.

Because the general solution for all cities does not exist. Each country, each social, economic and ecological framework of a city is different from others, Büttner points out. And according to the context, decisions have to be made, which measures are more appropriate.