Six European Suburbs Test New 15-Minute City Metrics For Shared Scooters

Suburban areas in six European countries face deep car dependency and scattered services, but local planners are testing a new evaluation method to help shared bikes and scooters bridge the gap. By adapting the popular urban planning idea known as the 15-minute city, researchers have evaluated how neighborhoods outside city cores can use specific performance metrics to reshape local travel.

The study, published in Re-Generation in Transport, examined suburban districts in Madrid, Hamburg, Debrecen, Turin, Lisbon, and Istanbul. These locations represent diverse suburban landscapes, ranging from the low-density sprawl of Las Rozas in Spain to denser transit-oriented districts like Hamburg-Altona in Germany.

How Suburban Planners Measured Local Mobility

To understand what suburban residents actually need, the research team used a three-phase approach that combined official transport strategies with direct input from local experts. Planners gathered Sustainable Urban Mobility Plans from each region and categorized them into four main areas, covering sustainable transport, people-centered planning, smart logistics, and local governance.

Next, researchers organized brainstorming sessions and questionnaires using digital collaboration boards. Local focus groups then reviewed and ranked eight different clusters of key performance indicators. These clusters included modal share, proximity to services, density and land use, sustainability, inclusivity, governance, economic impact, and digitalization.

Modal Share and Proximity Take Top Priority

The stakeholder rankings revealed clear agreement across different countries about what matters most for suburban mobility. Modal share, which tracks how travel is split between cars, public transport, walking, and shared micromobility, ranked as the most important cluster overall. It secured first place in Spain, Hungary, and Turkey, reflecting severe congestion and heavy reliance on private automobiles.

Proximity followed closely behind, ranking first in Germany, Portugal, and Hungary. Planners emphasized that reaching essential daily services within a 15-minute trip by walking, cycling, or public transport is essential even when homes and shops are spread further apart. In places like Alverca do Ribatejo in Portugal, shared bikes and scooters are seen as vital tools to connect isolated neighborhoods to regional rail networks.

Digitalization and Economic Impact Lag Behind

While modal share and proximity dominated the top spots, other categories revealed striking divides between European regions. Digitalization and Mobility-as-a-Service, which involves booking multiple transport modes through a single smartphone app, ranked seventh overall. Cities like Hamburg already boast advanced digital platforms, while suburban districts in Portugal and Hungary reported very low readiness and persistent digital exclusion risks.

Economic impact consistently ranked at the very bottom across nearly all case studies. This suggests that local decision-makers view environmental and social goals, such as reducing carbon emissions and improving daily access, as far more urgent than immediate financial returns when planning transport interventions.

Limitations and Next Steps for City Authorities

The authors noted several limitations in their findings, including the subjective nature of stakeholder rankings and varying data availability across the six nations. Because the research focused strictly on European case studies, the specific numerical rankings cannot be directly applied to car-oriented suburbs in other parts of the world without local adjustment.

Nevertheless, the structured evaluation framework offers a reliable roadmap for local authorities. By institutionalizing performance tracking, cities can move away from ad-hoc transport additions and begin treating shared micromobility as a permanent structural connector within suburban transport networks.

The research was published in Re-Generation in Transport on January 1, 2027.