(2023-03-05) The 15-minute City Isn't A Conspiracy, It's Just A Bad Idea

The 15-minute city isn’t a conspiracy. It’s just a bad idea. Wouldn’t it be lovely to find most of what you need within a short walk of home? Advocates call it the 15-minute city and want everyone to enjoy this lifestyle. Opponents call it a conspiracy to trap people in their “urban village” by blocking roads and breaking up cities.

I don’t think it’s a conspiracy. I think its fans are quite sincere. My concern is that it ignores important ways that cities work, wasting effort on the town planning equivalent of pushing water uphill, while closing off opportunity.

Alain Bertaud felt he had to debunk it in his excellent book Order Without Design: How Markets Shape Cities. He admits it’s a nice idea with much to commend it, such as shorter commutes, less traffic and perhaps more sense of community. But there’s a snag: it doesn’t work.

Bertaud shows that cities create prosperity and opportunity precisely because they allow people to specialise, to travel widely to the right job, and businesses to tap into that vast pool of talent. Cities thrive when they open up opportunities, make it easier to find somewhere to live and easier to reach more places.

I think 15-minute cities are a fad that will fizzle out. But not before they suck up so much airtime that they distract us from making real improvements: more affordable housing, better and faster transport, and tackling crime. We should trust that if city leaders get those right, the city’s natural dynamism will spring forth to supply not just the goods and services we desire, but the innovations we’ve yet to imagine.