Creating the 15-minute City: Public Engagement Strategies to Move People Away from Cars and Towards a More Walkable Worcester

The study of urban planning there has recently been a resurgence in the idea of a 15-minute city. A 15-minute city is a city where vital destinations are within a 15- minute walk or cycle from any resident. These cities flip the current car-centric method of transportation planning on its head, and instead ask planners to prioritize pedestrians and cyclists when designing streets. Previous studies show that 15-minute cities don’t just exist, they will take planning, infrastructure implementation, and possibly most importantly, resident buy-in. It is hard to achieve change in cities without having the support of your residents. Becoming a more walkable Worcester will require municipal staff to convince there is a different and better way to plan our cities and roadways. The City of Worcester is working hard to create community buy-in for micro mobility infrastructure improvements. However, with limited staff and high workloads, it is hard to find time to create and implement comprehensive engagement strategies. It is also time-consuming to analyse the effectiveness of your campaigns after the fact. Just holding a community meeting no longer captures all residents and allows the voices of a few residents to dictate the future of the many. We need innovative plans and strategies that involve new technology and engage residents where they are.