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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.
Just for fun, I decided to check my distances against yours
Here are my walking distances:
I live in a small suburb right outside of a major us city.
To the nearest convenience store: .6 km To the nearest chain supermarket: .9 km To the bus stop: .3km To the nearest park: 1.0km To the nearest big supermarket: .9km To the nearest library: 1.2km To the nearest train station: .6km Straight-line distance to big Ben: 5708 km
You certainly got me on big Ben distance.
But this is why the question is kind of silly. America is a huge, diverse place. When I lived in NYC, I was probably closer to everything than you. Where I grew up in an almost rural area, the closest thing was over 5km away. And this isn't even all that bad because I had a friend who grew up in an unincorporated area where she had to drive 30min just to get her mail.
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 don't know. I do kinda enjoy the tourist conversation on the Cannon Ball run.
You can get to New York from LA in 24 hrs, you just have to break a ton of laws.
I've found it's the best way to really drive home how good the Interstate is while also permanently embedding the real size of the continent.
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
I live in DFW, a large amalgamation of two cities and a bunch if suburban sprawl in Texas.
I live in a neighborhood that is considered extremely walkable, as I am directly across the street from a university and less than a mile from city hall.
Here are my walking distances:
Straight-line distance to Big Ben: we don't have a Big Ben, but we killed JFK and that's 34km away.
Bonus fun fact, I commute 42km each day. This is considered far by most people here, 32km would be much more reasonable.
To reiterate how bad public transit is, even in populated areas: I’m also in DFW. This is my daily commute…
It’s ~9.6km. Note that the bus/train option is entirely greyed out, because there is no public transit which runs from my house to my job. If I were to walk, the only option would be on the side of a highway. I would have cars passing me at ~70 MPH without even a curb for protection.
To walk to the nearest grocery store, it’s ~4km, with a large part of it along the shoulder of that same highway. Same with a major chain.
Nearest bus stop is ~6.9km, but that only takes me in a direction I wouldn’t need to go; There are no local bus or train stops that land me near where I work or live.
Here are my walking distances in Seattle:
Straight-line distance to Space Needle: 4.3km
I’ll just use the same criteria you gave as an example.
Edit: I live in a mid-size city (300k) on the east coast.
I live in suburban Kansas City and these are the distances to the things you mentioned -
The closest publicly accessible business to me is a fast food restaurant about a mile away.
Basically if I need anything, it's a 30 minute walk one way to get there. It just isn't really viable as a regular thing to spend an hour walking to get to/from a convenience store, or 2 hours for a grocery store. Instead, I spend 10-20 minutes in my car for those errands, and save the extra time for walking my dog (since he couldn't go into any of the places mentioned above either, so his walks would have to be in addition anyway.)
To be fair, you live in a large city. Cities here in the states also have many points of interest close by. In the suburbs, places are more spread out, same as they would be in the UK. It's all about location.
Let's start with infrastructure.
Buses/metro/any public transit, barriered or not, sparsely or rarely exist. Even painted bike paths/walking paths, these usually exist ONLY in dense or older urban areas. You have either 1-1.5m wide sidewalk elevated 10cm or nothing separating you on foot from car traffic.
So that 250m is often on the shoulder of car lanes.
Now let's talk property liability. You are responsible for injuries others sustain while on your property unless you have clearly posted signage expressing they were not allowed on your property. Even then and at best you'll have to disrupt 6mo of your life tied up in courts+fees. (No right to roam. You do get the "perk" of open manhunting season on trespassers)
So that shortcut through the neighborhood where your neighbor laid out gravel because they care about community? Nope, that's cyclone fence or cinder block wall. That alley between flats? Gated off.
It's not even scale that's the problem. You ALWAYS have to go around the ENTIRE block. A 250m Crow flight can easily be and most often is 1+km by foot, and only ever with a curb as your protection from traffic. You can't safely get to geographically nearby places without putting yourself in mortal danger.
Also note European road design limits traffic in residential areas where the US grid system means every road is a main road and wide enough to promote excessive speeding.
Source: anecdotal/American living in EU
I live in a suburb in the U.S.
Notes:
I have run to the park before despite being far away, but I think most people would (rightfully) think I was suicidal for doing so. A lot of the way to the park requires walking on dangerous streets where people drive fast around blind curves and where there is little to no shoulders to squeeze by if there are cars, most of the way has no sidewalks, and I have to cross busy roads where drivers are going 80+kmh.
Owning a car here is considered a part of being an adult, people without a car are seen as childish or immature, and usually suspected of being drunks who have lost their license due to DUIs or felons who cannot have a driving license and aren't allowed to leave the state. It is assumed everyone drives everywhere, alternatives are unthinkable to most people here.
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.
I live in rural Oklahoma...
Here are my walking distances: * To the nearest convenience store: 4.667km * To the nearest chain supermarket: 24.140km * To the bus stop: 27.358km * To the nearest park: 321.869m * To the nearest *big* supermarket: 33.7962km * To the nearest library: 32.1869km * To the nearest train station: 70.8111km
Far.
To the nearest convenience store: 2.3mi / 3.7 km
To the nearest chain supermarket: 9mi / 14km (not actually a chain store, it's a small grocery in a small rural town)
To the bus stop: lol, I don't think any of the cities near me bother with that, nor would they be useful to me
To the nearest park: 5mi / 8km (lake, about a 5 minute drive)
To the nearest big supermarket: 14mi / 22km
To the nearest library: 9mi / 14km
To the nearest train station: 51mi / 82km (and this station doesn't service any location I couldn't get to faster than driving, even across country. Because AMTRAK is shit. I know because I've done it before)
This is in central CA, not far at all from the Capitol, Sacramento. For being the 5th biggest economy in the world our capitol is pathetic
Off topic, but after I moved halfway across the US, I wondered what that same distance would be driving across Europe.
I moved from the NW corner of Washington state to about the middle of Iowa, roughly 2000 miles or 3200 Km (roughly, I said)
Its looks to be the same as going from Lisbon to roughly halfway in between Berlin and Warsaw, using google maps to follow roadways.
I can't imagine all of the different cultures you would see traveling most of the way through Europe, and most of what I saw on my trip through the States was empty dead grass fields, farmland, a couple dead deer, and a ton of truckers.
I can probably offer some insight, as my in-laws live in Wimbledon, some of my family live both near and far from DC/Baltimore, and I live in the Netherlands.
My London experience is on par to yours. Everything is walking distance and the things that aren't are accessible by public transit fairly easily.
The Netherlands imo is even better planned and connected than the UK. The convenience store is around the corner from my townhouse. Two large chain supermarkets are just a 3 or 7 minute walk depending on which is preferred (the 7-min one is pricier but better selection) and there are more a few more minutes walking. The bus stop is 3 min away, train is a 10 minute walk. Parks and bike lanes all around.
DC is also very walkable and similar to London. Bike lanes. Everything is accessible and public transit is pretty good. Lots of convenience stores, small grocers, and even some larger chains. A few metro lines even go far out to the suburbs. I like the building height limit, which makes the city feel more open. Rock Creek Park is massive and you feel like you're in the forest.
Once you get to the suburbs there may be a convenience store a 10-20 minute walk away, or a grocer if you're lucky, but generally this is when you'll be needing a car, as public transit becomes scant. Many Americans are walking averse; my husband and I are the odd couple that parks at the back of the lot when visiting Costco instead of spending half an hour hoping to get a spot by the doors. Most stores will be in plazas or strip malls.
My father lives out in the country. He loves having acres and acres of no one around. His house is an island. There's one 7-11 in his tiny village. He's lucky it's a 5 minute walk from his house. If I want to get groceries when visiting, the nearest store is 8 miles away (a leisurely 4 hour walk; 10 minute drive). Oftentimes there are no sidewalks; mostly long stretches of road with big shoulders. I don't think there's public transit there; I've never seen a bus. There are farms everywhere so parks need to be driven to, however, they are pretty big with lots of room for activities.
It's likely not too different from comparing London to Dartmoor. Much of it depends on where you are (population density). Some areas have great public transit and access to services, others don't.
Depends where you live.
In a city? 75% of everything I need is right across the street.
In a rural town? Before I moved to the city, I had to drive 30-45 miles away to do literally anything. There were busses, but they only came around once in the morning and once more in the evening. And they didn't always go where you wanted directly, so you'd have to spend like an entire day just to get to a place.
Nearest big landmark everyone might recognize is the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. And thats 78 miles away in a straight line.
Edit: To put things in terms non-Americans may understand better - We tend to measure distances not in the unit of distance, but in the time it takes to get somewhere. Assuming there is no traffic, the Golden Gate Bridge would only be an hour away taking the freeway. But that's never gonna happen; the traffic through the Altamonte Pass alone is gonna add 1-2 hours depending on the time of day.
Living in a small town in central North Carolina (answering these questions in units of city blocks that are ~150 meters long or in statute miles:
To the nearest convenience store: 4 blocks
To the nearest chain supermarket: 2 miles
To the bus stop: ~35 miles (It's a distance to the nearest town with a bus service)
To the nearest park: 8 or 9 blocks
To the nearest BIG supermarket: 2.5 miles. The "nearest chain supermarket" is a Food Lion; slightly farther down the road is a Wal-Mart and a Harris Teeter about the same distance away.
To the nearest library: 3 blocks
To the nearest train station: 4 blocks.
Straight-line distance to Big Ben: ~4000 miles. juuuust out of earshot. I don't recommend walking.
Just to give the other side. I live in a big city in the US.
Convenience store: .2 miles, 320 meters
Chain supermarket: .5 miles, 800 meters
Bus stop: 300 feet, 90 meters
Park: 0.2 miles, 320 meters
Big supermarket: 0.4 miles, 640 meters
Library: 0.9 miles, 1.4 kilometers
Train Station: 0.3 miles, 480 meters
I live on the edge of a small town. Google numbers:
Where my friend lives, in a typical American suburb:
(These feel like clues to Jet Lag: the Game - Hide and Seek...)
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
I live in Atlanta, in an intown neighborhood that was once considered a "streetcar suburb" although the streetcars have been gone for decades. For a neighborhood with single-family houses, this is about as good as it gets in terms of urbanism and walkability. (Basically, to do much better you'd have to live in a high-rise in Downtown or Midtown because we don't really have medium-density neighborhoods.)
Point is, my area is not representative of Metro Atlanta as a whole. Probably 90%+ of the metro area population would report distances at least double, if not an order of magnitude larger.
Walking distances:
Straight-line distance to Capitol Building: about 3 miles (5 km).
Depends on the state. There are places where stores are 2+ hours away by car.
In my area, it falls into 2 categories-
This is totally based on traffic and roads- I’m in the woods outside Washington DC, so while the density is high in the cities, I’m 15 min from literally everything minimum (by car). I couldn’t walk or bike to a store, I’m 30ish min from work combination highway and local roads.
If you live in a city, you might live literally on top of stores in the same building. Shopping centers with above condos and apartments are becoming a popular replacement for shopping malls in my area, but are very very expensive (often over $1million) for a townhouse in one of these shopping “communities”.
I buy nearly everything online and have it delivered, most stuff (groceries, goods, electronics, housewares, etc) come between 0-3 days.
Distance isn't the only factor to consider. The infrastructure is also very important for determining if a short distance is walkable.
This YouTube channel has lots of great info on the topic https://youtube.com/notjustbikes and this video in particular demonstrations that not even all short distances are necessarily walkable in the US https://youtu.be/uxykI30fS54 @ 4:30 he begins to show a 800m walk in Houston from his hotel to a store.
The only measure on here that matters to most of the US is the Big Ben, and that is only our daily commute.
The US is big.
Meter measures are for rifle shots or bike rides. Maybe runs. It's not a real measure of travel for us.
To give some comparison, here are my distances. Important to note that I intentionally moved somewhere in my town with walkability in mind.
To the nearest convenience store: 280m
To the nearest chain supermarket: 1.7km
To the bus stop: 260m
To the nearest park: 240m
To the nearest big supermarket: 2.4km
To the nearest library: 1.2km
To the nearest train station: 85km
Access to a bus stop doesn’t really matter either as it usually is faster to walk than to wait for the bus to arrive, unless it is long distance in which I would just drive.
On the west coast, it can take 8 (EDITED) hours to drive from the capital of oregon to the capital of california. Likewise, it takes about 14 to 16 to get from oregon to montana. It can take 4 to 6 hours to get from the southern oregon border to the northern.
Where I live, i can walk to a little convenience store in about 10 minutes, but the nearest supermarket would be an hour walk away (10-15 minutes by car). If i were to move 10 miles in any direction, i may not have a convenience store around.
In a suburb of Boston, my distances would be very similar to OP, except the bus stop is much closer and I don’t have that nearby chain grocery.
But my brothers are all about 10h drive (my visit this summer was over 1,200 miles round trip) and my mom is 14h drive
Here are my walking distances:
Straight-line distance to Big Ben: 7514km
Kept all the units identical to yours for ease of comparison