Full disclosure from the outset: before writing this, my understanding of the 15-minute city was limited. From what I had heard and read, I assumed it to be a hybrid of existing ideas, principally compact cities, transit-orientated development and localism coupled with the general good practice of planning around walking distances.<\/p>\n
Once it broke into mainstream media, I knew I had to investigate further but then the conspiracy theories began circulating and suddenly it was no longer a new way of living but a mechanism for civil repression<\/a>.<\/p>\n When an associate in the Middle East recently said they had read that UK residents would be required to wear GPS devices to monitor and constrain their movement beyond city limits, the notion seemed so bizarre that I could dismiss it all as a passing trend without ever really knowing the crux of the discussion.<\/p>\n For some reason, PBC Today seemed to think this would be a healthy outlook for a balanced review, thereby prompting a deep dive into a notion that I was probably too quick to judge from the outset.<\/p>\n