Quantifying and visualizing the 15-Minute walkable city concept across Europe: a multicriteria approach

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe disruptions associated with health and energy crisis have emphasized the need for hyperlocal cities. However, in Europe, a tool to measure the efficiency of land use and accessibility planning for localizing urban mobility is missing. In this paper, we construct a comparable 15-Minute-Walking City (15-MWC) index that assesses the walking performance of 121 European metropolitan areas and seven amenity types. The data are combined equally following the PROMETHEE II multicriteria approach to assign a final score and to present a ranking of 15-Minutes cities. The main visualization demonstrates European-level disparities and indicates that most of leading cities are in Germany, while most of the worst performers are in the UK. We also reveal a statistically significant difference in 15-MWC performance due to their GDP per capita disparities. The empirical results may serve as a referencing tool for cross-city comparisons and may support policymakers when designing transport and city-planning strategies.

Keywords

• 15-Minute cities
• walkability
• active travel
• European cities
• composite indicator
• urban accessibility