The 15-minute neighbourhood, also called the complete neighbourhood, is an urban planning concept where cities and communities are organized in such a way that inhabitants’ daily destinations are within a 15-minute walking distance from their homes. The movement is meant to break out of the mobility trap, a cycle driven by auto-dependency, where cities designed to be driven, cause amenities to gradually shift further apart and further away from residential communities, connected by expanding networks of roads, hydro and electric grids. The result of this increasing sprawl forces the inhabitants of a city to drive further and further to access their daily needs.

The most liveable cities in the world are made up of walkable communities, where the places people go each day — schools, grocery stores, transit, parks, libraries, community centres, shopping, clinics — are close enough to their homes and close enough together to walk between. The best of these communities are central, have services and amenities that are well integrated, have a diversity of housing and include infrastructure — bike paths, pedestrian thoroughfares, public plazas and markets — that create “Third Places”, the community gathering spaces that help foster connection and human interaction.