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Notes -
The concept of '15-minute cities' came up a few weeks ago, but since then it appears to have piggybacked off a local dispute in Oxford to become the locus of the latest so-called 'far-right conspiracy theory'. The proposed measure certainly codes as dystopian to me on this side of the pond, even as someone who is generally supportive of new urbanist ideas, but I can't speak to how it plays in Europe.
I've often felt that the culture war battle lines on these urban planning issues have not been as clearly drawn as those on gender, immigration, or abortion, mostly due to a lack of attention, but that time appears to be coming to an end. Though seeing as we already can't build anything, I suppose it isn't much of a loss.
The proposal itself is odd. Why allow taxis to pass freely? How are they better than private cars? Also "private hire vehicles" -- is this something like Uber? Why are these better than regular cars? If it's because they don't need parking spaces... charge more for parking?
It starts by talking about specific hours and days, like the way some rush hour lanes work, but then those hours and days are every day of the week 7am - 7pm. It talks about "unnecessary car travel," as though people were just gong for a drive, but would anyone actually do that through a congested main street? It also says vans are exempt? Vans? This is the kind of rule that ended up with areas in America full of extra huge trucks, because they weren't subject to the same rules as smaller trucks. If I were commuting in Oxford, I would buy a van immediately. I suppose vans are much more expensive in England than the US?
All this seems separate from trying to create "15 minute cities" by, say, incentivizing shops in the lower story of apartment or office buildings, or building more public plaza areas. Both those things seem desirable, and I would fully support some kind of incentive for subdivisions to be built more in a village format. I assume they're not because it's cheaper and more convenient for people to drive 20 minutes to the big box store, than buy from a local baker and butcher and so on, so it's hard for those kinds of places to stay in business. If people value quantity over aesthetics, that's valid, though.
Anyway, I haven't noticed any culture war tensions around urban planning in the communities I've been a part of. Everyone assumes that families will have cars, even if they're poor by US standards, and indeed they do have cars, even if they're terrible and junky. This is an equilibrium that isn't aesthetically appealing, but is livable, and seems likely to continue indefinitely. I prefer the Eastern European system of mini-busses, but everyone already has a car.
Taxis are used a large portion of the day. They continously service customers throughout the day and park out of the city when not in use. Taxis are far more efficient than people driving a car to work, parking it for 9 hours and driving home.
Driving kids to school is unnecessary driving in a city. There is no reasonable reason for kids having to be driven to a school in an urban environment, kids should be able to walk. Getting a haircut and having to transport oneself 10 km for it is absurd in a city. Having to travel far to go to a gym is a big waste of resources. The unnecessary travel isn't people driving for fun, it is people living in a city and having to travel far for basic services.
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