Students in the Transportation Planning Studio will collaborate with the Corridor MPO and City of Cedar Rapids to develop a guidebook that collects the current state of 15-minute city planning efforts, focused on North American examples. The guidebook will pull together information on initiatives currently underway, processes for developing 15-minute city plans, implementation challenges, and analysis techniques.

The basic concept behind the 15-minute city is that urban residents should be able to access the daily services they need within a 15-minute walk or bicycle ride. Daily needs include things like shopping, schools, employment, medical offices, parks, and restaurants. Putting residents close to the things they frequently need allows them to walk and bike more often, resulting in a more active lifestyle with more social interaction. It can also help to create more opportunity for neighborhood-serving businesses and reduce infrastructure needs for cities.

The City of Cedar Rapids and Corridor MPO have begun to explore ways to implement 15-minute city concepts. The Transportation Planning Studio team will create a guidebook to assist with this effort based on an examination of efforts currently underway or completed in North America.

The group will collect case studies and reach out to planners in other cities to better understand best practices related to 15-minute city planning. The team will also document planning and approval processes and challenges that other cities have faced in incorporating this concept. Finally, the student team will examine analytical techniques that could be used to determine the location and type of land use and transportation changes needed to develop 15-minute neighborhoods.