Addressing priorities such as health, liveability, and climate resilience, many global governments are exploring x-minute city and x-minute neighbourhood policies. Addressing a lack of operational models for x-minute cities, we developed a model to assess accessibility and utilisation implications of their implementation, testing the model by applying it to the low-density city of Melbourne, Australia, where 20-minute neighbourhood (20MN) policy focuses on walkable access to daily destinations within 10 minutes (20 minute round trip), and applying the model to people living within 10-minute walking distance ‘catchments’ of mixed-use activity centres. We curated a list of 14 destination types (such as supermarkets and primary schools), and developed a method to model notional placement of additional destinations to place at least 80% of people in each catchment within a 10-minute walk of each destination type. We extended accessibility considerations to cycling, based on a 10-minute one-way ride.
Our results show improvements in accessibility across the city as a whole, particularly in inner urban areas; but with significant improvements in outer urban areas, characterised by low housing density, when cycling is promoted. Our utilisation analysis demonstrates feasibility challenges when implementing x-minute city policies in less densely populated locations. Our conclusions underscore the importance of supporting x-minute city policies with safe cycling infrastructure and careful urban densification strategies. Our findings are relevant to many cities seeking to implement x-minute city or neighbourhood policies worldwide, especially cities facing challenges of low density.