15-minute city

This is an urban planning concept in which cities are so arranged that everyone can get to the places they need to go to — shops, schools, healthcare, parks and leisure activities — on foot or by bicycle inside 15 minutes.  A planning dream which would, as its exponents point out, cut down on our use of cars and so benefit the environment.  It would also be much less stressful for us.

Many cities have taken up this idea in some form or other, at the very least by promoting pedestrian and cycle-centred design.  Apparently Melbourne was one of the first to espouse the policy and continues to do so (although the most common reference there is to the 20-minute city). There is a new suburb under construction, Merrifield, which has the 15-minute city at its heart.

Unfortunately it has been seen by those prone to adopting conspiracy theories as yet another attempt by government to take away the right of the individual to drive a car whenever they like.  This has developed into the notion that the government wants to lock us into ghettos completely controlled by them, where freedom of movement will be restricted by climate lockdowns, where people will be monitored by CCTV cameras equipped with digital face recognition.

The urban planners keep trying to say that they are not anti-car and they are in fact trying to give people more options, more choice.  But once a conspiracy theorist gets hold of something it is impossible to wrench it back.