Study shows Europe beats US for walkable, livable cities

When Luke Harris takes his daughter to the doctor, he walks along “well-maintained streets with smooth sidewalks and curb cuts. [ramps] For strollers at every turn”. If the weather looks rough or he's feeling a little lazy, he hops on a tram for a few stops.

Harris' trip to the pediatrician is quite unparalleled for his fellow residents of Zurich, Switzerland; Most Europeans are used to walking from place to place in their cities. But that probably sounds like fantasy to those living in San Antonio, Texas. That's because, according to new research, 99.2% of Zurich residents live within a 15-minute walk of essential services like healthcare and education, compared to just 2.5% of San Antonio residents.

“Coming from the US, Zurich seems remarkably walkable to me,” says Harris, a landscape architect in Portland, Oregon. “Most things you need are within walking distance – and if they're not, it's easy to take public transport.”

A tiny fraction of the world's 10,000 cities can be considered “15-minute cities,” according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Cities. The researchers used open data to determine the average distance people have to walk or cycle to reach essential services – such as supermarkets, schools, hospitals and parks – and calculated the proportion of residents who have necessities at their fingertips.

“When we looked at the results, we were surprised by how uneven they were,” said Matteo Bruno, a physicist at the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Rome and lead author of the study.

The researchers chose 54 cities to explore in detail and found that the most accessible cities were medium-sized European cities such as Zurich, Milan, Copenhagen and Dublin – all of which had essential services that could be accessed within 15 minutes by more than 95% of residents. . At the bottom of the ranking were a wide range of North American cities with high reliance on cars, such as San Antonio, Dallas, Atlanta and Detroit.

Smaller cities tend to score better, but the researchers found that in some large metropolises, such as Berlin and Paris, more than 90% of residents live within a 15-minute walk of essential services.

The authors developed an algorithm to explore how much these cities would need to change to become more accessible. They found that Atlanta would need to relocate 80% of its amenities to achieve equal distribution per resident, while Paris would need to relocate only 10%.

Study co-author Haigor Piaget, who grew up in São Paulo, where 32% of people live within a 15-minute walk of essential services, says the study is not a proposal to destroy cities and reallocate their services but a mathematical one. Exercise makes people think. “We're looking for ways to improve the lives of the most people,” he said.

The idea of ​​a 15-minute city has been attacked in recent years by conspiracy theorists who see it as a government plot to control movement and limit freedom. The vitriol has frustrated scientists, urban planners and doctors, who point out that reducing car dependence is a powerful way to help people live healthier and safer lives.

“The idea of ​​15-minute cities is not new,” Piaget said. “People who research this have been doing it for decades.”

The authors say the study is limited by the quality of open data, which is more complicated in cities outside of Europe and North America, and how practical walking is in some cities. Heavy traffic, high crime, bad weather and steep hills can geographically discourage people from walking short distances.

Natalie Müller, an environmental epidemiologist at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), who was not involved in the study, said there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach that will work for all cities, but the research is more inclusive and sustainable urban. Can help build the environment.

“By reducing car dependence, encouraging active and public transportation, and integrating nature-based solutions such as planting trees and expanding green spaces, we can improve urban environmental quality, which directly benefits population health,” Muller said.

Researchers warn that making a city more accessible isn't enough to keep residents away from private cars. The Netherlands boasts some of the best cycle infrastructure in Europe but has more cars per capita than rural countries like Ireland and Hungary.

In Zurich, where 71% of residents voted in favor of a proposal in 2020 to build 50 km of cycle infrastructure, locals have long grumbled about the lack of cycle lanes and threats to cyclists.

“You still see a lot of cars on the road,” Harris said. “In terms of the pedestrian experience, it's beautiful, I can't really think of other cities that I've been to where walking feels easy … but in terms of cycling and the particular relationship between cycling and cars, it seems like there's still friction.”