Transport and urban planning have for a long time been conducted by local authorities in a top-down manner. Even though this has gradually changed in the last decades by involving citizens in the form of workshops, surveys, and by other means, there often remains a gap between the information that planners have at hand and the information that citizens receive. And even when citizens have access to data, it is often not presented in an attractive and easily understandable way.

Jointly developed together with Plan4Better and the Technical University of Munich, Map4Citizens is an innovative online tool addressing this by developing a mobile-ready web-based application that allows users to quickly get an overview of important mobility-related parameters in their city and neighborhood.

Based on the concept of the 15-minute city, the platform shows a user-specific 15-minute city in Munich. Through a series of user-specific questions, the platform creates a personalised “Flower of Proximity”, a specific mobility profile. This flower can be adjusted on the settings as many times as needed, and based on it, the platform shows how well different locations in the city can serve the user’s needs.

By calculating catchment areas, the platform provides information on how far one can travel by foot, bike or public transport, and which amenities are reachable. Furthermore, the platform allows users to activate additional layers such as Noise Levels, Population Density, Land use and Public Transport Qualities.