(2023-02-07) Is Seattle A 15-minute City? It Depends On Where You Want To Walk

Is Seattle a 15-minute city? It depends on where you want to walk. To better understand how Seattle might become a 15-minute city, I created an interactive map showing walking times to amenities across the city

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%

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

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% (Good long table)

Despite Seattle’s high rankings on conventional walking metrics, only 44% of Seattleites can walk to basic city amenities

Of the 89 neighborhoods considered, only nine are “15-minute neighborhoods” walkable for 90% or more of their residents.