The 20-minute neighbourhood is a concept that evolved from the idea of the 15-minute city. The idea is that almost anything you need to access on a day-to-day basis—work, shopping, education, childcare, health services, green spaces and entertainment—should be within a 20 minute walk or bike ride from your house.
20-minute neighbourhoods feature in many Australian planning strategies, like the Victorian government’s Plan Melbourne 2017-2050. The Victorian plan for a 20-minute neighbourhood has six key elements:
- Safe, accessible, and well-connected
- Supportive of local economies
- Provide convenient access to services
- Are climate resilient
- Provide high quality public spaces
- Housing density that make a 20-minute neighbourhood viable
The most recent Map of the Month—produced by AURIN’s Flavia Barar with Dr Sachith Seneviratne and Dr Emily Fitzgerald—looked at access childcare centres, primary health GPs, and pharmacies, to determine how many neighbourhoods fit the 20-minute neighbourhood criteria.
The team conducted ‘shortest path’ analysis from every intersection in Greater Melbourne to count the number of services that can be reached within a 20-minute walk. They discovered that while most inner and middle suburbs in Melbourne seem to have good access to these services, childcare was more evenly distributed than GPs or pharmacies. They also found that there are notable gaps in available services along the Frankston train line, Port Melbourne, Altona and towards the high-growth areas in western Melbourne.
Melbourne is often celebrated as one of the world’s most liveable cities, but the disparity in access to services means it’s more liveable for those living in higher density inner-city neighbourhoods and not as liveable for those in the lower density suburbs and the outer fringes of Greater Melbourne.
As the population of Melbourne grows it’s important to make sure that all neighbourhoods provide easy walking access to essential services. This reduces car dependency and creates a more equitable and truly ‘liveable’ city for everyone. Read about this month’s map in more detail on Pursuit, by project leaders Dr Kerry Nice, Dr Sachith Seneviratne and Professor Mark Stevenson (University of Melbourne).
We’re so happy to be part of the Map of the Month initiative—a science communications project led by the University of Melbourne, in collaboration with AURIN, Melbourne Centre for Cities, Melbourne Data Analytics Platform, and Pursuit.
The goal of the project is to use maps as a tool to initiate important policy discussion within Metropolitan Melbourne. The maps and stories feature in the project are contributed by academics, community leaders, and government representatives from different areas of Melbourne. The project is made possible through the support of the Lord Mayor’s Charitable Foundation and partnerships with the Victorian Office for Suburban Development and the Municipal Association of Victoria.