Time to challenge the 15-minute city: Seven pitfalls for sustainability, equity, livability, and spatial analysis

The “15-minute city” concept has been receiving an increasing amount of attention as a model for urban policy as well as a tool for urban spatial analysis. The concept is often considered an urban planning ideal that can effectively contribute to improved accessibility and a more sustainable mobility. Through a sustainability, equity, and livability lens, this paper examines pitfalls of the 15-minute city from a theoretical and spatial analysis perspective and proposes alternative theoretical and methodological directions. The seven pitfalls of the 15-minute city in current literature are summarized as: (1) overstatement of the 15-minute city's originality, (2) strong decentralization proposed by the 15-minute city theory is unrealistic and unsustainable, (3) focusing on quantity of destinations instead of sufficiency, (4) improperly aggregating facilities, (5) neglecting diverse forms of nature and their characteristics, (6) disregarding public transport in 15-minute city theory or spatial analysis, and (7) ignoring interpersonal differences in walking and cycling when conducting analyses based on the 15-minute city. A set of strategies is proposed to address these pitfalls and reorient the 15-minute city towards improved environmental and societal outcomes.