Abstract
The 15-minute city (15mC) aims to promote sustainable urban environments by ensuring access to everyday services within short travel times, yet research and implementation have largely focused on dense urban cores. Peri-urban areas with lower service density and weaker public transport provision pose distinct mobility challenges for children, who often dependent on parents and private cars. This reliance restricts independent movement, social participation, and autonomy, raising questions about how the 15mC can be adapted to better support vulnerable and disadvantaged groups such as children, increase well-being, and reduce car dependency in peri-urban settings.
The Norwegian case in the INCLUCity+ project examines shared demand-responsive transport (DRT), as an alternative to private car use and complement to public transit, often promoted as an inclusive solution for vulnerable groups. Our review of scientific literature from 2015-2025 assesses the potential and limitations of shared DRT for advancing transport equity through a multidimensional justice lens, showing that equity is often assumed rather than critically assessed, and how digital requirements, cost structures, and limited service coverage may reinforce socio-spatial inequalities. This underlines the need to move beyond technical performance metrics toward equity-by-design governance models and participatory approaches when considering DRT for supporting children’s mobility in peri-urban 15mC contexts. Building on these insights, a systematic and interdisciplinary
approach to site analysis, stakeholder mapping, and identification of user needs in peri-urban 15mC contexts is developed to capture structural conditions and lived experiences of mobility and access.