Summary

The 15-Minute City is built on the theory of chrono-urbanism and equates nearby access to daily needs with a high quality of life (Moreno, 2019). This is accomplished through a neighbourhood that combines proximity, density, diversity, and ubiquity and provides for living, working, supplying, caring, learning, and enjoying within a 15-minute walk or bike trip. Together, these components will help to improve urban living conditions and repair the physical and social fragments of modern cities (Moreno, 2019).

The 15-Minute City can be seen as a combination of past planning theories, including the use of neighbourhoods as a city building tool, the importance of diversity, and the link between quality of life, active transportation, and the built form (Congress for the New Urbanism, 2001; Gehl, 2010; Howard, 1902; Jacobs, 1961; Krier, 1984; Perry, 1929). It also links with many issues facing cities today, such as sustainability, confronting past practices, gentrification, and the future of the suburbs (Archer, 2020; Madanipour, 2004; O’Sullivan, 2021; O’Sullivan & Bliss, 2020).

One unanswered question is the relationship of the 15-Minute City and concepts of mobility justice, defined as the combination of equity of access to opportunity and the political and social factors that impact the capacity for movement (Cook & Butz, 2019; Karner et al., 2020; Sheller, 2018). These concepts, combined with theories from political and environmental justice, will be key to ensuring that the 15-Minute City is implemented for the benefit of all.