I snapped the photos in this post while walking in Örebro, a city my family and I lived in for a few years and where I really began to ‘study walkability’ largely beginning with photo documentation of common sense foot and cycle paths all around the city.
Örebro was also the place I was living when I first heard about the 15-minute city concept. Örebro, like many other well-planned small cities, fit the description well, so I began to study it from this angle- what I called a ‘textbook example of a 15-minute city‘, also rolling out my first city mobility and 15-minute city mobility survey there with local residents.
I also value communicating with local planners and established contact with Linnéa Lorinius, a traffic planner for Örebro municipality. In answer to my multiple questions, she noted:
“I think everyone involved with city planning helps to make Örebro what it is. To be able to take your bike for example and cycle pretty much anywhere within 15 minutes is partially due to good infrastructure and that there are decent bike lanes to travel on but it also depends on where and how we develop the city. If we want to continue building a city that is bike friendly I think one important key is urban densification rather than urban sprawl. It has its challenges of course, but if we want to evolve into a sustainable city, destinations and different services need to be within biking distance with good infrastructure. It needs to be easy to walk, bike and take the bus for example. And that’s what we’re working towards in Örebro.”
