*2.3. Study Area*

2.3.1. Monterrey Metropolitan Area

With 74 metropolitan areas in 2015, as declared by the National Population Council (CONAPO, by its acronym in Spanish), the conformation of large metropolitan areas has been one of the main urbanisation trends in Mexico since the 1950s Century [18]. The creation of metropolitan areas has been fuelled by the centralisation of economic activities, such as industries and services, in large- and, to a lower extent, middle-sized cities. These cities grew demographically from rural to urban migration, led by people who were looking for better employment opportunities and living conditions. Yet, the metropolitan areas have failed to achieve an urban development that can cope, in a sustainable manner, with the social, economic, and environmental demands [18].

The marginalisation index is an indicator used by CONAPO that serves to demonstrate how metropolitan areas have divergent conditions and how planning paradigms and processes have failed to create a city where all inhabitants have the same conditions and access to opportunities [19]. It relates to a lack of social opportunities and the absence of the capacity to generate them, as well as to deprivation and inaccessibility of basic goods and services. This indicator is based on 10 different socio-economic factors [19]:


Figure 2 shows the marginalisation levels in the MMZ according to the CONAPO [20], as well as the location of Distrito Tec within the MMZ. It can be observed that most of the AGEBs in the MMZ lie within the low (22.91%) and very low (41.42%) marginalisation levels, with few classified as medium (20.76%), high (4%), or very high (1.63%). There are 9.19% of the AGEBs that are not categorised. It is worth mentioning that the regions with higher marginalisation levels are located in the outskirts of the MMZ, usually places with low levels of accessibility.

**Figure 2.** Marginalisation levels in the Monterrey Metropolitan Zone (MMZ).

Clearly, the MMZ is not an exception to the challenges that Mexican metropolitan areas face. There exists room for improvement in terms of creating central and well-located social housing, diversifying economic clusters throughout the city to promote decentralisation, and rethinking urban planning concerning land uses to guarantee enough supply to satisfy local needs.

Furthermore, changing demographics have to be taken into account. Figure 3 displays the population distribution in the MMZ as in Monterrey Municipality. The MMZ population has a pyramidal shape where most of its inhabitants are 40 y or younger. Even though the distribution of the Monterrey Municipality is similar to the one of the MMZ, there is a faster shift towards a more rectangular shape, meaning that the city is facing a stationary growth [21]. This population trend will result in a decreasing demand for infrastructure related to children (such as schools and kindergartens) and an increase in demand in infrastructure related to elderly persons (such as hospitals and retirement/nursing homes).

The analysis at the metropolitan level has the objective to demonstrate the performance of the MMZ in terms of accessibility to different location types. The results will allow urban planners and policymakers to identify underperforming areas in relationship to specific variables. This information can then be translated into a hierarchy-based intervention plan, starting with the areas with lower levels of accessibility. Hence, the analysis at the metropolitan level does not relate to the 15 minutes city concept, as a broad analysis of each area of the city would be required and the addition of more variables (destinations) will be needed. Nevertheless, some of the results can provide useful insights and findings

to determine whether certain areas of the city meet the 15 min travel time parameters for a specific variable.

**Figure 3.** Population distribution (thousands) by ages 0–100+ in the MMZ (**a**) and Monterrey (**b**).

The current research project departed from analysing accessibility at a metropolitan scale, to understand and assess the socio-spatial relationships that drive the city. Hence, the two major destinations that promote travel were studied: main employment centres and public schools. Additionally, a variable for public hospitals was added, as it was considered that access to health is key to promoting better living conditions.

#### 2.3.2. Distrito Tec Area

By considering a smaller scale of analysis, the level of complexity of the area reduces, allowing incorporating new variables and destinations within the scope of work of the current research project. Therefore, the local area analysis, considering Distrito Tec (See Figure 1) as the study area, can take a preliminary approach to analyse to what extent Distrito Tec meets the requirements of accessibility to different destinations, using walking or cycling as the transport modes, to be considered a 15 minutes city.

It is important to mention that Distrito Tec is located within a central area of the city. Hence, in comparison to other areas, it is considered privileged in terms of its surroundings (see Figure 2). Based on this, it is expected that the levels of accessibility within such an area will be higher than the ones of suburban areas.

The neighbourhoods surrounding the Distrito Tec Area are heterogeneous and affect the levels of accessibility of the area. The same counts for the mobility patterns. Therefore, it is important to give a brief characterisation of each one of them.

According to Figure 4, the northern area has very low to medium marginalisation levels and is mainly residential with single-family zoning. The commercial activities are located on the main avenues and offer some additional services such as community schools.

The eastern area has faced important changes since the 1950s, as it used to have a brick factory that was dismantled to allow several urban renewal processes to happen. There is a contrast between the socio-economic levels of the population. In the neighbourhoods in the vicinity of the brick factory, a low-income worker population predominates; in contrast, on the opposite side of the river, there are high-income gated residential communities. The land use variety is low, with most being residential with single-family zoning. The small numbers of commercial places and services tend to be located around the main avenues where vast shopping centres have been built (e.g., Nuevo Sur shopping mall).

The western area is the oldest, dating to the 1920s. It is characterised by being a middle-income residential area with single-family zoning. Through time, a heterogeneous land use mixture has emerged in the area, having many commercial activities and services located on the main avenues.

**Figure 4.** Marginalisation levels in Distrito Tec.

The polygon of Distrito Tec was designed based on the neighbourhoods' boundaries, which are located in the vicinity of the university campus. However, the AGEBs do not fully correspond to such limits; thus, some AGEBs will not be completely encompassed within the polygon. For the current analysis, 11 AGEBs were considered as part of the Distrito Tec Area, as presented in Figure 4.

The first set of variables to be analysed is access to public kindergartens and schools. For this section, a specific accessibility measure was computed for each education level to understand how the local people, depending on their age, are able of accessing education places. Considering that the closest destination might not be able to address the entire demand of the AGEB, as well as social preference factors, the accessibility measures were evaluated for the five closest locations (kindergartens, primary, secondary and high schools).

#### **3. Analysis and Results**

#### *3.1. Monterrey Metropolitan Area*

Figure 5 shows the average distance from every AGEB to the closest public schools using bicycles as the transport mode. It can be observed that most of the AGEBs have a public school in a range of less than 1000 m. This is due to the high density of schools (especially primary and secondary) that most areas of the MMZ have. Building schools has been one of the priorities of the authorities, as there is a high demand for them given that Mexican demographics maintain a pyramid structure. This means that there is a considerable amount of people younger than 30 y, as observed in Figure 3a,b, which shows the age distribution of the population of the MMZ and Monterrey, respectively, according to the INEGI 2020 census.

Interestingly, many suburban areas that are not even physically integrated into the city have high accessibility levels (e.g., some northern and southwest regions). This phenomenon reduces the travel dependence from suburban areas to central areas to access education.

The south and southeast of the city have the lowest access levels, which relates to the fact that both are high-income areas where residents tend to prefer private schools and that some of these areas were designed and built as gated communities with only residential land use.

**Figure 5.** Average distance to the closest public school travelling by bicycle.

Figure 6 compares the performance of the transport modes (bike and walking) in accessing the closest public school at the metropolitan level. The first important thing to highlight is that despite the transport mode used, 75% of the AGEBs can access a school in less than 10 min. This is related to the high density of schools at the metropolitan level, as observed in Figure 5. By comparing the transport modes, it becomes evident that cycling achieves considerably higher levels of accessibility: while it takes 9.7 min for 75% of the AGEBs to reach the closest school by walking, for the same percentage, it only takes 3.5 min by cycling.

It is important to mention that Figure 5 is just a preliminary approach to understand accessibility to schools; this variable will be disaggregated in the following section, to analyse how access varies depending on each school's education level.

Figure 7 presents the average travel time by AGEB to the closest public hospital by foot. The map shows a considerable divergence of accessibility between AGEBs, with many going beyond the 30 min travel time, mainly due to the low density or nonexistence of hospitals, predominantly in suburban areas.

Central areas show high access to hospitals. This can be attributed to the historical conformation of the city, which started at the centre and gradually sprawled. Therefore, central areas have existed for longer periods, allowing the authorities to implement through time the necessary health infrastructures in these areas. In contrast, many suburban areas are relatively new, and some have lacked formal planning procedures (people built homes without having any official permit from the governmen<sup>t</sup> or public administration), while others have been designed following urban paradigms that purposely create isolated and monofunctional areas, such as gated communities.

The southeast of the map represents an excellent example of how planned urban communities can lack access criteria in their planning procedures and how these problems are not exclusive to lower-income areas or highly marginalised ones that have been built without any formal planning. In this sense, what some people think could be a solution (urban planning) can trigger a problem.

**Figure 6.** Comparison of the performance of transport modes to access the closest public school at the metropolitan level.

**Figure 7.** Average travel time (minutes) to the closest public hospital by foot.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated how important it is to have a robust and accessible healthcare system [22]. Therefore, poor access to health services should be unacceptable, as observed in many AGEBs of the MMZ. The MMZ needs to urgently tackle this problem by developing new public health centres in any area of the city that does not meet the desirable access parameters.

Figure 8 compares the performance of both transport modes (walking and bicycle) to access the closest public hospital. For this specific variable, the differences between one mode and the other are more evident. This is related to the lower number of destinations available at the metropolitan level (in contrast with Figure 6, the number of hospitals is evidently lower than that of schools). Hence, faster transport modes, such as bicycles, will outperform walking by a considerable margin: for 75% of the AGEBs to reach the closest public hospital travelling by foot, it takes 46.8 min; in contrast, it only takes 14.7 min by bicycle.

**Figure 8.** Comparison of the performance of transport modes to access the closest public hospital at the metropolitan level.

Figure 9 shows the number of economic activities that employ 51 persons or more (main employment centres) that can be accessed within a 15 min travel time by bicycle. It can be appreciated that most of the AGEBs with higher levels of accessibility (+73 destinations) are located in the central areas of the city, with a gradual decline towards the outskirts. At first sight, such a result might be perceived as unusual, considering that the MMZ is an industrial city and that most industries are located in suburban areas. Nevertheless, industries usually have very large complexes that occupy vast areas of land and make them separate from one another, reducing access to them in short periods. In contrast, even though they are smaller in size and number of employees, the economic activities that concentrate in central areas of the city (such as commerce and services) require smaller areas of land compared to industries and are located closer to each other.

The reduced number of main employment centres at the northern, western, eastern, and southeast AGEBs implies that residents in those areas have to travel long distances and periods of time to central areas to work, relying heavily on motorised modes of transport. This traffic has high economic, environmental and social costs for the city and its residents, and can be tackled by creating new clusters of economic activities in areas with low access and by improving transport networks, especially public transport. It is important to isolate and analyse each particular case, as some of these areas lack main employment centres given that, historically, they were independent of the city, but the sprawl has reached

them and forced them to integrate with its economy. Some other areas were lacking main employment centres on purpose, as many of the AGEBs located to the southeast of the MMZ were designed as high-income gated communities (especially golf clubs) with only residential land use. As all the residents from these areas require accessing the opportunities located within central areas, they generate demand for public infrastructure that is extremely expensive and that should not exist if planning policies were to assure land use diversity and accessibility parameters before authorising building permits.

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**Figure 9.** Number of economic activities that employ ≥51 persons within a 15 min travel time by bicycle.

The three variables previously presented demonstrate how complex urban areas truly are and how inaccurate generalisations can be. The present exercise thus serves as a preliminary approach to demonstrate that every city faces many different and particular challenges. Consequently, any solution, in order to generate a beneficial change, must be based on a full understanding of the specific desired conditions in the city.

The current research demonstrates that using accessibility measures is extremely useful for identifying specific needs from different areas of the city and that despite the accessibility measure chosen, the data obtained are relevant. The information generated can be used as a departure point for prioritising interventions and public policies depending on the performance of each area on a given variable. By doing so, much time and many resources can be saved.

This first section of analysis concludes that the levels of accessibility at the metropolitan level are divergent and that they drastically vary, even in the same location, depending on the measured variable. The results are a relevant input to obtain a general diagnosis of the state of the MMZ in terms of accessibility. These results can also be compared to different socio-economic variables, such as marginalisation rates, to better understand the social, economic, political, and environmental factors that drive the city. This information represents a solid departure point to then analyse what happens at smaller scales, without ignoring that each area of the city is bound to metropolitan interrelationships.

#### *3.2. Distrito Tec Area*

Figure 10 shows the average time by AGEB to access the five closest public kindergartens. As most children going to kindergartens are not able to cycle, the accessibility measure was computed for travelling by foot. Even though the number of kindergartens within the polygon is low (four), the surrounding areas at the north, west, and southwest have considerably high densities. In contrast, the areas in the east and the southeast have very low densities.

**Figure 10.** Average time to the 5 closest public kindergartens travelling by foot.

Three of the eleven AGEBs within Distrito Tec meet the constraint to access the closest five kindergartens in a maximum of 15 min, with all three AGEBs in the 11–15 min class. The rest of the AGEBs have considerably higher access times with four AGEBs in the 16–20 min class, three in the 21–25 min class, and one in the 26–30 min class. The lowest accessibility levels are represented in the AGEBs located to the southeast of the polygon. This is due to the relatively low density of destinations in the surrounding areas, especially to the east.

As most AGEBs within the polygon do not meet the 15 min travel time criteria, it can be argued that in terms of access to kindergartens by foot, the Distrito Tec Area cannot be considered a 15 minutes city. Nevertheless, additional information should be collected to know how many children in the Distrito Tec Area are within the age range to go to kindergartens. In the case that this number is low, the computation could be made to the closest kindergarten, as this one could host all the local demand. Such a scenario would considerably increase the levels of accessibility.

Figure 11 presents the average time by AGEB to access the five closest public primary schools by foot. Again, the density of destinations within the Distrito Tec Area is low, with only three schools. Yet, the surrounding areas at the north, northeast, west, and southwest have considerably high densities.

Only three out of eleven AGEBs from the Distrito Tec Area meet travel times of a less than or equal to 15 min. These AGEBs are located on two opposite corners of the polygon (northeast and southwest) and can meet the 15 min parameters due to the high number of destinations in the outer nearby areas. In contrast, six AGEBs require a travel time of 16–20 min to reach the closest five destinations. The higher travel time is due to the low number of destinations in central areas of the Distrito Tec Area. Finally, two AGEBs reach the 21–25 min class.

Given the previous results, it can be said that in terms of access to public primary schools, the Distrito Tec does not meet the requirements to be considered a 15 minutes city using only foot as the travel mode. However, by using other modes of transportation such as bikes, the travel times would drastically decrease and the accessibility level would increase.

**Figure 11.** Average time to the 5 closest public primary schools travelling by foot.

As the age groups that attend secondary and high schools usually are able to use bicycles as their main travel mode, the following computations were performed considering bicycle as the transport mode. It is important to bear in mind that the average speed of a person travelling by bike is three-times higher than travelling by foot. Therefore, a much higher number of destinations can be accessed within the same time.

Figure 12 presents the average travel time by AGEB to reach the five closest public secondary schools travelling by bike. Even though the density of destinations in the Distrito Tec Area is extremely low (two) and remains low in the outer areas, the accessibility levels are rather high. All AGEBs can access the closest five destinations in a maximum of 10 min of travel time.

**Figure 12.** Average time to the 5 closest public secondary schools travelling by bicycle.

From the 11 AGEBs, two are in the lowest class of only 0–5 min of travel time. These AGEBs are located at the southwest border of the polygon, where the only two destinations inside the polygon are located and there are three others in the vicinity. In this sense, it can be said that using bicycles as the main travel mode, the Distrito Tec Area can be considered a 15 minutes city.

However, when the computation was run using foot as the travel mode, the accessibility levels drastically dropped (See Figure 13). As the share of trips done by bike is very low for the MMZ (only 0.8%), the current research project assumed that most of the population attending secondary schools uses other transport modes. In this sense, it is important to highlight the benefits, in terms of accessibility, that fostering the use of bicycles as the main travel mode would bring. One key factor to promote the use of bicycles is to create the safety conditions that users require; thus, implementing cycling lanes and open streets would be mandatory.

**Figure 13.** Average time to the 5 closest public secondary schools travelling by foot.

Figure 14 shows the average time by AGEB to reach the five closest public high schools by bike. The density of destinations is extremely low, not only in Distrito Tec (one) but in all the surrounding areas. Hence, the levels of accessibility are significantly lower compared to other variables. Only five out of eleven AGEBs in Distrito Tec can access the five closest destinations in a maximum travel time of 15 min. The other six are in the class above of a 16–20 min travel time.

**Figure 14.** Average time to the 5 closest public high schools travelling by bicycle.

The surrounding areas at the south and east of Distrito Tec have an absolute lack of destinations. As a result, the population living there has to travel through Distrito Tec and other areas to reach a public high school. This phenomenon creates traffic in all the surrounding areas and other negative effects.

Again, a computation considering walking as the main travel mode to reach public high schools was included (see Figure 15). The accessibility results are worrying, as all the AGEBs within Distrito Tec, and the surrounding areas, demand a ≥31 min travel time. Hence, despite which travel mode is taken, it can be argued that the Distrito Tec Area cannot be considered a 15 minutes city regarding access to public high schools.

**Figure 15.** Average time to the 5 closest public high schools travelling by foot.

As seen along with the previous examples, education has many additional variables that have to be taken into consideration such as student capacity, local population age groups, etc., in order to entirely assess how accessibility behaves in the local area. Nevertheless, the accessibility measures are an excellent departing point for understanding the impact of transport modes and services' density on accessibility patterns.

The next variable is access to commercial activities, specifically to supermarkets. Due to a lack of public markets, as seen in many other Mexican cities, Monterrey's population does most of their grocery shopping at supermarkets. Hence, supermarkets are one of the most frequented destinations among the local population, and access to them is key to guaranteeing satisfactory quality of life.

According to the 2020 INEGI census, the average number of inhabitants per household in the MMZ is 3.18 people. This indicator is relevant given that people tend to buy groceries not for one, but for three persons when they go to the supermarket. For that reason, the bought items can be difficult or heavy to carry if the individual travels by foot or bicycle, so many people prefer to use motorised vehicles such as cars or public transport. Nevertheless, if accessibility to supermarkets is high, people would be encouraged to visit supermarkets more often than once per week and buy fewer items per visit so they could avoid the need to use a motorised vehicle.

Access to health is probably one of the most important things for an urban dweller, and this has been exemplified throughout the entire COVID-19 pandemic [22]. However, hospitals are very expensive infrastructures to build and run; hence, they usually have a metropolitan or regional radius of incidence in their planning processes (see Table 4). This section analyses what effects these planning processes have at the local level by measuring the average travel time by foot and bicycle to the closest public general hospital.


**Table 4.** Urban equipment regulatory system, recommended service radius. Source: Secretaría de Desarrollo Social (SEDESOL), 1999.

Figure 16 presents the average travel time by AGEB to the closest public general hospital by foot. The map shows that the number of destinations is extremely low, and within the Distrito Tec Area, there are no public general hospitals whatsoever. The surrounding areas of the polygon show a lack of destinations, with the only exceptions at the northeast area with two available hospitals and the southwest area with also two destinations.

**Figure 16.** Average time to the closest public general hospital travelling by foot.

As a result of the lack of destinations available within Distrito Tec and in most surrounding areas, eight out of eleven AGEBs of the Distrito Tec's polygon require over a 31 min travel time to reach the closest destination. From the three AGEBs left, a travel time between 26 and 30 min is needed to reach the closest public general hospital. These results highlight that the location of hospitals follows metropolitan and regional planning processes, where access at the local scale is not relevant. Additionally, as seen in Figure 16, most of the hospitals tend to cluster. This has to do with the complementarity that one can give to others. A consequence of these localisation patterns is that travel distances from all neighbourhoods that do not have a nearby hospital are considerably high and demand motorised transport modes.

From the previous results, it can be said that Distrito Tec Area is far from becoming a 15 minutes city, if people travel only by foot.

Figure 17 shows the average travel time by AGEB to the closest public general hospital travelling by bike. In comparison to Figure 16, the travel times, both for Distrito Tec and the surrounding areas, drastically decrease. Nonetheless, many AGEBs still are beyond the 15 min parameter. In the Distrito Tec Area, six AGEBs require a 6–10 min travel time, three an 11–15 min travel time and two a 16–20 min travel time.

As nine out of eleven AGEBs meet the parameters to access a public hospital in under 15 min of travel time, the Distrito Tec Area could be considered a 15 minutes city. Here, it becomes evident that transport modes dramatically influence access levels and that the location and number of destinations are not the only relevant factors in terms of accessibility.

There are two important lessons from the previous results. The first has to do with the importance that infrastructure at different scales has. One possible solution to improve the access to public general hospitals would be to increase the number of small clinics or medical centres throughout the city. By doing this, people could solve most of their basic health issues at local destinations and travel to large hospitals only when they have complications. The second lesson is that if public general hospitals need to have a metropolitan and regional scale and cluster in specific areas, they need to ensure highquality transit connections. Building roads for cars is not the solution.

**Figure 17.** Average time to the closest public general hospital travelling by bicycle.

As 44% of the daily trips from the MMZ are travel to work, employment is the driving force of mobility. Thus, creating employment opportunities for the population at the local level is key to reducing the population's travel distances and times. By this, negative effects from traffic, such as accidents, pollution and low quality of life, would decrease.

It is important to mention that employment exists in a vast variety of ways. For example, there are many small- to middle-sized economic activities (such as grocery shops or dry cleaners) that are located throughout the entire Metropolitan Area; however, each one of them employs a relatively low number of persons (less than 50). In contrast, large economic activities tend to be less common but employ a larger amount of people (≥51). These activities in the MMZ are usually industries (most located in suburban areas) and company headquarters or offices (most located in central areas).

As seen before, at the metropolitan level, the main employment centres (activities that employ ≥51 persons) are located in central areas of the city. As Distrito Tec is considered a privileged location in terms of centrality, it is expected that the number of main economic activities available at the local level will be high.

Figure 18 presents the number of economic activities that employ ≥51 persons (main employment centres) that can be reached from each AGEB within a 15 min travel time by foot. Clearly, most of the main employment centres are located on the two main avenues of Distrito Tec: Av. Eugenio Garza Sada and Av. Revolución.

Even though there is a high number of economic activities, the access levels are relatively low. The 11 AGEBs that compose the Distrito Tec Area are in the same access class of 6–17 destinations within a 15 min travel time by foot. From the surrounding areas, the northeast, east, southeast southwest, and west have very low access levels, all in the class of 0–6 destinations. This has to do with the low number of economic activities located

in these areas. Once again, the population living in those areas has to travel to other parts of the city to work, causing traffic, as well as other negative effects.

People highly value the possibility to walk to their job; therefore, it is important to decentralise economic activities and create social housing in central areas that permit the local population to easily access their jobs. Figure 19 shows the number of economic activities that employ ≥51 persons that can be reached by AGEB using a bicycle. As soon as one looks at the map, it is evident that the access levels from the entire area drastically increase. Ten out of eleven AGEBs of the Distrito Tec Area can reach ≥105 destinations and the remaining one 95–105. The surrounding areas also present very high access levels, excluding the east. The eastern area is mainly residential with a gated community urban structure. It is also physically separated from the rest of the city by the river, with a small number of bridges that allow crossing to it. These two factors generate longer-distance trips to access job opportunities, which also results in longer travel times and motorised vehicle dependence.

**Figure 18.** Number of main employment centres reachable within 15 min travelling by foot.

**Figure 19.** Number of main employment centres reachable within 15 min travelling by bicycle.

From the results presented in Figures 18 and 19, it can be said that in terms of access to main employment centres, the Distrito Tec Area can be considered a 15 minutes city. Nonetheless, additional information should be gathered to understand the specific type of economic activities located in the area and if the local population has the qualification, interests, and requirements to take those jobs.

Figure 20 presents the number of supermarkets that can be reached by foot within a travel time of a maximum of 15 min. There are five supermarkets within the Distrito Tec polygon; in the surrounding areas to the west and northeast, there is a high density. In contrast, to the east and southwest, there are no destinations available. To the south, the density is low with all supermarkets concentrating on Eugenio Garza Sada Avenue. The location of supermarkets has negative effects on the mobility of the Distrito Tec Area, as the population living in the eastern neighbourhoods has to travel to or through Distrito Tec to access a supermarket.

**Figure 20.** Number of supermarkets reachable within 15 min of travel by foot.

From the 11 AGEBs that conform the Distrito Tec Area, 2 cannot access a single supermarket, 6 can access 1 destination, and 3 can access 2 destinations. On that account, most of the AGEBs meet the parameters of the 15 minutes city using foot as the travel mode.

Figure 21 shows the number of supermarkets that can be reached by AGEB within a travel time of 15 min using a bicycle. Immediately, one can appreciate that the number of destinations becomes very high for pretty much the entire area, which is related to the fact that cycling speed is three-times higher than walking.

By bike, all of the AGEBs within Distrito Tec show high accessibility levels, only one AGEB being in the 31–50 destinations class, one AGEB in the 51–69 class, five AGEBs in the 70–93 class, and three AGEBs in the 94–195 class. Such results demonstrate that the Distrito Tec Area comfortably meets the parameters to be considered a 15 minutes city in terms of access to commercial activities (supermarkets). Additionally, the evidence collected is key to understanding the massive potential that cycling has in the city in terms of accessibility. By using this transport mode, the local population can drastically increase their access to commercial activities without relying on motorised vehicles. Once again, this should promote local authorities to create adequate conditions to make cycling safe and comfortable for the local population.

All the previous variables serve as a preliminary approach to understanding to what extent Distrito Tec is ready to become a 15 minutes city in terms of its road network and its destinations' availability. Nevertheless, as mentioned repeatedly, further variables and information have to be taken into consideration to provide a much more accurate analysis of the accessibility and the population's needs in the local area.

The results presented highlight the importance of thinking locally and not just at a metropolitan or regional scale when infrastructure and urban equipment are planned. They also demonstrate that micromobility, especially via bicycles, has a massive potential to increase local accessibility without, necessarily, having to increase the number of amenities in a given area.

**Figure 21.** Number of supermarkets reachable within 15 min of travel by bicycle.
