The "proximity city" is one of the concepts that has been widely developed in recent years to improve the sustainability of the cities we live in. The proximity city not only aims to ensure that people can comfortably walk through the streets or that there is a sufficient variety and quantity of services, but it also ensures that these services are close to home.
This allows people to prioritize walking or cycling, as their daily activities are within their neighborhood, leading to more active and attractive streets. This increases physical activity, improving people's health. It also allows people to spend less time commuting and more time on leisure or caring for themselves or their families. Environmentally, noise and pollution levels are reduced, along with a lower presence of cars.
A key and implicit goal in these models is shift the current city paradigm ("car-dependent city"), where the priority is the private vehicle, into a model focused on pedestrian mobility..
A key and implicit goal in these models is to shift the paradigm from the current car-dependent city to a model centered on pedestrian mobility. One of the most widespread models of the proximity city is the 15-Minute City. The 15-Minute City of Paris is a particular example of applying the theoretical contributions to the proximity city concept. Carlos Moreno began working on the theory of the 15-Minute City in 2016, aiming to transform the model by offering a city scheme where all services are integrated within a short distance from home. This model gained significant relevance and weight as a successful urban mobility policy with the onset of the pandemic, highlighting some of the major contradictions of the current urban model and accelerating the adoption of Moreno's model in his own city and others.
The 15-Minute City of Paris has laid the foundational principles of the proximity city theory currently in use:
- Density: There must be enough people and sufficient uses to make the city interesting.
- Proximity: Both in terms of distance and time, meaning that services should be located close to the residence, and the city's infrastructure should allow quick access to them.
- Mixed Uses: With a sufficient variety of uses, avoiding the creation of specialized neighborhoods or zones with unique uses, such as industrial areas.
- Ubiquity and Digitalization: Everyone should have the option to access all daily services, either in person or online if they are specialized services. Therefore, it is important to create a sufficient network of internet connections to access online services.