Short commutes

Geneva in 2061

In 2061, nobody in Geneva spends more than 30 minutes getting to work, door to door, whether by metro, bicycle or on foot. Many former offices in the city centre have become homes, and new workplaces have opened in the outskirts and the neighbouring region, close to where people live. Anyone whose commute on foot takes less than 25 minutes simply walks: it is free daily exercise, along pleasant streets with greenery and little traffic. Everything people need in daily life is close at hand.

Sadly enough, this represents far too many people’s lives — what the French call métro, boulot, dodo: commuting, work, sleep.Grooters, Book 1, Part 8 “Machine”

Geneva today

• Walking is still little used for getting to work: in 2021, only 21% of the work trips made by the canton’s residents were on foot, against 48% of shopping trips (OCSTAT, 2023).
• The World Health Organization recommends at least 150 to 300 minutes of moderate physical activity a week for adults, and stresses that all activity counts, including walking and cycling as a means of transport (WHO, 2020).

Where it is already done

• Paris aims to become a “15-minute city”, a concept developed by the urbanist Carlos Moreno: housing, work, healthcare, shopping, learning and leisure within a quarter of an hour on foot or five minutes by bicycle. By 2023, the city had turned nearly 130 school playgrounds into green “oasis” courtyards, some open to residents outside school hours, and counted 180 “school streets” closed to motor traffic.
• Calgary (Canada) has been paying owners since 2021 to convert empty downtown offices into homes. By 2025, 21 projects had been approved, turning about 250,000 square metres of vacant offices into 2,628 homes and 226 hotel rooms, with four dollars of private investment for every dollar of public money.

A Pattern Language

Related patterns from the book A Pattern Language by Christopher Alexander and colleagues (1977), a classic of architecture and town planning.

• 48 Housing in Between: Alexander and his colleagues argue that housing should be woven in among workplaces, shops and services, rather than kept in separate zones, so that no part of the city is empty at night and people can live close to their work.

How far along

Political will We know how to do it. Someone has to decide to.

The path to 2061

Milestones proposed for discussion.

1. 2027Geneva publishes average door-to-door commute times by neighbourhood, and makes it easier to convert empty offices in the city centre into homes.
2. 2031New workplaces open in the outskirts and in the French region near Léman Express stations, and walking routes to schools and workplaces become green and safe.
3. 2041Most people who live within a 25-minute walk of their work walk there, and the average commute is below 30 minutes.
4. 2051Long daily commutes have become the exception, including for people living across the border.
5. 2061Nobody commutes more than 30 minutes, door to door.

What moves it

Human needs it serves

Open questions

• How can employers be encouraged to locate workplaces closer to where their staff live, on both sides of the border?
• How can office conversions provide affordable homes, rather than only luxury apartments?
• How can people be encouraged to walk short distances rather than take the bus or the car?

Sources

1. Econostrum: Les frontaliers marquent le pas à Genève, enregistrant la plus faible hausse depuis 2009, on OCSTAT figures (February 2026, in French)
2. Cantonal Statistics Office (OCSTAT): La mobilité des habitants du canton de Genève en 2021 (September 2023, in French)
3. World Health Organization: WHO guidelines on physical activity and sedentary behaviour, at a glance (2020)
4. City of Paris: Paris ville du quart d’heure, ou le pari de la proximité (2022, in French)
5. City of Paris: Les essentiels de la rentrée scolaire 2023 (in French)
6. City of Calgary: Modernized, affordable homes coming to downtown Calgary through new office-residential conversion (August 2025)

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