'15-minute cities': The newest way for elites to control and restrict human activity
In the name of fighting the 'climate crisis,' urban planners want to fine you for driving
Americans, if you are worried about:
- Tech surveillance of citizens
- Limitations of movement
- Restrictions of movement/energy use
- Lockdown-style mandates to fight the "climate crisis"
Then you need to understand the "15-minute city" controversy in Oxford, UK.
What is a 15-minute city? It's a method to mitigate the impact of human beings on the "climate crisis."
The concept is attributed to urbanist Carlos Moreno, who explains in his TED talk that the main priority is ecological (human benefits like proximity to amenities or social solidarity are presented as secondary).
How would the plan be implemented in existing urban areas?
You can see an example in Oxford, UK, where the local council last year introduced a plan to create Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTNs). This plan would divide the city into six zones, with car traffic between zones restricted.
Traffic between zones is controlled by traffic filters, or surveillance cameras that read license plates. If you cross zones in your car, you are recorded and fined. Residents can apply for permits that allow 100 crossings a year, after which you are fined (you can imagine how soon you would run out if you commute across one or more zones).
As you can imagine, locals aren't happy about the idea. Thousands have protested the Oxford LTN proposal, leading to arrests.
Thousands of others have petitioned to end it.
Some say the Oxford 15-minute city will hurt local businesses, low-income workers, and will actually INCREASE pollution by forcing drivers to take long detours to avoid the LTNs.
As always, when "experts" try to impose an top-down solution by fiat, it comes with unintended consequences that makes things worse.
Now, many fans traditional urbanism, like myself and many conservatives around the world, embrace the idea of walkable cities. They might think that LTNs are a policy win.
Here's my response: Yes, walkable cities are good. In fact, I want builders to create new urban centers that are under 1.33km² (walkable in <15 min) and low-to-no car traffic.
But to impose limits on the mobility of residents, by fiat, for ideological reasons, against their wishes, in EXISTING urban areas is inhumane.
What makes the LTN zone so dangerous is that it's a pilot program for the kind of 24/7, 100% coverage surveillance state that the Davos crowd want to roll out everywhere.
In the seemingly benign interest of fighting climate change, the experts want to impose top-down solutions with no regard for the sovereignty, liberty, or well being of actual people.
It's part of a campaign to restrict how much energy/fuel you can use, to monitor/control your location at any time, and to increasingly acclimatize you to greater and greater losses of freedom.
Perpetrated by only a handful of elites.
And like most of the horrible policies coming out of Europe, it will be coming to America shortly.
When people say "15-minute cities," they are talking about LTNs, not aesthetic, happy, human-scaled environments.
Just say no.