What can you get to within a 15-minute walk of your house?
A recent YouGov survey asked Americans what they think they should be able to get to within a 15-minute walk of their house.
Of these choices, I can currently walk to all of them from my apartment, aside from a university (no biggie, I'm not currently studying, although there is a Tafe within walking distance), a hospital, and a sports arena.
How many can you get to with a 15 minute walk from your house?
#fuckcars #walkability #urbanism #UrbanPlanning @fuck_cars #walking
As someone in the UK, I already live within a 15 minute walk of most of these.
Is it really that bad over there? If you're not within a quick walk to the shops, or the doctors, or school, tram and bus stops, opticians, dentists, etc, how do you and the kids get anything done?
Who would intentionally move somewhere like that? The first thing we do when looking at moving to a new place is see what services are within walking distance, to get an idea for how worth it living there would be.
If you've got to walk 30+ minutes just to get to the shops? That's an arse ache you don't want.
Something that always amazes me when I visit the US is how unbelievable sprawling everything is. There is this old saying "In Europe 100 miles is a long distance, in the US 100 years is a long time" and I definitely think there is truth to it. The US focused their planning around cars for so long, it'll be quite a challenge to change that.
in many suburbs there are just no sidewalks, and busy multi lane roads.. So even if its under a mile away, you can't walk there.
If you are in and older town, with the old downtown, its not so bad. So most people in east coast cities, and older towns have access to walk into town. There are exceptions accross the contry.. However Any Town USA has its stores in a strip mall with a wallmart on a busy strode and no foot access.
The answer is driving everywhere. everywhere I've lived/visited in the US is not feasible to live without a car, mostly for lack of the access you take for granted and it sucks. All of our cities are designed around cars and everyone having access to them, public transit and neighborhood shops are basically nonexistent, especially outside of major cities
It's often a 30 minute walk to anything at all.
Look for "Stroads" on YouTube.
@obinice @ajsadauskas I was reading Japanese city real estate listings the other day and every single one of them lists the walking distance to the nearest train station (and the name of the station) at the top of the list. It’s literally the most important thing.
@obinice @ajsadauskas
Ikr?
It might be that you live somewhere nice, but then those amenities move away and that sucks, especially for old or disabled or poor people (without access to a car)
But i cannot imagine willingly moving somewhere where the nearest supermarket or bus-stop is more than a 10 minute walk away. The inability to do things would be a daily frustration. I am willing to give up A LOT in terms of 'house-size' or 'garden' or 'affordable rent' just to live close to civilization.