15 Minute City Concept and Palermo Case Study

Sustainable urban mobility models and decarbonization in transportation have been discussed globally for decades. Yet the problem is not just decarbonization and the solution is not limited to green technology alone. Particularly, Covid-19 brought to light other important and ingrained problems of cities such as inequality of accessibility, the marginalization of some urban, peri-urban, rural territories and the emergence of social exclusion. In order to find a way out from these problems, practical, easily accessible, comfortable, and cheap alternatives should be provided to citizens and the use of private vehicles should be minimized. However, no matter how many alternative transportation modes and models are offered, it is very difficult to achieve the desired results if the daily travel need of people is not reduced. As the case study city of this paper, the mobility plans and the actions taken in the last decades in Palermo is examined. Like many other Southern European cities, Palermo suffers from a lack of an efficient public transport system. Even if there are steps taken to increase connectivity and accessibility among the peripheral neighborhoods and the city center, still commuters should make long trips for their daily basic needs and Palermo has one of the highest congestion problems in Europe which makes it harder. In the light of these facts, this paper analyzes one of the newest and increasingly popular concepts “15 Minute City” and tries to answer the questions such as: (a) what are the steps to take in Palermo to increase proximity and to decrease inequality in accessibility; (b) which parts of the city need to be the priority of action for ensuring accessibility by proximity in different territorial conditions and (c) how the 15 Minute City concept can be localized and applicable for Palermo. The main idea of the paper is to find answers to these questions which could be transferable to the city’s mobility plan and also open a path for other implications. To do that, a desk study and site investigation will be made on the Palermo case study concerning the dimensions of the 15 Min City concept.