15 Minute US Cities

The idea of the 15 Minute City is that urban living is much more enjoyable and sustainable when all our essential needs are close by. These essential needs include such things as grocery stores, health care facilities, cultural attractions, transit stops, educational facilities and leisure activities. Individuals living in a 15 Minute neighborhood should be able to access all these essential health, educational, retail and leisure needs within a short fifteen minute walk or bike ride.

Last week Nat Henry released a new interactive map which allows users to discover walkable, bikeable, and transit-friendly neighborhoods across the United States. Close allows users to select the amenities & destinations which are important to them and then it creates a US travel-time map based on walking, biking and public transit travel times to those destinations. Which means you can quickly find your ideal 15 minute neighborhoods in towns and cities across the US.

If you are moving home in the near future you can use Close to help identify the best places for you to live based on your own personal life choices. Using the Destinations menu you can select from 35 different amenities and destinations which are important to you. These include destinations such as shops, parks, schools, bars, transit stations, health care etc. 

You can then select a travel-time mode for each of your selected destinations (walking, biking, and walk & transit). When you have finished adding destinations Close will produce an ishochrone map which shows the travel time to the furthest of those amenities. The areas marked blue on this map are the areas where your essential needs will be met without you having to travel long distances.