Proposal calls for every street in paris to be cycle-friendly by 2024.

In a bid for re-election, Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo wants to create a 15-minute city where the residents can find everything they need within 15 minutes without a car. Called the “ville du quart d’heure” (the quarter-hour city) her proposal calls for the removal of 60,000 of the 83,000 on-street parking spaces in the city, making the space available for pedestrians and cyclists.

“We need to reinvent the idea of urban proximity,” says professor Carlos Moreno, one of the architects of the plan. “We know it is better for people to work near to where they live, and if they can go shopping nearby and have the leisure and services they need around them too, it allows them to have a more tranquil existence.”

The 15-minute city is not a new idea, but it would mark a revolutionary step in a city the size of Paris, home to more than 2.2 million people. Moreno says his ideas for the Paris plan were inspired by Jane Jacobs, author of the 1961 classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities.

Mayor Hidalgo will invite residents to propose ideas and vote for what 5% of the city’s investment budget would be spent on every year, with that amount gradually increasing to 25%.

“My project is about proximity, participation, collaboration and ecology. In Paris we all feel we have no time, we are always rushing to one place or another, always trying to gain time. That is why I am convinced we need to transform the city so Parisians can learn, do sports, have healthcare, shop, within 15 minutes of their home. This will take Paris into the future.”

Read the full story at The Guardian. And if you speak French (or know how to have Google translate for you, you can read more about Mayor Hidalgo’s 15-minute city plan at AnneHidalgo2020.com.