The 15-minute city (FMC or 15mC) is an idea for designing cities so that people can reach most daily needs—like work, shopping, schools, hospitals, and places for fun—within 15 minutes by walking, biking, or using public transportation from any location in the city. This plan helps reduce the need for cars, supports healthier and more environmentally friendly living, and improves the happiness and quality of life for people who live in cities.

To create a 15-minute city, planners often mix different types of buildings, such as homes, shops, and offices, in the same area. They also design streets that are safe and easy for people to walk on, improve public transportation options, and make it easier for people to avoid using cars. Some people may work from home more often, which is made possible by technology that allows remote work. This change in how people live and work can reduce the need for long daily commutes. The idea is sometimes called a "return to a local way of life."

As more people work from home or near their homes, there is less need for large office buildings in city centers. Instead, there is a growing need for smaller, flexible workspaces in neighborhoods. The 15-minute city plan suggests creating many small workspaces in residential areas, which helps reduce long commutes and supports a better balance between work and personal time.

This idea builds on earlier planning ideas that focus on making cities walkable and mixing different uses in neighborhoods, such as New Urbanism and transit-oriented development. These approaches also encourage walking, mixed-use buildings, and creating compact, livable communities. Some plans suggest building 15-minute cities by combining smaller areas called "5-minute neighborhoods," which are also known as complete or walkable communities. For walking, a 15-minute radius is about 1 kilometer (0.6 miles).

The 15-minute city idea became more popular after Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo included it in her 2020 re-election campaign. Since then, many cities around the world have set similar goals. Researchers have also used the 15-minute model to study how well cities provide access to services and activities.

In early 2023, some people spread false ideas that described 15-minute cities as tools for government control, claiming they were a way to limit car use.

History

The 15-minute city idea comes from older thoughts about living close to where people work and walk, like Clarence Perry’s neighborhood unit. Carlos Moreno, who advises Anne Hidalgo, was inspired by Jane Jacobs’s ideas in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Jacobs believed cities should have neighborhoods with a mix of homes, shops, and offices. She also disagreed with city plans that rely heavily on cars and spread out over large areas. She thought cities work best when local communities shape them and when daily life happens on a human scale. This matches the 15-minute city concept.

The climate crisis and the global COVID-19 pandemic have made people pay more attention to the 15-minute city idea. In July 2020, the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group shared a plan for cities to "build back better" using the 15-minute city model. This plan included examples from Milan, Madrid, Edinburgh, and Seattle after the pandemic. The report said cities should involve communities in planning through methods like letting people help decide how to spend city money and changing plans to create dense, complete neighborhoods.

In April 2020, Massimo Paolini, an architecture theorist, published a manifesto in Barcelona called Manifesto for the Reorganisation of the City after COVID-19. The document called for major changes in how cities are organized after the pandemic. Over 2000 people, including 160 academics and 350 architects, supported the plan. The plan had four main goals: changing how people move around cities, making more natural spaces in cities, making housing not driven by profit, and reducing growth.

In early 2023, some far-right groups spread false ideas that 15-minute cities were tools for the government to control people, claiming they would stop people from driving cars. However, the 15-minute city plans do not include rules against driving. Some unrelated actions to reduce traffic in certain cities were mistakenly linked to the 15-minute city idea.

Research models

The 15-minute city is an idea for creating a city with many centers, where people can live, work, and enjoy life easily. This model focuses on making neighborhoods lively, helping people stay close to important places, and encouraging strong community connections. A key part of this idea, called "chrono-urbanism," focuses on how time is used rather than how much time is spent traveling.

In 2016, urban planner Carlos Moreno introduced the 15-minute city concept. This idea ensures that people can reach six important activities within 15 minutes by walking or biking: living, working, shopping, healthcare, education, and entertainment. The model has four main parts: density (having many people and buildings in one area), proximity (being close to needed services), diversity (mixing different types of buildings and cultures), and digitalization (using technology to improve city life).

Moreno refers to the work of Nikos Salingaros, who suggests that cities should have a balance of people and buildings to help solve local problems. The model explains proximity as being close in both distance and time, which would make daily activities easier. Diversity includes mixing different types of buildings, like homes and shops, and having neighborhoods with many cultures, which can improve city life and involve more people in planning. Digitalization, inspired by smart cities, uses technology such as online shopping and video calls to reduce the need for long commutes. Moreno and others believe that these four parts, when used widely, can create cities that are easy to live in and have a good quality of life.

Recent studies have tried to measure how well cities match the 15-minute city idea. A 2024 study in Nature Cities created a global system to check how many cities allow people to reach services within 15 minutes. The study found differences in access to services within and between cities and suggested ways to fix these gaps. A related article in Nature News said the study showed clear differences in access and included a tool to compare cities visually.

In 2019, a project called Street Moves began as part of a government effort in Sweden. Led by a group including architects, designers, car companies, and city officials, the project focused on the idea of a "1-minute city," as described in a guide for innovation. This project looked at how the area near a person's home, such as the street outside their door, could help people take part in city planning. This "1-minute city" idea highlights the social, cultural, and political aspects of city life, working alongside other ideas like the 15-minute city model.

Implementations

In 2019, Singapore's Land Transport Authority suggested a big plan that included goals of "20-minute towns" and a "45-minute city" by 2040.

Israel has used the idea of a 15-minute city in new housing areas. Orli Ronen, who leads a lab at Tel Aviv University, says Tel Aviv, Haifa, Beersheba, and central Jerusalem have made progress with this idea in new developments, but only Tel Aviv has done it well so far.

Dubai started a 20-minute city project in 2022. This plan helps residents reach daily needs, like stores and services, within 20 minutes by walking or biking. The plan also aims to have 55% of residents live within 800 meters of public transportation stops, so they can access 80% of their daily needs easily.

In the Philippines, the government of Quezon City announced in 2023 that it will use the 15-minute city concept. This plan will create walkable, friendly, and sustainable communities. Inspired by Paris, the goal is to make cities focus on people and reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

Shanghai’s 2016 Master Plan called for "15-minute community life circles," where people can complete daily tasks within 15 minutes of walking. This idea has been used in other Chinese cities, like Baoding and Guangzhou. Xiong’an is also being built with this concept.

A national standard from 2018 outlines four levels of residential areas. The "15-minute pedestrian-scale neighborhood" means a place where residents can meet their daily needs by walking for 15 minutes. These areas are usually surrounded by main roads or city boundaries and have 50,000 to 100,000 people with complete services.

To stop cities from growing too large, Chengdu created the "Great City" plan. This plan ensures that new areas near the city have enough services and stores within a 15-minute walk.

In 2020, Paris’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, introduced the 15-minute city idea during her re-election campaign. During the pandemic, she made changes like turning school playgrounds into parks and adding trees and bike lanes to public spaces.

Cagliari, a city in Italy, started a plan to improve walking and public spaces. The city asked people for their opinions during planning and reused old buildings and spaces.

In Utrecht, the Netherlands, all residents can reach daily needs in 15 minutes by bike, and 94% can do so in 10 minutes. The city plans to improve this further by 2040.

In 2023, the UK government said it would protect drivers from strict traffic rules, including stopping cities from creating "15-minute cities."

Pleszew, a city in Poland, calls itself a 15-minute city.

In Sweden, cities like Stockholm, Gothenburg, and others tested the idea of a "1-minute city" from 2019 to 2024. These projects focused on involving the public in city planning.

Copenhagen’s Nordhavn neighborhood was built with a "five-minute city" concept. This means all daily needs are within 400 meters of public transit stops, which is a 5-minute walk.

In 2012, Portland, Oregon, created a plan to build complete neighborhoods. These neighborhoods support young people, provide affordable homes, and help communities grow. The plan encourages walking and biking and ensures access to healthy food. It also values community input.

In 2015, Kirkland, Washington, created a "10-Minute Neighborhood Analysis" tool to help plan for 2035. This tool helps communities discuss how to improve living conditions.

Detroit, Michigan, started a "20-Minute Neighborhood" program in 2016. This plan ensures that homes are near parks, stores, transit, and other services within 20 minutes. It also aims to remove old or broken buildings nearby.

In 2021, Bogotá, Colombia, added 84 kilometers of bike lanes to help with social distancing during the pandemic. This expanded on the Ciclovía program, which gives priority to bikes on city streets.

The 15-minute city idea can be seen in cities like Santiago, Chile, where people can access shops, transit, and public spaces easily. This is supported by mixed-use buildings, high density, and good public transit. However, these conditions are not the same across the entire city. Santiago has long commutes and areas where people have unequal access to resources. This shows that while the 15-minute city idea can work in some areas, larger problems like inequality remain.

In Australia, Melbourne developed Plan Melbourne 2017–2050 to manage growth and reduce sprawl. This plan includes ideas from the 15-minute city concept, such as creating "20-minute neighborhoods."

Benefits

The 15-minute city is a city planning idea that creates neighborhoods focused on people's needs, connected by public transportation. This allows residents to do most of their daily tasks within a short walk or bike ride. It uses old planning ideas instead of traditional zoning, which separates homes, jobs, and services. This approach helps cities reach goals like sustainability, fairness, and public health by offering a plan that fits local needs. Benefits include stronger local businesses, better community connections, improved health and well-being, and fewer transportation emissions.

The 15-minute city focuses on walkability and accessibility to better serve groups who have not been included in planning before, such as women, children, people with disabilities, people with mental health challenges, and the elderly.

Social areas like schools, parks, and other activities are important to make cities work well for everyone. There is a strong focus on green spaces, which help the environment by increasing biodiversity and protecting cities from harmful plants. Studies show that having more green spaces can improve the mental and physical health of city residents by reducing stress, increasing happiness, improving sleep, and encouraging social connections. People living near green spaces also tend to exercise more, which helps their health.

The 15-minute city is increasingly seen as a way to help fight climate change by reducing transportation emissions. Transportation causes about 20% of global carbon dioxide emissions, with road travel responsible for 75% of those emissions. Cars and buses make up about 45% of these emissions. Experts have found that investing in walking and public transit is one of the best ways to reduce these emissions.

Limitations

Scholars have found several challenges with the 15-minute city idea. Pozoukidou and Chatziyiannaki say this model may be hard to use in cities that already have buildings and roads set up. They also say it might not work well in areas with low population density, like suburbs, or for people who earn less money and need to travel farther to work.

Examples where the idea has worked include Chengdu, which used it to stop city growth from spreading out, and Melbourne, where the mayor emphasized the need for good public transportation to expand the reach of the 15-minute city.

In a study published in the journal Sustainability, Pozoukidou and Chatziyiannaki explained that while the 15-minute city supports eco-friendly living and easy access to services, focusing resources in dense, walkable areas could raise home prices and lead to gentrification. They warned that without policies to keep housing affordable and protect fairness, this planning might push lower-income people to live on the edges of cities, which could harm the model’s goal of including everyone.

When the 15-minute city is used as a research tool, it often involves maps called isochrones, which show how far someone can travel in a certain amount of time. These maps use two main factors: time and speed. However, Boukouras pointed out that using general rules, like average walking speed, to create these maps might not accurately show how different groups, such as older people, move around. This could lead to errors in research.

In the United States, several problems make it hard to build 15-minute cities. One major issue is strict rules about how land can be used, especially laws that only allow single-family homes, which prevent building high-density housing. Other challenges include NIMBYism (when people oppose changes in their neighborhoods), parking requirements, and concerns about the quality of schools in cities, which can push families to move to suburbs.

Many studies have shown that the 15-minute city idea works differently in various cities because each city has unique social, economic, and physical features. There are also governance challenges, as the model needs strong organization and leadership. Researchers have also warned that better access to services might raise home prices, which could lead to gentrification and people being forced to move. They also say it is hard to measure whether a city truly meets the 15-minute city standards.

In 2023, some people started spreading false ideas about the 15-minute city, claiming it was a tool for government control. These claims were linked to other false beliefs, like QAnon or anti-vaccine theories, which suggest governments want to control people. Supporters of the 15-minute city, such as Carlos Moreno, have even received threats.

Some false claims mix the 15-minute city idea with a British approach called low-traffic neighborhoods, which sometimes use license plate scanners. This has led to claims that the 15-minute city would fine people for leaving their neighborhoods or trap them in "open-air prisons." These ideas also connect to beliefs that the World Economic Forum (WEF) wants to restrict people’s freedom under the excuse of climate change. These beliefs are part of a larger set of false ideas about a "Great Reset."

In 2023, about 2,000 people in Oxford protested, holding signs that called 15-minute cities "ghettos" and accused the WEF of using them for "tyrannical control." A Canadian commentator, Jordan Peterson, called the idea a "perversion." Supporters of QAnon claimed a train accident in Ohio in 2023 was part of a plan to move rural people into 15-minute cities. Similar false claims were made about wildfires in Maui in 2023.

In 2023, the British Conservative government criticized the 15-minute city idea. A Conservative member of Parliament, Nick Fletcher, called it an "international socialist concept" during a debate, which was met with laughter. At a Conservative party meeting in 2023, Transport Secretary Mark Harper said he was ending the misuse of the term "15-minute cities," calling the idea "sinister" and claiming it would let local governments control how often people shop or use roads. However, no such powers have ever been proposed as part of the 15-minute city concept in the UK. Despite being corrected in a guide for lawmakers in 2024, a UK health official repeated the false claim in a campaign leaflet and a TV interview.

People who spread these false ideas about the 15-minute city have been described as harming trust in government institutions.