The 15-minute city, where residents can access work, education, healthcare, retail and leisure within a short walk or cycle ride, has become one of the most influential frameworks shaping urban policy across Europe.
Yet achieving this vision requires more than simply redesigning public space. It also depends on integrating transport, housing, logistics, accessibility and land use into a coherent urban strategy.
As European cities continue to densify, the question is no longer whether to foster greater use of active travel, shared mobility, and public transport, but how to do so in a way that remains socially inclusive, economically viable and accessible to all.
Starting with integrated urban planning
The challenge is particularly acute in dense urban environments, where car-centric planning over the years has left limited space for other forms of mobility and street use. Pedestrians, cyclists, buses, delivery services, local retailers and residents all compete for limited space.
Braga, Stockholm, Utrecht and Barcelona are working towards the principles of the 15-minute city. In an interactive workshop on integrated planning and sustainable urban proximities organised at the Eurocities Mobility Forum 2026, participants stepped into the shoes of residents, mobility operators, planners, retailers, logistics providers and accessibility advocates to help those cities understand the competing pressures shaping their neighbourhoods.
Across its mobility, environment and urban planning workstreams, Eurocities has consistently highlighted the need for cities to move beyond sectoral approaches and develop solutions that connect housing, transport, logistics, accessibility and public realm design. For example, some of these cities are part of REALLOCATE, a project that explores how European cities can rebalance street space in favour of safer, more inclusive and climate-neutral mobility.
FORTHCOMING is also looking into how to successfully transfer 15-minute strategies from urban centres to the suburbs, boosting the transition to climate-neutral, liveable, and inclusive cities.
Reclaiming historic streets
In Braga, this challenge is especially visible in the city’s historic centre, in which one of the key urban axes near a university campus illustrates the tensions between heritage preservation, mobility demand, and public space. The area is characterised by narrow streets, dense urban fabric, heavy traffic flows and intense pedestrian activity, while also serving local shops, sports facilities, educational institutions and everyday services.
How to prioritise walking, cycling and accessibility on a historically significant street network that was never designed for modern traffic volumes? Public transport operators need reliable routes through constrained streets, while shopkeepers depend on customer access and deliveries. Residents with reduced mobility need safe and unobstructed public spaces, but high traffic levels undermine comfort and accessibility.
The question we’re working with is how to create a setup where fewer, more efficient and low-emission deliveries become the easiest and most attractive option for everyone involved.
Braga’s case highlights that integrated planning cannot simply privilege one mode over another. Instead, it must find a balance between active mobility, local commerce and essential transport functions, particularly in areas where street space is inherently limited.
Coordinating urban logistics
Stockholm presents a different but equally pressing challenge. In the inner city and central business district, the issue is the movement of goods.
“The challenge is that property owners control the space, logistics operators control the flows, and no one really has the incentive or mandate to coordinate,” explains Victoria Herslöf, Transport Strategist at the City of Stockholm.
Many buildings in the city already have underground loading facilities, yet deliveries remain fragmented and inefficient. Multiple operators often serve the same office block independently, leading to repeated trips, duplicated traffic and unnecessary congestion.
Meanwhile, the city government wants to reduce traffic volumes but has limited power over the commercial models driving last-mile logistics.
“The question we’re working with is how to create a setup where fewer, more efficient and low-emission deliveries become the easiest and most attractive option for everyone involved,” says Herslöf.
Rather than relying solely on restrictions, Stockholm is exploring a more collaborative approach, bringing together real estate owners, logistics operators and tenants to create shared systems for consolidation and coordinated deliveries.
Designing a low-car district
In Utrecht, the Merwede district, a former industrial area, is being transformed into a high-density neighbourhood with around 6,000 homes for 12,000 residents. The ambition is clear: to create a neighbourhood where daily life can function with minimal car dependency.
“As Utrecht is a fast-growing city, sometimes it is easy to only focus on new developments, while the existing neighbourhoods are at least as important,” says Rens Jonker, Mobility Coordinator at the city of Utrecht. “Our challenge focused on how we can be sensitive to the mobility needs of these two types of areas, fulfilling them both while moving ahead in the mobility transition.”
Merwede has been designed around a car-free public realm, supported by extensive cycling infrastructure, shared mobility services and high-quality public transport connections. Plans include 250 shared cars, large numbers of shared bicycles, more than 21,000 bicycle parking spaces and parcel logistics hubs. Car parking provision has been deliberately limited, with fewer than 0.2 parking spaces per apartment, while park-and-ride facilities at the city edge are expected to absorb longer-distance car use.
The workshop really tries to break that pattern: rather than providing perfect and final solutions, it aims to explore the potential of multilateral collaboration and negotiation, while strengthening ties with stakeholders.
The redevelopment reflects a broader shift in urban thinking. Instead of retrofitting sustainable mobility into an existing neighbourhood, Utrecht is building it into the district from the outset.
Yet the project also raises important social questions. High-density, low-car neighbourhoods can offer excellent quality of life, but only if they remain accessible and attractive to a wide range of residents. Families, older people, lower-income households and workers with non-standard hours may all have different mobility needs. Utrecht’s challenge is therefore not only to reduce car use, but to ensure that the neighbourhood remains inclusive.
Accessibility in shared spaces
Barcelona offers another perspective on the relationship between mobility, accessibility and public space. In parts of the city centre, traffic has been heavily restricted through the creation of shared-space streets. Cars are only allowed to enter if they need access to residential buildings or to drop off passengers. Through traffic has effectively been removed, sidewalks and carriageways have been merged onto the same level, and traffic lights and parking bays have been stripped away in favour of a more open and pedestrian-oriented environment.
These interventions are designed to reclaim space for walking, social interaction and neighbourhood life. However, Barcelona’s experience also shows that reducing traffic does not automatically guarantee accessibility. Delivery vans often stop informally in pedestrian areas, creating obstacles for people with reduced mobility. For visually impaired residents, the absence of conventional traffic signals and the rise of quieter electric vehicles can create new forms of danger.
Liveability and accessibility are not always achieved through the same measures. Shared-space streets can unintentionally exclude some users. Therefore, inclusive neighbourhoods require more than traffic reduction; they require clear wayfinding, safe crossing conditions and public space that works for people with different physical and sensory needs.
Looking forward
The workshop was based on the Proximities Fresk methodology, developed from the theory of change designed by Chaire ETI. The approach is intended to help cities move beyond siloed thinking by bringing together different departments, sectors and actors to co-create people-centred and proximity-driven solutions.
“Too often we are seeing how cities work in silos, limiting collaboration with different departments and actors, and missing out on huge opportunities,” explains Chiara Martinuzzi, Research Project Manager at Chaire ETI. “The workshop really tries to break that pattern: rather than providing perfect and final solutions, it aims to explore the potential of multilateral collaboration and negotiation, while strengthening ties with stakeholders.”
“What I found most useful was how the workshop made it easier to see where the real barriers are between actors, not just the technical challenges,” adds Herslöf. “The planning tool helped structure that discussion and made it clearer what needs to shift for more coordinated solutions to actually happen. It felt like a practical way to connect day-to-day logistics issues with the broader ambitions of the 15-minute city.”
For Jonker, the role-playing element made it easier to empathise with different stakeholders, discover related domains that are impacted by your plans, and potential solutions. “It’s not a replacement, e.g. participation,” he explains, “but instead a valuable addition to the planning process and planners’ toolbox.”
By creating space for dialogue between actors who do not always work together, it helps reveal blind spots, expose trade-offs and build a shared understanding of what more liveable and resilient neighbourhoods could look like.
