Ask Lemmy

Many Americans still live in what I'd call "15 minute cities" if we consider it as driving instead of walking.

Where I grew up in rural texas: these are current times as I still go there regularly to visit.

Convenience store: 10 km down a major highway

Market: 20 km

The nearest Walmart : 58 km <-- this used to be the only option until they built ... The nearest chain grocery: 21 km

Train: 60 km (Amtrak)

Park: 8km. Down a road with a 60 mph (96 km/h) speed limit. But definitely walkable.

Bus stop: ??? There is no public transportation in the town of under 2000 people. Google maps won't even give me a suggestion so...I have no idea. Does a greyhound count?

Library: 21 km

Just for fun, I decided to check my distances against yours

Here are my walking distances:

• To the nearest convenience store: 1.13km
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 2.74km
• To the bus stop: 33.8km
• To the nearest park: 2.41km
• To the nearest *big* supermarket: 17.7km
• To the nearest library: 2.41km
• To the nearest train station: 24.14km
• Straight-line distance to Nashville’s “The Batman Building” (closest approximation to a large unique cityscape building): 67.76km

My closest superstore an hour drive away. 60 miles. The closest grocer is 12 miles. My closest international airport is 1.5 hours away. It is also the closest regional airport. 85 miles. The closest national park is 3 hours. I live 6 miles from my closest town.

There are no passenger trains, busses, or taxis. Or uber.

Rural america is empty. And spread out. We get along fine, but public transit will never exist here. Cars are the only way.

Here are my walking distances in Seattle:

• Convenience store: 150m
• Chain supermarket: 30m
• Big supermarket: 1.6km
• Bus stop: 10m
• Park: 100m
• Library: 150m
• Train station: 2km

Straight-line distance to Space Needle: 4.3km

Let's give it a shot. I live in the suburbs of Lincoln, Nebraska, which is an average-sized college town in the US (about 300k residents):

• Nearest convenience store: 1.1 miles/1.7km (we often do walk there, takes about 20 minutes)
• Nearest chain supermarket/big supermarket (they are often one in the same here): Target @ 1.5 miles/2.4km
• Bus stop: 1.3 miles/2.1km
• Nearest park: 0.6 miles/965m
• Nearest public library: 3.5 miles/5.6km
• Nearest train station: 9.1 miles/14.6km (we don't really use trains much at all in the US, though)

I live in the residential area within the limits of a large US city.

To the nearest convenience store: 0.9 km
To the nearest chain supermarket: 2.6 km
To the bus stop: 0.3 km
To the nearest park: 0.8 km
To the nearest big supermarket: 3.1 km
To the nearest library: 2.7 km
To the nearest train station: 2.9 km

And I'd argue that these numbers are remarkably good for people in my situation as well.

In my home town getting to most basic necessities took 20min driving. Mind you that was the capital city of my state

Nashville TN suburbs and here are my walking distances:

To the nearest convenience store: 6km
To the nearest chain supermarket: 11km
To the bus stop: 6km 
To the nearest park: 4.1km
To the nearest big supermarket: 12km
To the nearest library: 13km
To the nearest train station: 25km

At this point I just want Japan to realize that not every American lives in walking distance of Los Angeles and NYC, and none of us live in walking distance of both at once.

Seriously, stop basing your marketing strategies around "Major US Cities Only!"

The nearest "Major US" City to me is like a day's drive, and I mean literally you don't stop driving for an entire day.

I want to add that in many places in the US it is not just the distance, but the danger and outright discouragement of walking somewhere. For example, I contemplated using a train to get to Lego Land in California from Oceanside, California. After getting off of the train I would have to walk 1.3 miles, which is only a minor inconvenience. However, after reviewing the walking route google has this qualifier: "Use caution - may involve errors or sections not suited for walking". This prompted me to review the walk using street view and I came to the conclusion that there was not a safe route.

This is just one example of something that I think should specifically be available. There are many places where walking is encouraged and convenient, but it is by no means universal.

Here, let me show you.

I live in Jersey (New). As a background, I'm at the edge of civilization, I like to joke. If you go west of me, there's farms, what we call mountains, hiking, all that kinda stuff. To the east of me, it gets more and more urban until you get to NYC.

Here are my walking distances:

• To the nearest convenience store: half a mile
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 1 mile
• To the bus stop: half a mile
• To the nearest park: quarter mile
• To the nearest big supermarket: 1 mile (same as above)
• To the nearest library: I am 1 mile from two different libraries, pretty much smack in the middle.
• To the nearest train station: 1 mile

Adding:

• To the nearest mall: 1 mile
• To the nearest gym: quarter mile
• To the nearest hospital: 1.1 miles
• To the nearest ice cream parlor: .9 miles
• To the nearest record store: .9 miles
• To the nearest arcade: .9 miles

Straight-line distance to Big Ben: Just shy of 3500 miles. Straight-line distance to the Statue of Liberty: 30 miles

This is central Florida, on the east coast. The chain supermarket is Publix, the big supermarket is Walmart. Brightline is supposed to build a train station nearby, but they haven't started yet.

To the nearest convenience store: 1.9 km
To the nearest chain supermarket: 5.7 km
To the bus stop: 3.8 km
To the nearest park: 1.1 km
To the nearest big supermarket: 12.1 km
To the nearest library: 7.3 km
To the nearest train station: 75.5 km

Straight-line distance to Big Ben: 6,967 km

Where my friend lives, in a typical American suburb:

• To the nearest convenience store: 1.5km
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 1.5km
• To the bus stop: >1km
• To the nearest park: 400m
• To the nearest big supermarket: 1.5km (they're all the same thing lol)
• To the nearest library: 1.4km
• To the nearest train station: 1.7km

(These feel like clues to Jet Lag: the Game - Hide and Seek...)

According to wikipedia, the contiguous 48 states of the US (which occupy the middleish part of North America) are 8,080,464.3 km2, compared to Europe’s 10,180,000 km2, so that should give you an idea. My country is nearly as big as your entire continent, thus things are very spread out. Also our entire modern culture was designed around cars, suburbs and racism, so towns are flat, expansive and nothing is close to anything useful unless you have a car—woe to those without (myself included).

Far.

Convenience store - 700m Grocery store -1,2km Bus stop - 150m Park - 400m Big supermarket - 1,2km Library - 2,5km Train station - 79km

Phoenix suburbs

We don't really have public transportation at all

Nearest convenience store 1.5 miles

Nearest chain grocery store 4.2 miles

Nearest big grocery store (Costco)2.8 miles

Nearest library 1.9 miles

Nearest park 0.6 miles(there's a playground closer but it's tiny)

Straight line to big Ben 5285 miles

Houston tx, sprawling urban hell. in a swamp. I'll only give a few

My most common doctors office: 16miles, 26 km My best friend: 30 miles, 50 km Bus stop: 2.5 km Grocery store: 6 miles, 10 km

Keep in mind this is a major metropolitan city with 4 million people, fairly hefty public transport, and is surrounded by other smaller cities. From center it's like 15-17 miles to the next edge. There's a smaller city inside of Houston called Bellaire lol.

I moved from a UK city to a town on the edge of Dallas.

There was a crossroads with a strip mall. grocery store, dentist, food places etc, about 15 minutes away, but it was often too hot to walk. Anywhere beyond that was too far to walk.

Everything was so spaced out there. All the shops were surrounded by big parking lots. It was hard to even perceive that I was on a street with shops, at first, because everything was so far away from the road.

Now I live in a quiet street in suburb of LA. There's a main street about 10 minutes away. So within 20 minutes walk I can visit restaurants, grocery stores, etc. Even a British supplies store to get real chocolate. Bus stops, library, doctors, dentist, opthalmologist, and a hospital, too.

But if I want a big department store, I'm driving 15 to 30 minutes.

The broader LA area doesn't really have a center, just clusters of shops and malls at bigger crossroads. It seems endless. I could drive 50 miles to Newport Beach for vacation and never be outside a city.

In the suburbs of a middle-sized city in Ohio, USA. So midwest, but a bit older, higher-density, and more northeastern suburban layout than, say, Iowa. Built up in the 1960s-70s. Almost all single-family suburban homes on large lots.

(these are walking distances, not straight lines)

• To the nearest convenience store: 1.6 km
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 4.2 km
• To the bus stop: 1.5 km
• To the nearest park: 226 meters
• To the nearest big supermarket: 2.1 km
• To the nearest library: 2.6 km
• To the nearest train station: Hahaha! (Ok, it's actually 78 km, but it's mostly worthless as a train station)

Straight-line distance to Big Ben: 6297 km

I’ll just use the same criteria you gave as an example.

• To the nearest convenience store: 1.5mi (2.6km)
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 1.8mi (2.9km)
• To the bus stop: 0.5mi (800m)
• To the nearest park: 0.3mi (480m) - I’m lucky to have several parks in my neighborhood
• To the nearest big supermarket: 2.1mi (3.4km)
• To the nearest library: 2.2mi (3.5km)
• To the nearest train station: 5.1mi (8.2km)

Edit: I live in a mid-size city (300k) on the east coast.

Highest annual average miles driven per driver is Wyoming with 24,069 mi per year or about 65.898 mi a day.

Lowest is Rhode Island with 9,961 mi per year or 27.272 per day

The top 10 populous cities have the average physical distance between as 1241.3, 1070.5, and 1073.7 miles for places, urban areas, and core-based statistical areas, respectively.

The longest driveable stretch between two populations of any type is over 5,000, but the USA also has several pacific territories.

Btw I know you people tend to get confused so to prevent you from crashing and dying:

1 mi = 1.609344 km

1 km = 0.6213712 mi

Example:

1241.3 mi * 1.609344 km/m = 1,997.6787072 km

As far as walking is considered, theres a ton of grid plans as well as cul de sac plans in the USA which are frankly inferior for walkability compared to our European Neighbors.