"We've already known for decades that cities function better, are cleaner, more sustainable, more equitable, if you create services in the proximity of where people live," said Rogier Vandenberg, acting global director of the Ross Center for Sustainable Cities at the World Resources Institute.

Experiments have already taken place in the wake of the pandemic to reduce travel time and enable people to live and work locally, including Melbourne's 20-minute neighbourhoods and the Paris 15-minute city.