Access Hamilton Ara Kootuitui Kirikiriroa

Our Access Hamilton strategy sets an aspiration for Hamilton Kirikiriroa to be a “20-minute city”.

This is defined as:

“A 20-minute city of compact, connected and healthy neighbourhoods in Hamilton Kirikiriroa means that people can live locally by meeting most of their daily needs* walking from their home, in pleasant surroundings and with safe, easy access to other parts of the city by biking, using micro-mobility or public transport.”**

The idea of a 20-minute city is simply one that’s easy to get around, where you and your family can easily access the services you need to work, learn, play and thrive close to where you live and have these services easily accessible without using a car. It's common sense really, and it's not a new idea.

Living locally will help Hamiltonians to access various services – especially essential ones – close to home while not necessarily relying on a private vehicle. This means Hamiltonians can experience a higher quality of life.

* daily needs may include access to the following in your compact, connected and healthy neighbourhood: Local shops and businesses (e.g. supermarket (small), butcher, grocer, bakery, café, shared workspaces), opportunities for play, open green spaces, early childhood facilities, primary schools, health services such as doctors, dentists, chemists and public transport stops.

** This definition acknowledges that the 20-minute city is a concept. We will reflect this aspiration throughout our work with our partners and our strategies, plans and activities, however it is not intended to define a standard of service delivery.

You can read the strategy to learn more

We look after the planning that decides where, and what, gets built. We’ve already been doing some things that align with a 20-minute city for many years, because it’s what people want. We have commercial zones in residential areas so shops are handy, we invest in walking and cycling networks as well as public transport hubs, and we look at what’s already in the area when people want to build new developments.

The 20-minute city concept has informed our Access Hamilton Strategy which provides a framework that helps us focus this planning, and makes sure we are putting people first when we’re looking at how our city grows.

You might have heard talk about 20-minute or 15-minute cities already.

There is concern from people because of statements that our 20-minute city means some kind of locked down city where you are monitored all the time, have to pay to leave your neighbourhood, and it’s somehow linked to a massive global conspiracy to control you.

In fact, it’s not anything like that. It’s pretty much exactly the opposite.

To be honest, we don’t really know where all of this misinformation comes from. The claims about lockdowns and it being part of an international conspiracy are pretty new but seem to have really kicked off after COVID-19.

There’s also been a campaign which started overseas falsely claiming a connection between our 20-minute city concept with traffic congestion measures in Oxford, England. Some sites are claiming its part of a plan to lock us all down in response to fake storms. Those claims are wrong and have been thoroughly debunked by multiple independent fact-check sites around the world, but it hasn’t stopped people making the claims, generally linked with other misinformation.

There’s lots of videos and sites which make stuff up to suit their own agendas. They pop up all over the place and we can’t address every false allegation or weird theory. The sad thing is, they can look believable, claim they have a heap of ‘facts’ and they can make people worried.

All we can say is: if you see or hear something that says our 20-minute city planning is designed to make your life harder, it’s rubbish.