In 2020 Bogotá launched it’s own version of the ‘15-minute neighbourhood’ called ‘Barrios Vitales’ (vital neighbourhoods). Drawing inspiration from cities such as Paris, Barcelona and London, the strategy aims to centralise services in neighbourhoods, boost local economies, cut down street space for private cars, expand urban green space and improve people’s health. This project will be achieved by splitting the city into 32 new districts which will operate as planning units and the neighbourhoods will be linked by green corridors. These plans will be helped by the city’s existing network of cycle lanes (Ciclovía) which stretch over 540km.

One example of the rapid adoption of this approach during the pandemic is in Paris where, spurred on by the COVID-19 crisis, Mayor Anne Hidalgo made the ‘15-minute neighbourhood’ a central feature of her successful Mayoral campaign in 2020 and is currently building on the City’s existing work using the 15-minute neighbourhood as a way of creating a ‘city of proximities’. Hidalgo aims to create a city for people rather than cars by turning over 70% of on-street car parking space to other uses, expanding and improving cycling infrastructure, increasing the provision of offices and co-working spaces in neighbourhoods, expanding the uses of infrastructure and buildings outside of standard hours and encouraging people to use their local shops. The city is also tackling its lack of public green space by creating ‘urban forests’, small parks in school playgrounds that would be open to local people outside of school hours and allocating over $1.2bn/year has been allocated to the maintenance and improvement of streets, squares and gardens. By putting nature back into urban life Paris aims to become Europe’s greenest city by 2030.

 To help stimulate neighbourhood regeneration the City has set up Semaest- a semi-public agency with the ‘pre-emptive’ right to buy ground-floor space which it then re-purposes (if necessary) and lets out local businesses at below market rates.

In Melbourne, both local and regional governments have been working to implement the 20-minuite approach since 2017. As with many cities around the world, employment and economic activity in Melbourne is largely concentrated in the centre of the city, while housing and population growth is predominantly in expansive new suburbs on the edge of the city. In recognition of this the approach of a 20-minute neighbourhood now underpins strategic planning policies and decision-making. Key features of the 20-minute neighbourhood have been recognised by the Victorian Government as:

• safe, accessible and well connected for pedestrians and cyclists to optimise active transport
• high-quality public realm and open spaces
• services and destinations that support local living
• access to quality public transport that connects people to jobs and higher-order services
• housing/population at densities that make local services and transport viable
• thriving local economies

In Melbourne a key element in the development of this approach has been collaboration between stakeholders to align decision making on local assets around key ‘activity centres’. These activity centres act as hubs which provide services such as entertainment facilities, retail services and health centres.