There’s been a lot of talk about 20-minute neighbourhoods in the UK over the last couple of years. Although not a new concept within planning, there’s certainly a renewed political and societal focus on their development and potential benefits resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic. Designed as places where residents can meet the vast majority of their day-to-day needs within a 20-minute walk from their home, they are considered enablers of many of the objectives our transport strategies seek to achieve, such as improved health and wellbeing, increased active travel, sustainable and inclusive transport, cohesive communities, and air quality improvements.

In Scotland, 20-minute neighbourhoods feature as a concept in a number of recent national policies as a means of both supporting post-Covid recovery and reinventing our places for the future. They also serve Scotland’s emissions reduction target of becoming net-zero by 2045 by an anticipated reduction in the need to travel. Scotland’s fourth National Planning Framework Position Statement (published in November 2020) focuses on the four key areas of ‘a plan for net-zero emissions’, ‘a plan for resilient communities’, ‘a plan for a wellbeing economy’ and ‘a plan for better, greener places’.

It’s clear to see how this concept and progressive transport planning and urban design might be the enabler of all of these aims. From examples around the world, we know that 20-minute neighbourhoods work. Being tried and tested from Portland, Oregon, to Paris, community feedback from pilot programmes has demonstrated what can be achieved with a set of (relatively) straightforward interventions. A pilot programme in Melbourne Australia, which started in 2018, collated a number of community ideas to form a starting point for a local approach, which can be further replicated across the city.

Areas for investigation reflected through the initial pilot included recommendations for improving cycling and pedestrian crossings of railway lines; enhancing connectivity of existing facilities through improved walking and cycling paths; reviewing bus service routes and frequency; supporting safe walk-to-school programmes; supporting community public art programmes and installations to reflect cultural heritage; and delivering streetscape improvements to revitalize local centres.

Closer to home, but similar to the Melbourne approach, the emerging Edinburgh City Plan 2030 has already identified eight town centres as starting points. There is, without doubt, a major opportunity for Scotland to use 20-minute neighborhoods to improve societal interconnectivity, reduce social isolation, improve health and wellbeing, improve levels of activity and regenerate areas of decline. So great is the opportunity that in its Programme for Scotland, published last September, the Scottish Government commits itself to work with local government to take forward its ambitions for 20-minute neighbourhoods where people can live, work and learn in communities close to home, as well as promising over £500 million over five years for large scale, transformational active travel infrastructure projects and introducing Low Emissions Zones in Scotland’s major cities in the first half of 2022.

This commitment is also carried through to the draft Infrastructure Investment Plan for Scotland 2021-22 to 2025-26 which identifies three core strategic themes to guide investment; enabling the transition to net zero emissions and environmental sustainability, driving inclusive economic growth, and building resilient and sustainable places. As a team of transport consultants whose focus is on creating places for people, through strategies that make the best use of available land; encourage the use of inclusive and equitable public and active transport; and support the resilience of urban spaces though innovative approaches such as micro-mobility and urban logistics; we’re excited to see how the 20-minute neighbourhood concept will provide answers to many of Scotland’s pressing issues.