With the economy in Europe in recession, the price of all commodities rising, and traffic declining, some experts are talking again about the 15-minute city concept. This is a special layout of the settlement, in which each person can reach any place he needs – a store, a gym or a hospital – within a maximum of 15 minutes on foot or by bicycle. Cars and other vehicles automatically become unnecessary, with the exception of trucks, which, according to the schedule, deliver the necessary goods and supplies to each area.
The idea of the “15-minute city” was proposed by the French professor Carlos Moreno in 2015 as one of the ways to combat environmental pollution. Fewer cars means cleaner air, plus savings on the construction and maintenance of roads, subways and other transport infrastructure. And people will become healthier if they walk more.
You don’t have to leave your home at all, everything you need will be delivered by couriers, and even better – by robots. Which was successfully implemented during the lockdown period during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in many countries. Alas, almost all people did not like this experience, and some even saw it as a new form of enslavement of the population. They argue that it is much easier to control a limited contingent of people who, in addition, are constrained by living conditions in a particular area, than to try to establish power in the entire metropolis at once.
