Life in London

I spent 15 years of my early adult life in London. I loved it. I still get rather homesick when standing on Waterloo Bridge looking up and down the Thames. Funnily enough, in the 15 years I lived there I was probably only on Waterloo Bridge 5 times. As a staunch North Londoner I spent my time in Highgate, Archway, Holloway, Islington, venturing down to Aldwych and the Strand for studying and Leicester Square later for work. Of course the odd night was spent in Bloomsbury, Covent Garden or Soho, but it was odd. 

What I loved was not the centre of London, it was that where I lived everything I needed was in walking distance. Several corner shops, a larger supermarket if you needed it, my GP, drinking pubs, gastro pubs, restaurants, the library, charity shops and - of course - public transport. I would not walk longer than 15-20 min to get anywhere I needed.

Surrey

I moved out to Surrey in 2013 and with a two year old it seemed like a good idea. I realised very quickly that it really wasn’t. Wherever you had to go, you needed to get in a car. The supermarket was over 20 min walk away, the GP on the other side of town, the pub was 30 min and along a very dark stretch of road I would not want to walk at night. My 20 min neighbourhood had vanished overnight. It had been replaced by a constant iteration of 5-10 min drives. It had also become the start of putting on about 2 stone in body weight. 

The Idea

20 min neighbourhoods are a wonderful place to live. You can always go further in your car, on your bike or if you are lucky enough to live in such a place, with public transport. But living somewhere where you can get to what you need within reasonable walking distance is an amazing luxury - and good for your mental and physical health (think of those 2 stone in body weight!).

Policy makers have discovered 20 min neighbourhoods as a new way of town planning. The push is to try to increase the number of places that offer their inhabitants the opportunities that usually only people in very big cities consistently have: amenities in walking distance. It is already being implemented in places such as Melbourne and Paris

Benefits of 20-minute neighbourhoods

But it is not only the individual that benefits from a 20 min neighbourhood. The benefits of this approach are multiple: people become more active, improving their mental and physical health; local shops and businesses thrive; and people see more of their neighbours, becoming part of a community and strengthening community bonds and efficacy. In addition, a neighbourhood that can largely be negotiated walking, due to the reduction in traffic, will most likely have better air quality and be an overall healthier place to live. 

The benefits of this approach are countless. And still, there is a counter movement against these neighbourhoods.  Some argue the concept can conflict with individual freedom or that the concept can be undermined by a lack of clarity, which can lead to opposition. 

Challenges of 20-minute neighbourhoods

Some challenges to implementing 20-minute neighbourhoods include: 

Access: Some say that access is a major issue, especially for those without access to well-connected transport links. 

Retrofitting: Some say that retrofitting existing settlements to meet the goals of 20-minute neighbourhoods can be challenging. 

Buy-in: Some say that buy-in is required across local authority departments and other sectors to fully implement 20-minute neighbourhoods. 

In extreme cases the opposition leads to violent protests and the suspicion that the initiatives are there to lock people into local ghettos. 

Our study

OPTIMA will explore 20 min neighbourhoods using a range of complexity methods, including Realist approaches, participatory research and agent-based modelling to understand the opportunities, barriers and potential pitfalls of 20 min neighbourhoods. We will try to understand limitations to the obvious benefits of these neighbourhoods, how different populations might benefit in different ways and how these neighbourhoods can be designed to maximise the co-benefits of health, sustainability, community and personal freedom. 

Corinna Elsenbroich (OPTIMA Work Package 1 lead)

Reader in Computational Modelling

First published: 8 January 2025

<< About