15 min cities : Three dimensions of creating people oriented neighbourhoods
Creators: name: Bonnier, Lennert
name: Gover, Bas
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023

description: 15 minute cities is an important new angle in integrated planning, aiming to reduce mobility-needs for people. But since it needs integrated approach aspects that have an influence on the success of a 15 minute city are easily overlooked. From our research on 'superblocks' in Amsterdam and Hannover and based on our experience in integrated mobility-planning in general we distinguish 3 dimensions for creating people oriented neighborhoods in a 15 minute-city.
1) Clustering of (new) functions – the 'living heart' of the neighborhood
The welfare of people is for a great deal determined by the environment he or she lives in. Every neighborhood needs a 'living heart'. A place where functions for that neighborhood are clustered. A place where people like to come for their daily needs, but also to walk their dog or to meet people. The type of functions is developing fast and is depending on the needs for that neighborhood: a playing field, an elementary school, a postbox, a community-house, a bakery and so on. It is essential to cluster the functions together in a central point in the neighborhood in order to create synergy and a basis for new functions to grow. This will have the effect of less trips out of the neighborhood and more trips that are made by foot or by bike. Adding mobility functions like car and bike sharing, public transport or a carpool area to the living heart can improve the functioning.
2 Placemaking – creating superblocks
In order to create more space for walking and cycling and remove road-barriers it is essential to manage the space cars need in a neighborhood. One of the ways to do this is by creating superblocks. The superblock principle in Barcelona is based on a grid structure of 3x3 building blocks that together form one superblock. By altering the traffic circulation within the blocks with one-way traffic and only right turns can be made. this results in creating a lot of public space at the intersections within the superblocks where 'living hearts' can flourish. For the city of Amsterdam possible Superblock forms where explored which concluded that superblocks such as in Barcelona do not fit well into the Amsterdam urban structure. With smaller streets and longer building blocks a different type of superblock was introduced. The result will approximately lead to a 10-15% car traffic reduction within the superblock and only 1-2% extra traffic on the main streets surrounding the block. Next to that a lot of free space is created that can be made in to a neighborhoods living heart.
3 Connecting and improving – routes for active modes
The third dimension of the 15 minute city is introducing and improving routes for active modes to the important places, functions within the neighborhood and public transport. Taking care of basic infrastructure is not enough: Is the route attractive, accessible and safe for everyone, is the route inviting to walk or cycle? The effect of this is shown in the study of P. Cambra, 2020, in Lisabon, where an improved walkability score results 25% more pedestrians in the street. The impact on the use of public transport hubs seems to be in the same range.
The concept of '15 minutes cities' has a lot of promises in terms of reducing mobility and strengthening the social coherence. But a successful development needs a multidisciplinary approach that can start by identifying potential 'living hearts' and directing mobility-planning, urban planning and neighborhood-planning all in the same direction.