Developing the 15-Minute City: A comprehensive assessment of the status in Hong Kong

The 15-minute city concept has been incorporated into the planning doctrines of an increasing number of cities in different parts of the world. It serves as a guide for creating a compact and livable urban living environment where residents can reach locations of essential urban functions within 15-minute active travel. Nonetheless, there is a lack of comprehensive measures and an overall understanding of the 15-minute city status. By using the latest population census data and POI data in Hong Kong, this study proposes a 15-minute city index that holistically measures the 15-minute city status by incorporating the accessibility, which is measured by a modified two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method, to five categories of POI locations related to living, healthcare, education, public transit and entertainment. Our results show that the historical population centers of Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, which have experienced the earliest urban development in Hong Kong, generally rank the highest on the 15-minute city index. The neighborhoods in the new towns around the New Territories, especially those that are not near the transit hubs in the new town centers, largely lag behind on the 15-minute city index.