What can you get to within a 15-minute walk of your house?

Why are bars so low? Do Americans like having to use a car when drinking?

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars One thing you can get within a 15 minute walk of some US homes is arrested!

(My grandma went for a walk in a Miami suburb. The locals thought that someone walking (rather than driving) was obviously suspicious so they called the cops. Because my grandma was white and female and elderly, rather than black and male and young, they stopped to talk to her rather than just shooting her. They then spent several minutes trying to get her to admit that she was walking because her car had broken down - they just couldn't get it through their heads that she was walking because she wanted to walk.)

16% said "should not" to a grocery store? What?

I feel like there should be a separate question for the "I don't want anything near me" rural choice, since those might be making the rest of the responses misleading.

How is bar so low?? Do people want drunk drivers? Because that’s how you get drunk drivers

Who needs a gas station within walking distance? One need a gas station within 15-minutes driving.

I wonder what the meaning of “should not” is in this survey. A restaurant “should not” be withing 15 minutes of my home, as in “I don’t want any restaurants near me” or is it “It’s not important enough to be in the local government’s target list”?

I don’t understand the red bars the way the question is phrased now. Why wouldn’t you want a park near you?

Gas station above elementary school?

Why do you need a gas station in walking distance?

Do the 32 percent not know what a bus stop is?? Why would you want a bus stop farther than 15 minutes away????

Am I the only one impressed 16% of people dont want a grocery store nearby?

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I'm kind of sad that "cafe", "bookstore", and "library" aren't even on this list at all. 😢

I would honestly have to do a web search to find out where the nearest elementary school, day care, and gas station are, but I'd be stunned if I didn't have those within 15 minutes. As it is, I do have everything else, including a university and a sports arena, and *two* malls. (I'm in between the Barclays Center and Long Island University in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NYC.)

I do not understand why you would want to walk to a gas station.

Pretty bizarre results. Park and bus stop should be 100.

University, hospital, mall, theatre, arena? Those are massive, you can't have one 15 minute walk from everywhere.

Now bars are the one commercial item that's easy to have around.

Im confused about (from the poll)

• bar.. if this is not walkable you are promoting drunk driving. (even if its not your thing)
• what do you need to walk to the gas station for? or is this being used also as a corner store?

This poll shows a population not really taking the question seriously.

Why should a gas station be more accessible on foot than a local pub?

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I wonder why they included gas stations unless it's for their use as convenience store. Buying gas as a pedestrian is a very marginal use case...

Missing a gym, physio, and doctors clinic.

@ajsadauskas @urlyman @fuck_cars Why on earth would anyone answer ‘should not’ to a bus stop being within 15 mins? How are they thinking you get to the bus stop, by driving?!

Also, as a Dutchie, the amount of ‘should nots’ for a bar within 15 mins is killing me. I understand it, but it points to such a lack of imagination about what a city can look like. I have at least 20 bars within 15 mins walk of home and I’m not in the city centre 😄

Mid-sized village (around 10k inhabitants) in Germany:

• 4 grocery stores

• 2 pharmacies

• Bus stop (and train station)

• 5 or so restaurants

• Post office

• Bank

• Gas station

• Elementary school

• 2 Kindergartens

• 2 barber shops

• Bar

• Sports field (calling it an arena would be a bit much)

Alas, no university or hospital, but I think for a village it's pretty good.

I have everything but pharmacy, post office, cinema, and university. The pharmacy is within a 15-minute bike or bus, though.

What I feel is lacking is a hardware store. I really wish I had even a small hardware store close by. There used to be one.

Also missing from the list, but I have: a bakery, a swimming pool, and a coffeeshop.

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.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars There's a couple of weird things missing there I would definitely include, like a doctor's office, a library and a gym.

I'm in a city in the UK and a lot of those are in 15 minutes walk from me. Some, like a hospital, university, cinema, shopping mall and sports arena and I think a bank I'd have to go into the city centre for, but that's only about 30 minutes walk, 10 minutes on the bike, or a short bus or metro ride. I'm generally pretty lucky in my location.

I would say an urgent care or doctor's office is more important to have on this list than a hospital. If you really need the Emergency Room you're probably not walking. And even in the US, if you wind up being admitted to the hospital, insurance will usually pay for the ambulance. (They ought to pay for other vehicle transport, for broken bones and stuff as well, but they suck.)

I could get to most of them, the Hospital/University/Sports (all together) would take more like 30 minutes and involve getting over or under the 405. Which means that there's times of day it would be quicker than driving....

Permanently Deleted

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars Hospital, Arena, University are the only ones I think need to be big enough to not be in a 15m walk. But the mini versions of Arena and Hospital should be. Travelling further for medical care that needs an MRI machine etc is fine, but an x-ray for a simple broken arm should be a 15m walk away.

University can be in a 15m walk, but that needs highrise density, which isn't ideal for the entirety of a city.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I can walk to all except university (1hr walk, or 15min bike ride) and sports center (1+ hr walk, 18min bike ride).

I don't get the gas station though. Why so many "should"s? Why would you need to walk to a gas station?

Unless ppl are considering "gas station" to mean "convenience store", which in a lot of America that's what they are.

A gas station?! How often do you walk to a gas station?

I have all of this in a 15 minute walk of my apartment. The key thing, if people would like all of this very close by is they will need many fold more apartment buildings.

That's the thing people aren't willing to accept in the US.

Also who tf really needs the post office that close by, these days? Makes me think this was an older crowd that was polled.

I would love this being contrasted with what they get on average, it would probably really depressing.

It's interesting, walking 15 minutes to the next bus stop sounds like a nightmare in a city but pretty good in the country ...

The fact that it's called a gas station rather than convenience store on a survey about walking is somewhat disappointing.

Do people really use the post office or bank that often? If I'm walking into either of those, odds are something has gone catastrophically wrong that day.

The fact that only 68% of respondents say a bus stop should be within a 15 minute walk of your house and only 32% say a bar says a lot about the SEC and age of the sample pool.

I live in a city of about 3/4 of million people, just shy of it. Winnipeg Manitoba Canada.

I can walk to every one of those other than a university and sports arena (pro football or hockey, minor community center within ten), within twenty minutes. The movie theater is probably twenty away, everything else is accessible within 15 pretty easy.

It's possible but you gotta get into one of those post war community type places that hasn't been turned over yet..

Montreal, I'm a 10 minute walk from the Olympic stadium, so I think I technically have all of those things except a shopping mall within 15 minutes walk. That said, I have everything I might need from a shopping mall within 15 minutes.

Why less people want daycare in walking distance than restaraunt? Even less than fucking gas station.

And who are those 32% who don't want bus stop in 15-minute walk? Or why? Maybe they don't want it so far away and want it in 3-minute walk? If so, then I agree with them.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars Aw, c'mon! You have to have at least one pub or something to call it a neighbourhood. Sheesh!

I'm actually surprised that my area of Wisconsin has the majority of these within a 15 minute walk. Bar included, of course. It makes me appreciate my neighborhood more.

I lived in the suburbs once that required a 1 hour bike ride just to get to the nearest bus stop. That place was miserable

I knew I was pretty far away from anything. Just checked on maps and I'm 1 hour from the closest business walking. It's a dog kennel. Another 20 minutes I can be at a cafe, same story if I go in the other direction, about 1 hour and 20 to a small market. Roughly 5 miles. Biking would be a out 25 minutes, maybe faster if I hustle. Driving is just minutes. No bus or train nearby at all. ( There used to be a train that ran through my neighborhood about 100 years ago). I live in northeast US

Larger German city (>500k), just from memory

A grocery store, about 11

A park, 1 large, three small

A pharmacy, six

A bus stop, only a few, dozens of train and tram stops

A restaurant, 40+

A post office, one large, dozens of shop-in-shop ones

A bank, six, dozens of ATMs

A gas station, none

An elementary school, two

A day care center, five

A hospital, I have to walk 20min for that :(

A barber shop or hairdresser, about a dozen

A shopping mall, one

A movie theater, three

A bar, 40+

A university, none

A sports arena, none

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars 57% of respondents prefer to drink and drive.

Why the fuck is “school” so far from the top of the list 🙄?

Also, if the whole point is the place being walkable, gas station shouldn’t even make the list.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars
Why should I *walk* to a *gas station*?

Who are these people that responded "No, no I would not like a park or bank or gas station less than 15 minutes from my house!" ?

Have everything except university and sports arena. But for me it makes sense being in the NJ/NYC metro area.

Bar should be way higher on that list. Seems a lot of people haven't experienced the freedom of being able to walk home drunk from a bar, or at least take a subway/bus, without worrying about dealing with a car. Or worse relying on the friend who had a few beers but is still "good" to drive.

Living in rural US I sadly don't have any of those within walking distance. Some would take over an hour walk, and most are not even accessible to walk. A decent bike ride can get me to a few, but I hate riding on county roads. Far too many people get hit around here.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I’m in Toronto’s Danforth area, so basically everything except a professional sports arena is within 5-20 mins walk.

The framing of that poll has such a sinister American conspiracy theorist edge: “if your local government decided…” — like having these things nearby can only be forced upon you and you must fight back.

I'm in the UK. I have all except a hospital, movie theatre, university, and sports arena within a 15 min walk of my house. I live in a suburb in a large city (not London).

I can get to a hospital, movie theatre, and a university within 20 mins on a bus. I can get to 3 sports areas in about 30-40 mins on a bus in different directions.

My area is not a 15-min city, but is moving that way. My own street has been split up and blocked to through traffic (which I love), and there is proposal for a pollution tax to dissuade polluting traffic in the city.

But at the moment I cannot realistically commute to work as the public transport capacity is just too low to make it comfortable and safe (I work early and late hours).

I think the concept is great but I suspect they need most of the elements to be in place before they can achieve critical mass and change behaviour. Certainly for me I'm still doing a lot of driving.

Need a proper public house

I live in a city of 1/2 million and have not even one of these within a 15-minute walk. Some, I could not care less such as bars, but a grocery store, gym, and park would be nice.

As an American you could ask me what should be in a 15 minute neighborhood and I'd answer things but I can't walk off of my street without taking my life in my hands. The only thing I can walk to is my neighbors' houses.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I live in Philadelphia, so all those are within a 15 minute walk from me except the university, mall, movie theater, and sports arena. But these are all accessible by transit, whether bus or subway.

On the short distance, the nearest bar to me is 40 ft (12m) away!

I'm gonna make a few assumptions: One is that this is just a neighborhood in my hypohetical ideal world (or rather, near-ideal). Second: we're talking about high qualiy versions of these places, and not the "just barely good enough to not go under" versions that abound. Last: "should" means "necessity" and not "luxury."

Groceries are a no-brainer.

Parks — hell yes. In fact, I'd prefer if everyone had access to all kinds of nature within "walking" (walking + public transportation) distance: parks, woods, botanical gardens, community gardens, wildlife reserves.

Pharmacies should be obsoleted: drugs should be devriminalized and un-gatekept. People should have the freedom to put whatever stupid, life-altering substance they want to into their body (with caveats like informed consent and heavily recommended medical professional supervision). Distributors could be home-delivery through the post and the over-the-counter section in your local grocery store.

Bus stops... Yes for some neighborhoods, but ideally more trains or trams, especially in suburbs.

Post offices are dying out. Letters and spam are the kinds of things people should have access to in their immediate neighborhood, but are becoming obsolete thanks to the internet (which should be a public utility instead of run for profit). I'm about 50/50 on whether there should still be home-delivery for everyone and all packages, or if there should be local holding centers for most (although, once again, any delivery network should be considered a public service instead of a few companies monopolizing the role), and at-home delivery for the most important packages/incapacitated people.

Banks are a no. Credit union, yes. Or maybe no and just let money become the digital currency it's slowly been turning intobfor the past 40 years. Ideally, society (and by extension this ideal neighborhood) would function without capital.

Gas stations: hell no. Convenience stores yes (or just all-in-one grocery stores). Maybe EV charging stations... Maybe.

Having a barber is way more convenient than people give it credit, and it doesn't benefit from centralization. At the very least, everyone should have a neighbor who cuts hair well.

Bonus round: things that should be within a 30-minute commute (by transit)—mall, movie theater, hospital, elementary school, day care, university, restaurants, bars.

No to stadiums, but yes to sports fields in the parks.

Things not on the list that should be: museums, clinics, dentists, optometrists, psychiatrists, veterinarians, pools, gyms, community centers/general use indoor halls, fire stations, makers spaces... probably others that I'm forgetting.

Sorry that this 15 minute walk is turning into a jog.

Everything where I live (Austrian city), except for the hospital. That would be 20min.

I can't reach any of the above in 15 minutes. In fact I can't reach anything in 15 minutes as it takes me 5 to just reach the gate - very rural middle of nowhere, population 50, with a single road and some street lamps as the infrastructure.

I live in a big city and every single one of these things is within 15 minutes walk from my door except a sports arena, although if you substitute that for a gym with a pool and basketball court there's half a dozen.

I love it because I never need to use my car. Although there are consequences... Heavy traffic, loud music at night, unruly people in my neighborhood, ambulance sounds, people who rev their cars and motorcycles, trash on the street sometimes, etc.

I grew up a bit far outside of any neighborhood which meant every single trip involved the car and 20 plus minutes of driving. That lifestyle is perfect for some people because they appreciate the isolation. But it also meant planning well ahead and if you needed a quick run to the hardware store or some convenience item it would take half a day. The percentage of my childhood life in the car was too damn high.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I have all of these in my neighborhood (except a sports arena, though I have one that's 15 minutes away biking). Of course, I don't live in the United States.

Shopping mall is the only one on the list I can't walk to in 15 min or less. Love living in a walkable city, it's so rare in America these days.

Other than the primary school (~20 minutes) and the physical bank, which we barely have any left off in Norway, they're all within 15 minutes.

- Trondheim

My sister is fortunate enough to live close to a lot of this stuff.

And there are no sidewalks 😂

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars At the corner of my road, I have:
- Bakery (that took over the shops left and right because they kept winning awards)
- Pharmacy
- Post Office
- Women's Hairdresser
- Pizza, Chinese and Indian
- GP (although always booked out)
- Petrol Station chain which sells marked-up cornerstore stuff, don't get milk there it's 6 bucks

I have 11, outside Boston, but where is the train station in the survey?

• movie theater is 25 minutes fast walk, although past my threshold so I’ve always driven.
• why the eff would I want to walk to a gas station? If they mean convenience store, I have two even closer
• I prefer NOT to be near the things with large crowds: hospital, university, arena, mall
• hospital question is out of date, should really distinguish hospital from urgent care or doctors office

I lived near Fenway Park once, and it was horrible. Do not recommend. The positive was I could goto a game after work and look for half price tickets after they start, but freely choose not to go if I didn’t get my price. But the noise, the mess, and the crowds making things just unuseable was not worth it.

I live in Brooklyn. Almost all of these are well covered. It's pretty great. Hospital, mall, and sports arena are a little outside a 15 minute walk.

I think "places to see live music" should be on the list. There's one by me but it tends to be for bigger acts. If I want to see a smaller band play I usually need to travel a bit.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars can reach all of them, although depends on what is considered a “sport arena”. I'm shocked not to see a “church” as list option, though 🇻🇦

I can get to....more houses!

A lot of stuff actually, but I'm pretty damn lucky to like in a place that's somewhat walkable and not a death sentence to ride a bike in.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars 15 minute walk: Park, elementary school, bus stop, restaurant, gas station.

15-30 minutes: (I do walk sometime but usually bike): Grocery store, pharmacy, bank, barber.

I can easily bike, though not walk, to all of the rest except a university (which seems an absurd ask for a 15-minute neighborhood).

My 15-min walk list:

1. restaurants/bars/cafes
2. grocery store
3. some kind of tech store, like Microcenter but smaller with less items because you wouldn’t want a big ass Microcenter near you game/hobby store (trading cards, figurines etc.)
4. a park/open air theater or amphitheater
5. gym options (Pilates, yoga, weights etc)
6. pharmacy
7. day care
8. some clothing stores
9. hairdresser/barber/nails
10. bus/train stop

I sincerely disagree that post offices and banks have to be within walking distance when we have mailboxes and online banking. Also, I’d like to be able to drive my car out with ease to get to other cities or states if needed. I assume 15min city urban planning accounts for the desire to long distance travel at will.

I am also not sure it’s a good idea to have schools because schools are kinda big and require lots of parking space.

Zero. In my car... still zero.

I have a 90-minute drive to work because moving to walkable range would be too expensive.

The houses near my office start around 4-5 million dollars. Apartments within walking distance cost $3,000/month for 600 square feet.

Surprised shooting ranges aren't on this list.

Manure, swamp, ticks, Coyotes (after dark at least), deer, bear

As someone who lives within 15 minutes ot a sports arena, i agree with not having one

@ajsadauskas in Umeå Sweden near campus I fall short of bank office whatever that is.. a movie theater and a gas station (it closed).

Such a list should have more focus on work places.. not only have "service", if we want o limit traffic :) Even though hospital and university has a lot of staff.

Office complex, hotels, branches of government etc.

@fuck_cars

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars the only ones that are out of my reach by walking 15 mins are a bank, sports arena (I have many recreational pitches and fields around) and a mall. But they are not that far anyway.

There's some nuance to this: where I live there is a microcosm of sorts because of how big the city where I live is, so I CAN find all of this in my area but in many other places in the same city you couldn't get to half of the stuff listed there.

Living in a rural town, I just wish I had sidewalks. I could probably walk to a local hospital within 15 minutes. 30 minutes would get me a lot of stuff on that list but there are zero sidewalks for any of that.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars

In pretty central … all of them except I think a gas station.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I live in a rural village and can get to 11 of those within a 3 minute walk.

I'm moving to a large town soon where it'll go up to the full list.

I can't imagine having to drive everywhere.

As an Englishman, I counted 8 of these.

Disappointingly I only have the grocery store within that distance, and it's a Walmart with no sidewalk for a stretch of that walk... But back to that list... Why would you need a gas station within walking distance? Am I walking with my car Flintstones style?

An auto repair place is something that people don't think about. It's great being able to drop off your car and walk your ass home and then wait for them to call you.

There's a brothel about 100 meters away. A doctor's surgery where I can get tested for STDs less than 50 meters in the other direction. A pharmacy within the same radius. A post office 8 minutes away, the gas station is across the road from the post office. Several hotels, bars and restaurants. A few convenience stores. Several fast food eateries. At least three gyms, three banks and a Greek Orthodox Church.

the only ones i don't have within 15 min walk from me

• a university
• a hospital

I do have a local GP within that distance though so i'm fine with not having a hospital within walking distance. Plus there is a hospital not too far away, just not within 15 mins.

I have a college about 25 mins walk away too

I live in the centre of a large british town though so having everything on my doorstep is kind of expected

Where is “cricket pitch”? That and pub would come top where I’m from.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I love how the majority think you should have to drive to a bar

I'm in one of the less walkable, more car centric cities, but have made a lifelong effort to live where I can walk to things and have a few bus routes nearby. The buses have been starved and some come only every hour now but I can walk to:

Work

Cafe

Corner store

Bank (but I bank online)

Doctor and dentist (dentist more like half hour walk but sidewalk all the way) also every specialist doctor

A pot dispensary

Drugstore

Several restaurants

And believe it or not, a stadium.

No bar :(

ETA: Grocery, yes but not on the path to/from work so wildly inconvenient, and I can still walk to a comic shop but it's on the other side of the river now and while the bridge has sidewalks there is no barrier between cars and the sidewalk, it's more like a pedestrian lane in the road!

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars Practically all of them (I'm in Europe of course) although the hospital and the sports arena would require a brisk walk, more like 20+min. But there are dozens of doctors nearby.

I actually have all of these within 15 minutes. I live North of Detroit

I feel a bit lucky looking at this. I live in the middle of the US and I have the first 9 listed within a 15 min walking distance. I live in a rather large town though too and I'm smack in the middle of that.

I live within a 15-20 minute walk of all but three of these places: shopping mall, university, and sports arena. While a uni being closer would be neat, I am well out of college at this point in my life... the other two locations could simply not exist at all and I would be fine with that.

I have every one of those within 15 minutes by bike, except the university, which is about 30 minutes away by bike.

However, our cycling infrastructure does not give you the most convenient/fastest way to those destinations, so I can see how some would just drive.

A few changes, and this could be easily fixed.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars All except a Uni.

Shopping Mall? Well, not really, but yes to local shopping strip (5 minutes), Fitzroy St, St Kilda and Clarendon St, South Melbourne (10 Minutes) both covering all shopping needs.

Brisk 20 minutes would get me to the closest CBD campus of a Uni.

And three minutes walk to two tram lines.

Kids walked or public transported to school.

I rode or public transported to work (or taxi and flew because it was in another state or country).

One car family - have never been really able to give up a car, entirely, but never needed two.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars No cinema @ 15 minutes and only a couple of medical centres (no full hospital), but everything else is right here.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars who doesn't want a park 15mn walking from their home? SMH.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars this just shows that despite countless tv shows that attest otherwise, Americans have no appreciate for the humble neighbourhood bar.

@fuck_cars @ajsadauskas all but a park, hospital and uni for me, though I’d get to them in about 30-45 mins and there are good buses to the latter two. Not a bad score really. I’m intrigued that the question in the poll starts out with reference to the 15-minute neighbourhood. Given the conspiracy theories I wonder if they’d get higher scores without an “ideological” scene setting and just asked the questions in isolation.

I have all of these within 15 minutes...

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars all but the university (that is an hour🚲 or 40 min 🚄+🚍).

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars
In Manchester, England.
All within 15 minute walk except for:
Hospital - 20 minutes Metro (but health centre only 5 minutes walk)
Cinema - 20 minutes Metro (but theatre 10 minutes walk away)
University - 20 minutes bus

Buses and Metro every 12 minutes or better.

15 min walk.. In the US...?

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars

I grew up in Collingwood, Melbourne and all of these things were within 20mins walk from my house.

I'm on the other side of Melbourne now (Footscray) and the only thing I'm not walking distance from is 'sports arena'..unless you count horse racing.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars All of the above except university which would be an approx. 40 minutes walk or 10 minutes by bike.

All but 5: grocery story, mall, university, sports stadium, hospital

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars In a Brussels suburb we've got all of those things within max 15min walking except a gas station, a sports arena and a movie theatre.

Living in an urban part of Ottawa, Ontario. The neighborhood is called Centretown West

Grocery: Not a supermarket, but right across the street from my building, there's a corner store that sells all of the relevant staple foods like bread, milk, eggs, some produce, dry groceries, etc.

Pharmacy: Yes actually a couple of options.

Bus stop: There is one near me, and I'm also only about 10 minutes from the metro light rail station.

Restaurant: I live near the city's "little Italy" and "Chinatown" areas, so I'm spoiled for choice here. I also live near a stroad which means fast food options.

Post office: They are commonly in pharmacies here in Canada, and the one near me is no exception

Bank: Yes, in fact I could probably access a branch for all of the major Canadian banks within a 15-20 minute walk.

Elementary school: Yes there's one close to me. A high school too.

Daycare: Yup, a few actually.

Hospital: Not within walking, but there are clinics

Barber: Quite a few over in Little Italy, including the one I go to.

Bar: Tons along the strip of Little Italy

Mall: Nope, but lots of shopping options at individual shops around me. Malls are gross anyway.

University: I am about a 20 minute walk to Carleton, and the walk would be through the park mentioned above

Seeing that those surveys exist does not really motivate me to ever visit the US besides the big cities. I literally have most of these in 15 to 30 minutes by foot or public transport. Wow.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars

This is such a city-centric question, that I doubt many rural folks bothered to answer it.

46 years ago, we moved from London, where these things were available, to a rural Vermont town where none of them are except an elementary school (well, I can step outside and be in the woods; better than a park).

It's beautiful, quiet, and cheaper than city life.

When we drive, we combine visits to many of these amenities in one trip.

We don't regret our decision a bit.

Everything but a movie theater, but when the street car extension is done, I'll have one on the streetcar line.

It is pretty glorious.

8 of these if a Dollar general counts as a grocery store, otherwise 7.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars All but the hospital, university, arena, movie theatre, and bank. Notably all of those are still less than 45 minutes walk and understandable. Also all are under 20 minutes on my bike.

All but 4, I can get to. University, theatre, sports arena, and shopping mall.

Although those four are a 5-10 minute Uber

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I built free software to quantify amenity categories within a 10-min walk:

https://mark.stosberg.com/new-software-to-calculate-walk-potential-for-cities/

My default categories:

- Arts / cultural space
- Bank / ATM
- Bar / pub
- Barber
- Bike shop
- Bus stop / Rail Station
- Café / Tea Shop
- Car share station
- Community center / place of worship
- Daycare
- Fitness or Sports Center
- Grocery store
- Hardware store
- Laundromat
- Library
- Liquor / cannabis store
- Park
- Pharmacy
- Restaurant
- School
- Retail / boutique

                    Sore feet

#RuralLife

I can't get to any of those within a 15-minute walk from my house because I don't live in a city. I apologize for my lack of urban living.

I'm only missing 3 here in Philadelphia, a hospital, movie theater, and university. Though there are plenty of urgent care facilities around my location. And if we include a 15 minute bus ride, I can get to all three. I had to think in where the nearest theater was.

There's no university or sports arena within 15 minutes of me but, the bus station will take me to either and I could walk to the sports arena if I really felt like it. I think the movie theater might be closer to a 20 minute walk but that's still reasonable.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars ultimately, it’s largely about density. Eg. There are maybe 7000 pubs/night clubs etc in Australia. So if there are about 4000 ppl within walking distance of you, good chance you’ll have a pub within walking distance. Or if there are 4000 ppl within driving distance of you, good chance you’ll have a pub within driving distance. And so on for the rest…

high rise strip malls with conveyor belts. ala Jetsons. my robovac has a lot to learn

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars
In a 15 minute walk, in the Greater #Montreal , I have access to:
- Grocery Store
- (Miniature) Park
- Pharmacy
- Bus Stop
- Restaurant
- Post Office
- Bank
- Gas Station (why‽)
- (Fake) Shopping Mall

I can reach everything on that list in 15mins by foot except for a sports arena and a hospital.

Groceries, (crappy) park, pharmacy, 2 bus stops, light rail stop serving three lines, at least 15 restaurants/food carts, a bank, a gas station (and a standalone convenience store), a hospital, a barber shop, and a few bars.

For the missing, good transit access fills in the gaps mostly:

• Day care: I don't have kids, so I don't know this one. There probably is day care in the area.
• Post office: I'm in kind of an awkward area for some amenities, and that includes post offices. Post drop boxes are plentiful, but an actual office takes some travel.
• Shopping mall: I don't frequent shopping malls, but there the light rail links up with some. Most are dying, but one is doing well. This is a shrug.
• Movie theater: A few minutes on the light rail, no problem.
• University: Portland State University is an urban university that I work at. I can access it by bus or light rail.
• Sports arena: There are at least two sizeable sports arenas, the Moda Center and Providence Park, on the MAX light rail. The light rail gets heavy use from Portlanders who don't want to deal with parking.

There are two exceptions:

• Good parks: The area actually has a lot of great parks, but there is a freeway blocking the nearest one. I can take transit, bike, or walk a while. That's doable, but it adds a lot of time if I just want to go lounge around in the outdoors.
• Elementary Schools: If I had kids, the area would be not great. It's a 25 minute walk, which is a bit much. That said, one of the "bike bus" programs would be perfect since the route isn't that long.

40% do not think an elementary school should be within a 15 minute walk?!?!? (16 not sure 24 no)

That's wild.

One of the really interesting things about reading this thread is noticing how these places clearly mean different things to different people.

Like one person says how "can somebody not want a pub in their neighborhood?" A pub and a bar might not mean the same thing to everyone. To some people a bar might mean something much closer to a night club and a pub something much closer to a restaurant.

Gas station doesn't mean convenience store to me AT ALL. To me it's only a place for buying gas. I would never go to one unless I was buying gas at the same time.

Is what I call a green grocer/fruit market what other people call a grocery store?

The questions abound...

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I also don't get A Bar being so low. The bar is exactly the place I WANT people to be walking to instead of driving. Perhaps this is just a limitation of the polling method; these responses are mostly just gut reactions, not carefully considered positions.

@ajsadauskas
And the amount of grocery stores i can reach within a 15 minutes walk must be at least 80, easily.
This town is still structured around small family businesses.
@fuck_cars

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars That’s an interesting list. In London I could do all of those except a hospital, a movie theatre, university and sports arena. (I’d also suggest that a café or coffee shop should have been on the list).

In my bit of Brisbane’s suburbs, I can do a café/coffee shop, a park, a bus stop, an elementary school and a daycare centre. And a bar for a few days a week. A bad grocery store is twenty minutes walk away. However, almost all of the above are a short bus ride away.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars all of them except the hospital, but I can get to multiple clinics

(I live in a small-ish city in Normandy)

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I've got 14, 15 if I switch university with a trades school (which is much more important to a semi rural town of 7k)

I can get to everything except the hospital, mall, movie theatre, and University in twenty minutes. If I use public transport I can get to those in about half an hour.

@fuck_cars @ajsadauskas there should be more hospitals than hair dressers/barbers said no one ever.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars Great question! I can do all of these in a fifteen minute (ish) walk except:

- a hospital (though I can walk to my doctor's office in 15 min)
- a university (if you count community colleges, I have one about 30 minutes walk away)
- shopping mall, movie theater, and sports arena

Every last one of these is accessible within 20-ish minutes if I use public transit, though.

I can reach half of them by foot and the other half by public transit in a similar amount of time. Sweden here obviously lol

@ajsadauskas @wesley @fuck_cars They ask about park, but I think they should also ask about running water https://tutoteket.no/@forteller/111931813852899136

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@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I can walk to all of these under 15 minutes except five of them that are all near the bottom of the list.

Okay, damn I don't have 15 minute access to a "bar"-bar, and the university/sports arenas are just outside that walk

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars When I first moved to #Ottawa, I picked a place wisely and in a 15 minute walk I could get to a grocery store, a park, two pharmacies, a bus stop (main transit station), two restaurants, a post office, two banks, a gas station, an elementary school, a barber shop, a shopping mall, and a bar.

Since then, the gas station and the shopping mall have been torn down, so I also lost a barber shop, a bar, and the better restaurant. Post office also disappeared.

@ajsadauskas
I have all of that within a 350 meters radius from my home but a hospital, a shopping mall, a sports arena and a movie theater. Although i have 3 regular theaters within that same radius, and the university being that close is, admitedly, a bit of luck.
That's downtown Buenos Aires for you.
In 15 minutes i have multiple options for hospital and movie theaters, but still no luck for sports arenas and shopping malls. Although being far away from any shopping mall is actually for the better imo.

@fuck_cars

Linving in.Montreal. Hospital is about 25 walking. No university but one college under 15. I have the mf olympic stadium at a 10 minutes walk lol. Everything elses checks.

I only have 1, a park, and technically not a park it's a trail and you have to go on a dangerous road with no sidewalk to get there.

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars Several of most, about 6 bakeries, 3 hair salons, 6 restaurants; 3 pharmacies, 2 parks, 4 grocery stores and two supermarkets, 1 gas station we don't need, 2 shopping malls, a movie theater. No sports arena though, not that I'd ever go.
But all of this depends on what neighborhood you live in.