This could be a pivotal year for mobility in Seattle. In the final week of January, Seattle won $25.7 million in federal grants to build safer streets, made transit free for 10,000 Seattle Housing Authority residents, and solicited public feedback on a major update to the city’s Comprehensive Plan. To transform this momentum into meaningful change, we need a catalyst—a coherent, powerful vision for moving around Seattle.
Consider the 15-minute city: first imagined by Carlos Moreno and most fully realized (so far) in Paris, this model describes a metropolis where residents can satisfy the full spectrum of their daily needs within a 15-minute walk or bike ride.
Concept diagram of the 15-minute city. Source: @re_visionuk
The 15-minute city could be a compelling target for the future of mobility in Seattle, and some of our elected officials have expressed interest in the possibility. To better understand how Seattle might become a 15-minute city, I created an interactive map showing walking times to amenities across the city. These include:
- Supermarkets
- Public libraries
- Parks that are 20,000 square feet or larger (excluding “pocket parks”)
- Bus stops connecting directly to downtown Seattle
- Light rail stations
- Restaurants and coffee shops
- Public schools, split by grade level
Select amenities from the check boxes below to automatically update the map. The color shown for each block represents the maximum walking time across all selected amenities. You can pan and zoom on the map; hover over a block or tap on mobile to see specific travel times.
By combining travel time data with the population of each block, we can count how many Seattleites are less than a 15-minute walk from each class of amenity:
| Service | Access (citywide) |
|---|---|
| Parks | >99% |
| Bus stops connecting to downtown | 97% |
| Restaurants | 91% |
| Coffee shops | 90% |
| Groceries | 73% |
| Elementary schools | 62% |
| Libraries | 49% |
| Link stops | 27% |
| Middle schools | 18% |
| High schools | 15% |
Credit where credit is due: it’s great that over 99% of residents have walking access to a public park, and 97% have walking access to a direct bus downtown. On a less impressive note, it will surprise no one that light rail stations are not walkable for most Seattle residents. Middle and high schools are walkable for less than 20% of Seattleites due to their size and placement in less-dense neighborhoods.
To check how closely neighborhoods of Seattle match the 15-minute city model, we can count how many residents have full walking access to combinations of amenities:
- Standard: 15-minute walking access to a supermarket, a public library, a public park, a bus stop to downtown, a restaurant, and a coffee shop
- Standard + Link: Access to all of the “standard” amenities plus a light rail stop
- Standard + Elementary School: Access to all of the “standard” amenities plus an elementary school. Possibly suitable for a family with young children.
- Standard + High School: Access to all of the “standard” amenities plus a high school. Possibly suitable for a family with teenaged children.
| Neighborhood | Pop. | Standard | S + Link | S + Elem. | S + High |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Citywide | 737,000 | 44% | 21% | 27% | 9% |
| Downtown (CBD) | 5,300 | >99% | >99% | 0% | 0% |
| International District | 4,500 | >99% | 97% | >99% | 0% |
| Pioneer Square | 4,400 | >99% | >99% | 35% | 0% |
| Pike Place Market | 3,300 | 97% | 97% | 0% | 0% |
| Ballard: Adams | 15,800 | 97% | 0% | 63% | 37% |
| Capitol Hill: Broadway | 28,100 | 94% | 91% | 82% | 0% |
| South Lake Union | 12,400 | 92% | 42% | 5% | 0% |
| Madrona | 4,100 | 91% | 0% | 91% | 15% |
| Green Lake | 10,300 | 84% | 44% | 83% | 31% |
| Central District: Atlantic | 8,700 | 83% | 2% | 83% | 48% |
| First Hill | 13,600 | 81% | 81% | 15% | 0% |
| Beacon Hill: New Holly | 4,900 | 81% | 66% | 81% | 0% |
| Belltown | 24,300 | 78% | 78% | 0% | 0% |
| University District | 34,400 | 78% | 77% | 2% | 14% |
| Queen Anne: West | 7,500 | 77% | 0% | 70% | 0% |
| Wallingford | 18,500 | 76% | 9% | 21% | 49% |
| Beacon Hill: North | 12,800 | 76% | 71% | 76% | 11% |
| Fremont | 14,800 | 73% | 0% | 71% | 31% |
| Lake City: Cedar Park | 6,500 | 71% | 0% | 0% | 2% |
| Central District: Mann | 5,200 | 71% | 0% | 65% | 53% |
| Yesler Terrace | 5,400 | 67% | 67% | 67% | 0% |
| Roosevelt | 9,000 | 61% | 44% | 40% | 42% |
| W. Seattle: N. Admiral | 13,600 | 61% | 0% | 54% | 44% |
| Columbia City | 15,100 | 60% | 54% | 34% | 2% |
| Rainier Valley: Dunlap | 6,400 | 58% | 42% | 58% | 58% |
| Delridge: Roxhill | 4,300 | 56% | 0% | 39% | 40% |
| Greenwood | 18,200 | 54% | 0% | 48% | 0% |
| Northeast: Bryant | 5,600 | 53% | 0% | 53% | 0% |
| Leschi | 5,800 | 52% | 0% | 52% | 36% |
| W. Seattle: Fairmount Park | 7,700 | 45% | 0% | 45% | 0% |
| Central District: Minor | 11,400 | 44% | 0% | 38% | 44% |
| Bitter Lake | 10,200 | 42% | 0% | 41% | 7% |
| Queen Anne: East | 9,800 | 39% | 0% | 31% | 0% |
| Pinehurst | 8,400 | 39% | 13% | 15% |
