Living instead of commuting: in which cities the distances are shortest

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Living instead of commuting: Do you live in a 15-minute city?

Aerial view of Lisbon

City of short distances: In Lisbon, the points of interest can be reached on average in ten minutes on foot, and in four minutes by bike

© Getty Images

When school, supermarket and work are just around the corner, the car becomes superfluous. Researchers have compared desire and reality. How European cities fare.

For several years, the idea of ​​the “15-minute city” by the Parisian urban planner Carlos Moreno has been gaining popularity. The concept? Instead of spending a lot of time To avoid wasting time on commuting, life should take place in one area if possible. Daycare, school and work, doctor’s office, sports club and supermarket – everything that is important should be within 15 minutes’ walk.

In a city of short distances, the separation of work and residential areas is considered outdated. In order to connect them, cities would have to make their districts denser and equip them with the necessary infrastructure, instead of building the next new development in the suburbs. The advantages are obvious: those who travel less have more time for themselves, their family and friends. Neighborhoods would be revitalized, car traffic would decrease, and at the same time traffic jams, noise and pollution would be reduced.

Cities are rethinking

Some metropolises are already coming close to the concept. In the greater Paris area, for example, the distances are short enough for more than 90 percent of residents. However, most cities have grown over centuries. Because this creates facts, the concept of the 15-minute city cannot be implemented everywhere. At least politics can counteract this. And it is doing so: the “city of short distances” plays an important role in Berlin’s urban development plan. And Vienna wants to expand cycle paths, public transport and sharing offers in order to become a “15-minute city” by 2040.

However, most cities in the world are far from this ideal, especially in the USA. This is the conclusion of a Study, which the specialist magazine “Nature Cities” recently published. It comes from a team of researchers from the Sony Computer Science Laboratories and the Centro Ricerche Enrico Fermi in Rome. The scientists led by Matteo Bruno have developed an analysis tool that is intended to make the work of city planners easier by calculating how daycare centers, schools, shops and more should be distributed so that people can avoid long journeys.

All on one card

On-line The researchers recorded how many minutes on average residents need to walk or cycle to the nearest destination in around 10,000 cities around the world, divided into nine categories such as education, health or outdoor activities. The values ​​on the map can be displayed for a city as a whole, but also for individual residential areas. Blue dots mean that the walk takes less than 15 minutes on average, red dots mean more than 15 minutes. The more extreme the values, the more saturated both colors.

Most red dots are found in many cities in the US, Asia and Africa, where average walking times of more than 30 minutes are not uncommon, but also in Dutch cities such as Rotterdam, where many people live in suburbs.

Street in Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg

The car can stay parked: In the Berlin district of Prenzlauer Berg, many places that residents visit in their everyday lives can be easily reached on foot or by bike

© Getty Images

Cities like Rotterdam are the exception in Europe, the continent is full of blue dots, especially in Switzerland: Geneva (five minutes on foot), Zurich and Basel (six minutes each). In Germany, Göttingen does particularly well (seven minutes) – but also in In Berlin and Munich the routes are short (eight minutes). But there are also red dots here. For example, Rostock, Bremen (18 minutes each) and Passau (20 minutes) fare relatively poorly because their lack of infrastructure on the outskirts of the city is more significant than the short routes in the old town.

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