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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

15 Minute Cities

37 replies

Buzzinwithbez · 09/11/2022 10:39

Has anyone come across this idea? I dismissed it as the usual mad out of touch WEF thought experiment, then came across this.
www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/23073992.traffic-filters-will-divide-city-six-15-minute-neighbourhoods-agrees-highways-councillor/

Can you get most of your needs met within 15 minutes walk in your town/city? Are your public transport links good enough to get to places you need to be within 15 minutes?

What would be the reasons you would need to leave your area/town?
Many reasons for me. The biggest that might not be deemed a necessity would very sadly be the nature defecit I have within 15 minutes.

OP posts:
Flumptastic · 13/01/2023 22:56

Hi @jeaux90 do you use the OSBP. We are moving to Oxfordshire so that our daughter can start school in Oxford in September and I gather that the service is being withdrawn

jeaux90 · 14/01/2023 11:16

@Flumptastic yes it's being withdrawn. The schools covered will now have to sort their own individual services out.

Allthegoodnamesarechosen · 14/01/2023 11:23

Well, I live in a central Oxford postcode, and none of the services listed are within a fifteen minute walk of my house, except a secondary school, which is not much use to me. Most are available within a fifteen minute drive, but that is hardly the point.

the bus service has been cut in half in the last three years, and it has been ‘revised’ so that both the buses come at the same time every half hour instead of at fifteen minute intervals.

the councillor who tells you how good it is going to be lives in Witney, about half an hours drive away, and a good centralised hub town.

DuncanEnright · 14/01/2023 12:36

I never said that. Also there haven’t been any recent changes to traffic schemes, but we have to do something right as we can’t carry on as we are. It is right though that no part of the city currently accessible by car should not in future be accessible by car under current proposals.

jeaux90 · 14/01/2023 12:47

@DuncanEnright are you saying the existing LTNs have not increased congestion? The OSPB already had to adapt routes to account for it as you well know.

The additional ambitions now mean that service will cease and several more "agile" services will take its place. So, more vehicles, more parents having to drive.

It's insane.

Rycbar · 07/02/2023 18:30

I may be wrong but the traffic filters/restrictions just sound like the congestion charge in London?

The concept of 15 minute cities is fine - as someone else has mentioned the aim is to make the need to travel that often unnecessary but not impossible!

allswellthatends · 07/02/2023 19:02

Oxford Council is acting as though certain roads are the property of those who live nearer those roads, which is not right. And as pp point out, this isn't the concept meant by the 15-minute-city. If anything it would fit the concept far better to ban people from driving anywhere that IS within 15 minutes of their house.

And I'm with denishhol, if they want to discourage driving they need to make sure the essentials are actually available in every neighbourhood first -- start with the carrot not the stick. But since "the essentials" are not just milk and newspapers, but also as many pp say included jobs and schools, I don't see how it will ever be possible to put everything within a 15-minute radius. The whole point of living in a city is to have access to the wider range of people and culture you find there. I for one would consider having a bookstore nearby essential but that isn't the case even though I live in central London. (And yes, I do take the bus to the nearest ones ... very frequently 😉)

Also, provide more public transport. NOT just cycle lanes, which don't work for many of us -- the elderly, those with small children or luggage, the disabled, those in hilly areas, and indeed those of us who just can't arrive at work wet or dirty or sweaty... not to mention those of us who live in a country where it rains regularly, ie all of us. Here in London because TFL is bankrupt (unlike most global city systems, it gets its funding largely from ticket sales, and Westminster doesn't want to subsidise post-pandemic), we're actually seeing bus numbers deliberately CUT right at a time when every borough is putting in savage low-traffic-neighbourhoods, not to mention the ULEZ. So short-sighted!

allswellthatends · 07/02/2023 19:04

Rycbar the Oxford concept is harsher than the Congestion Charge in London. You don't just pay a fee, you pay a fine for driving out of your area more than allowed, even if you were willing to pay in advance...

allswellthatends · 07/02/2023 19:06

Oops I see I posted in the wrong thread, I had been reading the similar one started at 1030 this morning... Mumsnet should maybe combine them?

starlingdarling · 07/02/2023 19:08

Also, provide more public transport. NOT just cycle lanes, which don't work for many of us -- the elderly, those with small children or luggage, the disabled, those in hilly areas, and indeed those of us who just can't arrive at work wet or dirty or sweaty... not to mention those of us who live in a country where it rains regularly, ie all of us.

You forgot those of us who can't ride a bike! My parents didn't have the spare money to buy one. I thought about learning as an adult then got a job working in personal injury. Clients injured riding their bike were more likely to have life changing injuries than the car accident cases I saw.

Spectre8 · 07/02/2023 19:15

Its so stupid who is anyone to say how many times you should travel outside your area. What if your caring for parent's and have to go outside your area multiple times then be fined for it.

There is surely a basic right to be able to travel where you want to, however many times you want to
How you travel is the issue in terms of vehicle used and congestion being the other issue. So its better to have better public transport where u get 30ppl in one vehicle compared to 30 extra cars.

CharcoalJeans · 07/02/2023 19:22

JimSteen911 · 17/12/2022 01:05

You've missed it my friend. They've already publicly said they will limit the use of your private car. Everywhere you go will be catalogued and you will only have X amount of days or time to drive. You're going to have to register your vehicles with the council. You're going to have only so many days a year you can drive your vehicle. You will be fined otherwise. Make no mistake, this is authoritarian and our western countries have already shown their ability to cross the line on their own people. I fear you are misinformed brother. Im from the US - this doesn't affect me. This isn't just prudent city planning. This is in fact a new level of totalitarianism. Mark my words. It may take some time for this poisonous tree to bare its fruits. But it certainly will.

This is bullshit

its about sustainable city planning so that people can access all they need to within 15 mins. There is no suggestion people are penned in!

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