Josephine RoperA small contribution to the 15-minute cities 'debate', looking at options and issues for Sydney, NSW: https://doi.org/10.26190/unsworks/31115
My overall frame as an access-focused researcher: rather than using 15 minute cities as an aspirational vision, what are the promises and difficulties of actually quantifying and improving x-minute destination access in Greater Sydney?
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#transport #access #15mincities #walkability #cyclability #Sydney
Accessibility to great local places: Understanding the promise of access-based planning for the Six Cities Region
Appealing chrono-urbanist concepts such as ‘15 minute cities’ have recently sparked discussion across the world, but there is no international agreement on optimal measurement practice nor consensus on the most productive approaches to implementation. Time-based access goals have also begun appearing in Australian planning documents and can provide a way to crystallise visions of socially and environmentally sustainable access that creates vibrant local places. This report summarises recent developments and suggests opportunities to optimise time-based access goal use, specifically in the Six Cities Region of New South Wales, Australia. Firstly, a summary of time-based access goals in current NSW planning documents is provided, and an introduction to the concept of access-based planning. Secondly, review of the academic and policy literature reveals that the x-minute city is a problematic concept as it is used as a label for a diverse mix of goals and actions. Nevertheless, its popularity points to the unmet need for methods to quantify and prioritise local, active transport-based access, and the importance of being able to explain how making changes could benefit residents in terms of time saved and increased access to opportunities. In the third part of the paper, discussion of the difficulty of turning goals into action in this area is followed by review of approaches that have been taken to target setting, and an outline of feasible options for local access measurement (including opportunities for data enhancement and long-term monitoring). Major conclusions are that targets need to be developed with local communities; international models are not fit for the Six Cities geographic and social context and stakeholder buy-in involved in target setting is also essential for implementation. In terms of measurement, while a plethora of data sources have been identified, currently there is no accepted ‘off the shelf’ or even best practice approach to measurement of time-based access goals. Thus, it is important to develop the skills of planners to program analyses using a range of data sources and tools.
Daniel Prindii
BicycleBen
Virginie
CoolMcCool
Seb 
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Ika Makimaki