This is an interesting map to play around with. It allows you to see how many 15-minute neighborhoods and cities there are around the world. And it works by calculating the average time it takes to walk or bike to the closest 20 points of interest in 10,000 cities. These points include all of the usual suspects like places of work, schools, healthcare institutions, grocery stores, and so on. A blue cell indicates an average walk time < 15 minutes, and a red cell indicates an average walk time > 15 minutes. The darker the color, the shorter or longer the average time in minutes.
By this measure, it's hard to beat many/most European cities. Here are Paris and Barcelona:
The city propers are completely blue, and you have to go pretty far out (or up into mountains) to find areas that don't have 15-minute conveniences.
Toronto has a strong core and isn't terrible overall, but expectedly, we aren't as uniform and as deep blue as Paris and Barcelona:
Where things get really interesting, though, is when you look at cities like Dallas and Houston:
It's clear where these cities stand on walkability.
This is an interesting map to play around with. It allows you to see how many 15-minute neighborhoods and cities there are around the world. And it works by calculating the average time it takes to walk or bike to the closest 20 points of interest in 10,000 cities. These points include all of the usual suspects like places of work, schools, healthcare institutions, grocery stores, and so on. A blue cell indicates an average walk time < 15 minutes, and a red cell indicates an average walk time > 15 minutes. The darker the color, the shorter or longer the average time in minutes.
By this measure, it's hard to beat many/most European cities. Here are Paris and Barcelona:
The city propers are completely blue, and you have to go pretty far out (or up into mountains) to find areas that don't have 15-minute conveniences.
Toronto has a strong core and isn't terrible overall, but expectedly, we aren't as uniform and as deep blue as Paris and Barcelona:
Where things get really interesting, though, is when you look at cities like Dallas and Houston:
It's clear where these cities stand on walkability.
On most days, I walk to the office. That is going to be changing later this summer, but what I'm about to say will still apply.
Because I walk more often than I drive, whenever I have to go somewhere that necessitates a car and that obligates me to leave during the evening rush, the first thing I usually think to myself is "shit, it's going to really suck getting out of downtown."
I have very little patience when it comes to sitting in traffic. So when I'm faced with this kind of situation, my mind immediately goes to: "okay Brandon, what are your other options here?"
And this is exactly what happened this past Friday. I had a dinner up in Vaughan after work and I opted to take the subway to VMC station (the northern terminus of one of Toronto's lines).
It was actually my first time riding this new line extension and it was cool to see the area around the station. It's not yet a 15-minute community, but I believe it can get there with some narrow streets and the right kind of ground floors.
The entire trip took about 45 minutes, and I can tell you that on more than one occasion I thought to myself, "this is way better than sitting in traffic."
On most days, I walk to the office. That is going to be changing later this summer, but what I'm about to say will still apply.
Because I walk more often than I drive, whenever I have to go somewhere that necessitates a car and that obligates me to leave during the evening rush, the first thing I usually think to myself is "shit, it's going to really suck getting out of downtown."
I have very little patience when it comes to sitting in traffic. So when I'm faced with this kind of situation, my mind immediately goes to: "okay Brandon, what are your other options here?"
And this is exactly what happened this past Friday. I had a dinner up in Vaughan after work and I opted to take the subway to VMC station (the northern terminus of one of Toronto's lines).
It was actually my first time riding this new line extension and it was cool to see the area around the station. It's not yet a 15-minute community, but I believe it can get there with some narrow streets and the right kind of ground floors.
The entire trip took about 45 minutes, and I can tell you that on more than one occasion I thought to myself, "this is way better than sitting in traffic."
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