• The 5-minute neighborhood, 15-minute city, and 20-minute suburb

    The reality of suburban distances to retail and community amenities has inspired a new term: the “20-minute suburb.” The concept is an evolution of the 15-minute city, focusing on transportation, zoning, and strategic densification.
    Note: This article was written for the website of DPZ CoDESIGN . That measurement of time in which someone is more likely to walk or bike rather than drive a car to an errand has been the subject of much discussion among urbanists. Thirty years ago, the New Urbanism first proposed a neighborhood of...Read more

  • From slogan to substance, planning the 15-minute city

    Too often, the “15-minute city” is just a slogan. A better understanding of the 15-minute city, with its walking and bicycling sheds, is critical to achieving the benefits of placing human access at the heart of community planning.
    Chances are you have heard of the 15-minute city—which has become a common marketing slogan in urban planning and development in the last two years. The 15-minute city is important because it places human-powered access to goods and services at the heart of community planning. Hence, the 15-minute...Read more

  • Top 10 ‘15-minute city’ list headed by Miami

    Miami has the greatest potential for meeting 15-minute city goals, followed by San Francisco and Pittsburgh, according the first ranking of 15-minute city characteristics among large US cities.
    Of all big American cities, Miami has the greatest potential for meeting the geographic goals of the 15-minute city, according to a recent analysis by MoveBuddha.com . That Miami rose to the top over San Francisco, Boston, Washington DC, and other more obvious choices as 15-minute cities is...Read more

  • The 15-minute city is the new 5-minute walk

    Proximity and human-scale are still vitally important for sustainability, and yet the geography of our lives has gotten bigger. That is why we need the 15-minute city.
    Why is the 15-minute city important? The 15-minute city is to the 21st Century what the 5-minute walk was to the 19th and early 20th centuries. I realized this after reading a history of my neighborhood, Fall Creek in Ithaca, New York . Because the neighborhood hasn’t physically changed that much...Read more