The world's true '15-minute cities' have been revealed. This is how Australia fares
A city where everything you need - from healthcare, shops and schools to sports and cultural activities - is within a 15-minute walk. Sound like a dream?
A concept made famous by Parisian professor Carlos Moreno, the idea of the 15-minute city has gained increasing traction in recent years as the answer to developing healthy and sustainable cities and addressing inequalities often entrenched by urban sprawl.
Now, a new analysis published in Nature Cities today revealed which global cities have succeeded in making the '15-minute city' a reality.
Researcher Matteo Bruno and his colleagues from Sony Computer Science Laboratories in Italy analysed 10,000 global cities to assess how close they are to becoming 15-minute cities, using a new online tool.
Here is a look at the best - and the worst - contenders, and how Australia's capital cities faired.
Few cities globally truly rank as 15-minute cities based on the new analysis, which was made using data from open-source packages GeoPandas and OpenStreetMap.
In the United States, not a single city qualified, and across most of Asia, Africa and South America it was a similar story.
This map depicts 15-minute cities in blue, while those with a longer proximity to services are graded in shades of red.
The United States - 30 minutes +
An early and prolific adopter of cars from the 1920s onwards, many US cities have been developed with car dependence at their heart, leaving millions dependent on driving to reach basic services.
In the vast majority of US cities, residents were on average more than 30 minutes' walk from amenities such as shops, eateries, schools and outdoor activities.
Milwaukee came the closest to being a 15 -minute city, with an average walk time of 17 minutes.
This was followed by San Francisco at 19 minutes and New York at 20 minutes.
Across Asia, 15-minute cities are few and far between, but there are some notable exceptions.
In Japan, three cities made the cut: Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto.
Kyoto, Japan - 10 minutes
Once the capital of Japan, Kyoto is an ancient city whose make-up was designed long before any thought of cars.
Known for its classical Buddhist temples, gardens and imperial palaces, this cultural and historical hub has a walking culture at its heart.
It's just a 10-minute walk for the average city-dweller to reach their daily needs, placing it among the most 'walkable' cities in the world.
It was Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo who made the 15-minute city famous when she rode to reelection on the promise of prioritising pedestrian and cycle-centred urban design in 2020.
So perhaps it is no surprise that the 'City of Lights' - famous for its cobblestone paths, stunning vistas and vibrant cultural and café scenes - fares well in this ranking.
In fact, the vast majority of the world's 15-minute cities are to be found in Europe and the United Kingdom, reflecting decades of careful urban planning which the rest of the world appears only now to be shifting towards.
Paris, France - 8 minutes
The average Parisian lives just eight minutes' walk from essential services and key amenities - including healthcare, education and workplaces - although this falls to as little as two minutes for those close to the city centre.
Not a bad achievement for a city of almost 10 million people.
A number of German cities also manage an eight minute average walk time - namely Berlin, Munich and Bonn - while Gottingen manages to shave that down to an impressive seven minutes.
Berlin, Germany - 8 minutes
With a population of 3.6 million people, Berlin touts itself to tourists as a true 15-minute city - where everything you may need can be found just a short stroll from your hotel.
And the data collected by Bruno and his colleagues appears to back that up, with an average walk time of just eight minutes, stretching all the way out to the city's outer suburbs.
Perhaps an unexpected contender among its continental European counterparts, the Irish capital of Dublin ranks as one of the world's most 'walkable'.
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