The transformation of the city of Paris under Mayor Anne Hidalgo has popularized the notion of the 15-minute city — the idea that everything you need for your life should be within a 15-minute walk or bike ride of your home. As this idea has become an aspiration for many cities, I've often wondered what such neighbourhoods might look like.

So I decided to do a kind of entry-level 15-minute city test to see just what living in one might be like. So I took three different neighbourhoods — an urban downtown, a mixed-use urban community, and a suburb — and ran a few tests to see if they might qualify as 15-minute cities. The answers just might give you some insight into how our cities can develop in the future.

0:00 Introduction 0:44 How this test will work 1:52 An urban downtown neighbourhood 3:39 A mixed-use urban neighbourhood 5:38 Suburbia 8:22 The conclusions

#cycling #bike #bikecommute

Sponsor Two Wheel Gear: My favourite bike bags for commuters and urban cyclists https://www.twowheelgear.com/

Buy my book Frostbike: The Joy, Pain and Numbness of Winter Cycling: https://rmbooks.com/book/frostbike/

I don’t really do proper product reviews, but here are some products that I’ve tried on this channel that I like. (Of course, you don’t need anything fancy to ride a bike, other than a bike, but these are Amazon affiliate links, and I get paid a small commission if you buy them 😉)

• Here's the winter bike I'm riding these days: https://bit.ly/2PhqUqF • Cliq Smart Bike Light (nice rear brake light): https://amzn.to/39lfqwo • RedShift Acrlight Smart LED Pedals (clever lights for your pedals): https://amzn.to/3NL1Npg • Aftershokz Titanium bone-conducting headphones (if you want to listen while you ride): https://amzn.to/3e9Tofa • JBL CLip 4 Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker (for your party-pace group rides): https://amzn.to/3pcMLPm • Crane Bicycle Bell (the ding is sublime): https://amzn.to/3OwfZCu • Ibex Merino Wool clothing (good for summer and winter): https://bit.ly/3xXkbEd • Bicycle Cargo Net (why did it take so long for me to buy one of these?): https://amzn.to/31s1Ovu • Vaude Cover II Rain Poncho (for higher-end, try Cleverhood or People’s Poncho): https://amzn.to/3jLkift • Kryptonite U-Lock (your bike is going to get stolen eventually, sigh, but at least make it difficult on the thief): https://amzn.to/3tPWcGi • Peak Design phone case (the one I use, paired with the Peak Design phone mount): https://amzn.to/3HGM0FU

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