AccessCity4All: ADAPTING THE 15-MINUTE CITY CONCEPT TO SUPPORT ACTIVE MOBILITY IN NEIGHBOURHOODS WITH DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ACCESSIBILITY

The concept of the 15-minute city has emerged as a prominent guiding vision for urban
development, sparking both excitement and controversy within the academia, planning
practitioners, and the public sphere. European national research councils have jointly
established a multiannual programme under the roof of Driving Urban Transitions DUT as a
collaborative effort to explore the trajectories of the 15-minute city. Among the first
generation of projects launched under this initiative is AccessCity4All. The project is cofounded by NWO and EU.

AccessCity4All addresses potential limitations of the 15-minute city concept by examining
residents’ perceived and actualised accessibility in specific neighbourhoods. The
transdisciplinary focus lies in supporting active mobility across diverse urban settings for
individuals with varying needs and abilities. We employ a mixed-method research
approach across five Urban Living Labs, encompassing city-wide accessibility calculations,
stakeholder workshops, walk-along interviews, and Public Participation GIS surveys in up
to 50 neighborhoods across the participating cities and provinces in Europe. The project
consortium is coordinated by the Austrian Academy of Sciences and includes project
partners from University of Groningen, ILS Dortmund, University of Lisbon, and GAZI
University, as well as city partners from Vienna, Muenster, Groningen, Lisbon, and Ankara.

University of Groningen leads the work package on Public Participation GIS for the European consortium and implements the project particularly in the province of Groningen.