15/20 Minute Neighborhood Concept
Above is a map showing the current status of Portland Neighborhoods using the 20-Minute Neighborhood Concept Analysis. The 20-Minute Neighborhood Concept Analysis represents the "walkability" rating in the city, taking to account not just proximity to amenities, grocery stores, schools, libraries, parks, gathering places. The map also accounts for possible barriers to commuting, steeps, grades, rivers, freeways, complicated street connections, sidewalks, various pathway connections, and access to frequent transit. Portland's Climate Action Plan for 2030 seeks to achieve a reduction of transportation-related emissions. According to Portland's Climate Action Plan Summary, 60% of Portland neighborhoods are connected neighborhoods. In contrast, 40% of Portlanders are living in incomplete areas.
The 20-minute neighborhood concept is not unique to our city. With the current Covid-19 pandemic, it seems as the 15/20 minute neighborhood is more and more attractive to urban planners. Cities around the U.S. like Portland, Detriot, and in other countries like Canada, Paris, and the UK are entertaining the idea of a 15-minute neighborhood. Redesigning neighborhoods to stray from the car-centric design that has dominated city planning does come at a cost. Designing cities to be walkable and car-free has its advantages in terms of carbon emissions and health benefits in promoting active transportation. In the past, we've seen that sometimes making neighborhoods more livable and vibrant does tend to push current residents out, making housing more costly. The other issue with this concept is that who has the opportunity to live at a 15/20 minute proximity to work?
The pandemic has exacerbated existing inequities, and this concept, if not approached carefully, could potentially do the same. Not everyone has the capability of working from home or near their home. The current redistribution of spaces that once were vehicle dominated could bring inequitable costs to an already struggling demographic. Decentralizing the city could also potentially alienate neighborhoods outside of the city in the suburbs.
My take on the 15/20 minute city is that we should continue to focus on specific neighborhoods that lack accessibility. But, continue to work on cohesive connectivity within the City of Portland and transportation equity throughout Portland. The 15/20 minute neighborhood concept is also problematic in the way it is phrased, instead of focusing on commuting time. It would be best to focus on the actual distance spent getting around, this would be a better measurement to bring equitable outcomes for communities. It could take 15/20 minutes to get somewhere, depending on congestion, distance, and time of day one is communicating. But, when you measure by mile/distance and plan around that concept, it would be the same distance to a transit stop, grocery store, parks, etc., regardless of how long it might take to get somewhere.
Sources:
https://www.portland.gov/sites/default/files/2019-07/cap-summary-june30-2015_web.pdf
https://www.portlandonline.com/portlandplan/index.cfm?a=288098&c=52256
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2020-11-12/paris-s-15-minute-city-could-be-coming-to-an-urban-area-near-you
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-15/mayors-tout-the-15-minute-city-as-covid-recovery
https://theconversation.com/people-love-the-idea-of-20-minute-neighbourhoods-so-why-isnt-it-top-of-the-agenda-131193
Hi Valeria,
ReplyDeleteYou pose some interesting critiques of the 15/20-minute neighborhood concept and how that term can be misleading. I live in one of the neighborhoods shown on the map as highly connected. But the area around my house has almost no sidewalk infrastructure and extremely poor bike infrastructure, in particular along main roads. As you note, questions of the quality of walking/biking infrastructure in these neighborhoods are relevant, as well. A road can have sidewalks on both sides, but if traffic is speeding by at 40mph (or more), cyclists and pedestrians aren't likely to consider themselves safe or comfortable unless major infrastructure investments are made in those places. So existing infrastructure would go under-used.
It also makes me wonder how the map would look if we considered ADA access. How much of Portland is accessible within 15/20 minutes with someone in a wheelchair or other mobility device? I'd also like to see how correlated walking/biking infrastructure is with transit stop use in these 15/20-minute neighborhoods.
Valeria thank you for the post!
ReplyDeleteI really like this idea about including amenity distances as an important consideration rather than travel times alone. On one hand, most of the the 20 minute neighborhood concepts I have seen include the notion that car-use travel times don't count as part of a successful 20 minute neighborhood. After all I can drive downtown from my home in East Portland without traffic given 20 minutes - which is to say downtown is definitely not in my neighborhood! However, when it comes to the use of travel times you're absolutely right, it is not explicit of mode and planners should be specific. Additionally, I think often a 20 minute neighborhood model is usually based around a radius at a perspective that may not account for real life conditions and barriers. For example it's very easy to slap a radius on an existing neighborhood and call it 20 minutes walk shed without analyzing networks for which community members would feasibly get to places. To get at that distance prioritization issue within the 20 minute neighborhood concept, I think a network analysis spatial study would be better suited to answers the question of what is truly accessible within the framework - and you could do it by mode which would help improve the framework's explicitness aspects.