Measuring the 15-minute city. A meta-study on the conceptual operationalisation and technical approaches towards measuring proximity-based accessibility in neighbourhoods, cities and urban regions.

Since its introduction in 2016, the 15-minute city (FMC) has become a popular model for urban planning and urban design. The central idea is to provide people with all the essential amenities they need in their everyday-life within 15 minutes walking or cycling. This contributes to achieving several sustainability goals, especially reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting active mobility and enhancing public life. Consequently, especially in recent years after COVID-19, numerous studies have been published investigating questions like “Is [city] already a 15-minute city?” or “which parts of [city] can already be regarded as 15-minute neighbourhoods?” or familiar questions. These studies assume that monitoring the alignment of urban regions, cities or neighbourhoods with the proximity-criteria of the FMC can be a first step towards its implementation into urban planning and urban design policies, as it can help to identify deficit areas which should be closer looked at or prioritised by further efforts. It is important to notice that these studies interpret the FMC as a planning model pursuing proximity-centred accessibility for active modes of mobility . For this reason several studies refer to the conceptual foundations as the 5 dimensions of accessibility introduced by Penchansky and Thomas. However, when taking a closer look at these studies, it becomes obvious that, although continuously referring to Carlos Moreno’s concept of the FMC, their operationalisations of the concept differ, as well as from the original concept as among each other substantially. That is why this meta-study compares the FMC definition and methodology of a random selection of 14 studies investigating the question if city X or neighbourhood Y already comply with the FMC concept.     «

Since its introduction in 2016, the 15-minute city (FMC) has become a popular model for urban planning and urban design. The central idea is to provide people with all the essential amenities they need in their everyday-life within 15 minutes walking or cycling. This contributes to achieving several sustainability goals, especially reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting active mobility and enhancing public life. Consequently, especially in recent years after COVID-19, numerous studies have...     »