I’ve heard the legends of having to drive to literally everywhere (e.g. drive thru banks), but I have no clue how far apart things are.
I live in suburban London where you can get to a big supermarket in 10 minutes of walking, a train station in 20 minutes and convenience stores are everywhere. You can get anywhere with bus and train in a few hours.
Can someone help a clueless British lemmyposter know how far things are in the US?
EDIT
Here are my walking distances:
- To the nearest convenience store: 250m
- To the nearest chain supermarket: 350m
- To the bus stop: 310m
- To the nearest park: 400m
- To the nearest big supermarket: 1.3km
- To the nearest library: 1.2km
- To the nearest train station: 1km
Straight-line distance to Big Ben: 16km
It isn’t just that things are too far to walk, it’s that American car companies have made it part of our culture to own and drive, and it’s unpatriotic to do otherwise. That causes a severe lack of public transportation and sidewalks and bike lanes. So because of all this, I have to drive a mile through my neighborhood to get to a 7-Eleven that would be a quarter mile if I walked.
I have a coworker who believes “they” are trying to get us all to live in 15 minute cities so that we can’t have cars because that’s how they’ll keep us from… Driving to other cities? I don’t know, keep us from… something good, I guess?