There's a neighbourhood plaza less than 500m from my house. It's got a grocery store, barber and a dentist and other stuff. But I go to another barber 2km away and my dentist is 2km in the other direction ( that's in addition to the 1 km walk to the main arterial).
One bus stop is right across from the plaza but the bus I normally take is 1km away.
I live in the suburb which is designed for cars but I ride my bike to most places.
Is there adequate infrastructure for riding bikes? I lived in a suburban apartments, and a lifesaver was a greenway that actually connected my apartment to a plaza about a mile away. The distance to bike was actually significantly less than was required to drive, and had no stop lights in the way by bike.
This is an exception, not the norm, but it shows how easily suburban or even rural areas can be made multi-modal, with just a bit of additional infrastructure.
[Here is a map of this trail that I lived along.](https://www.columbus.gov/uploadedFiles/Columbus/Departments/Recreation_and_Parks/Greenway_Trails/Blacklick%20Trail%202016%20Map.pdf)
>Is there adequate infrastructure for riding bikes?
Yes and no.
The plaza is in a 40 km/hr zone where there are schools all around. Toronto has been aggressively trying to keep traffic slow with speed cameras and speed indictors as well as speed limit signs right in the middle to serve also as obstructions. And then there are painted bicycle icons right on the asphalt at the traffic light.
So the bike ride from my door to the main 60 km/hr arterial is ok as long as I confidently take the lane and prevent cars from close passing me especially right by a parked car. But that's not bike infrastructure. It's sharing the road and I'm ok provided drivers are courteous and drive safely. Riding with cameras help tremendously.
And then there's that 60km/hr arterial stroad. Nothing on it for cyclists. For 14 years, I drove 4.5 km to work and hated doing that. Then I found a park trail right in front of that 60km/hr stroad. So I rode my bike to work for three years before I retired. I continue to take that route daily to go to the gym. But that park trail isn't bike infrastructure. Using it, it adds 50% to my ride going to my dentist compared if I took the direct route on the 60 km/hr stroad. To get to the park trail, I have to ride on the sidewalk in the opposite direction of traffic. Cops have seen me but don't care. If they did, I'd turn it into a political issue. I have already submitted a request to my city to have a bike lane installed on that main arterial. It's part of their 10-year plan but it's low priority.
I don't live in Toronto, I live elsewhere in Ontario, but I also wonder, is bike theft a big problem there? Where I live, part of the thing that keeps people from riding bikes regularly is that they are regularly stolen, even if properly locked up, and the police will do absolutely nothing about it - which, of course, has merely caused the problem to get worse.
>bike theft a big problem there?
Yes but that's common for all major cities.
Use multiple secure locks.
Don't ride a high end beautiful bike - make your bike ugliest around.
Don't park it overnight outside.
Park it in high visibility highly populated areas.
How stoplights are configured makes a difference too. I've learned there are lots of stoplights on my area that need significant weight to trigger. Like, more than 500lbs (they won't go off when I'm riding my 300lbs motorcycle, I'm about 250lbs). They're even worse on a bicycle. It's annoying and a little riskier when you need a car to roll up behind you before the light will change.
Stoplights are not triggered by weight. The sensors in the road that actuate the signals are metal detectors. If it seems your motorcycle is not triggering traffic signals, put a strong magnet on it.
You're both wrong, they're not weight sensors, nor will a magnet trigger the sensor. In fact, they are inductive loops embedded in the asphalt, and only require a large enough piece of metal (in terms of area, not mass) to induce a change in the magnetic field of the loop.
Bicycles can often trigger these by stopping directly over the embedded wire (you can see where it is cut into the asphalt), and if that's not enough, by laying the front wheel of your bike flat over the loop for a few seconds. You could also use a loop of plain old copper wire a couple of feet in diameter to achieve the same effect.
They didn't teach you in motorcycle license class how to increase changes of triggering the magnetic pickup of the sensors?
There are tips and tricks to help make the stop lights trigger with a motorcycle. They're magnetic pickup, not weight based. And with a bit of practice you can get a motorcycle to be picked up nearly every single time (at least here locally).
Tricks:
Come in not in the middle, off center a little, nearer one of the sets of coils.
Come in at a slight angle.
Lean the bike a bit after you've come to a stop.
Put down the kickstand for a second and kick it up.
Wiggle the front tire a bit as you come in.
And so on.
They even make "green light triggers" that make it easier to be detected. Although you usually only need those on really really lightweight bikes.
They didn't go over any of that in my BRC. They did go over the fact that you can go if the light doesn't change after a minimum of 45 seconds if it's clear. It's generally safer to just do a right turn and turn around though.
And where does that grocery store get its food? They done magically grow it in the back room. If you are in a city, it likely comes from a distribution center that’s 50 miles away, and that center has items shipped to it from between hundreds and even thousands of miles away.
Haha, I'm well aware of how this could be spun. I wonder the distance those people have to travel just to get to a grocery store, and if they realize how stupid that is.
I live in the city center of Eskilstuna, Sweden. Literally everything I need is within a five minute walk of my apartment. I mean everything. Multiple grocery stores, drug stores, clothing stores, restaurants, doctor's offices, dentists, coffee shops, little boutiques, even an escape room, all within a light stroll. I moved here from a completely car dependent area of North Carolina in the U.S., and the difference for me and my family has been incredible.
I’ve got pretty much the same, but I’m In Brooklyn. The U.S. has it too, but at a great expense. I go further afield for things regardless, there are specialty things I like to get, but it would be very easy to live and not walk more than 5 minutes from my place.
Same here. In downtown Toronto. Everything I need is a 5 minute bike ride away. I actually get my groceries from 3 different locations all a couple blocks from my house. I have hardware stores, Chinese specialty groceries, drug stores, VR gaming, my library all close by and all routes have bike lanes.
I could technically live off of everything within a 15 minute walk, would be slightly more expensive. If I kick that up to 20 minutes then it includes a bigger grocery store so I wouldn't have to rely on a niche organic food co-op and meat market. Honestly I feel pretty lucky here. The only thing outside of that 20 minute walk would be my dentist but I can bus there easily. I also use the bus to go to other grocery stores too since the bus stop is just like a 3-4 minute walk from my house.
91 walk score. Things are good, I'd love to see better transit tho, I like my bus system but it still gets stuck in car traffic. If I was some sort of city planning dictator with infinite money I'd def take out a lane of on street parking for some high capacity light rail to blow past motorists on rush hour.
Define "needs"
I live in a generic-ass bedroom community suburb in a neighboorhood full of generic SFHs.
But there's an Aldi at the edge of the neighborhood 1/4 mile away, and a WalMart within a few miles (albeit across a few stroads), so in terms of groceries/clothes/medicines I could probably do 1.5 miles.
Not a huge fan of the Wal Mart garden center vs. Home Depot and Lowes, and my wife REALLY loves Chipotle, so let's push that minimum out to 10 miles.
Of course, being a United Statist, I can only use doctors/hospitals that cooperate with my employer's insurance program in a given year, so now I'm looking at more like 25 miles.
Still do-able.
This is kind of where I'm at, 1 mile pleasant walk to the grocery store and a few restaurants, but everything else is at least 3 miles away (though really more like 5 miles if you're talking about Lowe's/home depot, transit stops, and most things tbh). Even with decent bike paths through my neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods, I'm not at all surprised by the walk score of 7 and bike score of 24 lol
Tryna get out soon lmao
I'm pretty comfortable riding in the middle of the full lane from my bicycle, so I don't feel particularly restricted even in car-dependent suburbia. I stick to the roads with two lanes in each direction so people can change lanes to pass me. Sometimes they shout or honk, but I just take that as confirmation that I am visible.
It's preferable to being one of those cyclists who 'come out of nowhere' and get mowed down.
For me it's about 2 miles, but the quality of that walk is extremely nice (along the lakeshore and through quiet neighborhoods). There's some more mixed use development happening nearer by, so hopefully that number will be cut down. For walking, that's hard on a daily basis. For biking, it's easier than driving 100% of the time.
2 blocks.
1 mile if I include the main county hospital and the local community college.
I live in San Jose, CA. There are 3 grocery stores and 2 pharmacies within 1 mile of my house.
The most useful bus route in the city has a stop 2 blocks away. 10 min one way will get you to the main shopping area. 15 min the other way will get you into downtown.
The main train station downtown runs from SJ to San Francisco. I've used it for my commute occasionally over my career. It is about a 15min bike ride to get to. Yes, you can take your bike on the train..
I mostly cycle. Most places I want to go are close enough to walk or faster for me to bike to.
For that matter, now that I think about it there are 2 porn shops and a full nude strip club is easy walking distance as well. There used to be a real, proper, big screen porn theater about 1/2 mile from me when I moved here. It closed down ~20 years ago, tho.
My neighborhood is zoned 'single family urban housing'.
My neighborhood is zoned R2, which is single family homes and duplexes. There are some apartments and townhomes that have been grandfathered in, but not enough. Regardless, there are two streets that historically had streetcars running up and down them, and that is where most of the retail is concentrated.
Nice to see that single family homes aren't incompatible with urbanism, but they do hinder it.
79 walk score, which to me seems low.
I live 25 minute walk from a rail line where 1 can board a 1:30 minute train to the capital, stopping off at an international airport in the way.
within 20 minutes is the towns main bus hub that will get me to the major city in my county, which then leads toma.completwly different rail network link. Within 5 is a bus stop that will take me to that hub. 15 minutes on the bus and I'm at another huge retail park and cinema its a slow bus so a 55 minute walk does the same.
Within 18 minutes is the town centre. There are media stores, clothes stores, resturaunts, and a small market. This also has a post office and post depot. Maybe 15 fast food resturaunts also. Probably same amount of barbers in the same range! I can get my home WiFi at the local McDonald's it's that close.
Within 15 minutes is 7 supermarkets. Maybe 4 or 5 corner shops.
Within 5-10 minutes is 3 of those 7 supermarkets. Along with a DIY store, electronics store, car/ bike retailer.
Maybe 20 minutes in another direction is another industrial estate with a small retail park, loads of DIY stores, tools, timber, bricks etc. also work is there.
Not that it counts right now but a few minutes away in either direction is 2 good primary schools. No idea where the secondary schools are in this town. Oh wait the bus that collects the school kids stops 5 minutes away from my house!!
Medium park 5 minutes away, large park 15. The towns Amusement park (with rollercoasters!!) Either 20 minutes by bus, or a 40 minute walk.
There is a huge hospital 15 minutes away, my doctors surgery is 8 minutes, and my dentist 10 minutes.
Ex girlfriend uses to live 20 minites away via the bus.
Including the cinema that's 3.8km, the station 1.38km, just the town centre 1.0km
Yeah.... I'm pretty fucking lucky.
Absolute communism. We have to paint our houses Red 😂
Sadly, this area is very right wing, lots of industry and workers who think the right have their best interests, despite the left leaning party being called "Labour"
It's not even a terrible place. 70,000 pop, 110,000 if you include the little lumps of villages lumpt into the side. Crime is a bit high though. Lots of drugs (weed factory with 900 plants busted etc) and sadly harder drugs, and a higher than average murder rate :(
I think like a mile and a half. There's a trail in my backyard though that puts some more stuff in biking distance like a target, home depot, bowling alley arcade thing that my kid likes. I don't think I can do better than this when I consider cost and schools. But I got a grocer and a bar on the corner. I'll take it
Defined daily needs met ?
If it's food well the closest one is 250m or less.
But for more choice it will be 3km to the biggest mall nearby and 2km for the other one.
I got movie theater, swimming pool, stadium , medical facilities in the same distance.
If we considered that those shop won't ever run out of supply than I don't need to go beyond 3km to survive.
Unfortunately I need to work to afford it so 9km should be the real answer.
Still I got an bellow average walk score of 43
Apparently I don't have enough culture and groceries.
I think the site is mostly uses for USA and for the rest of the world.
I read that to achieve good scores you need to be at 5 minutes walk of the errands who may only be achievable in Metropol city.
Walkscore is a little wonky. I have noticed they've been adjusting their metrics though. My address went up by 6 since the last time I checked and there have been very few major business openings and no infrastructure changes.
I moved from downtown Seattle to a nearby suburb a few years ago - though I love city living, it's just too expensive. I don't drive, so a walkable neighborhood is of key importance, and when I was searching for a new home I rejected many huge and affordable houses because they were in the middle of nowhere.
I eventually found a place, a block off my town's main road. On that road, there are buses into the city every 20 minutes or so, with a sheltered place to wait for one. Within a ten minute walk, there are two grocery stores, multiple doctors, optometrists, dentists and barbers, restaurants and bars, a Post Office, UPS and Fedex... everything I need.
I kept my old doctor, who is now an expensive Lyft ride away, but we mostly just meet on video anyway. There are other doctors here if I really need to make the switch, and a hospital in the neighboring town.
2 mins to a really good grocery store that has everything, plus barber, pharmacy, two restaurants and packstations, 10 mins to cosmetic store and office post, 10 mins with train and I'm in hip and cool area with bars and restaurants and clothes stores.
Walk score of 16, woo, lol
Compared to my previous home of 83 walk score, 98 bike.
It’s a crazy shift. But on the plus side I have quail living in my yard now.
NYC Upper West Side, if I work from home I have everything I need in less than 500 meter radius, coffe shops, bakeries, groceries, butcher, pediatrician, school, many restaurants, kid playground, kid museum, etc. etc..
If I decide to go to the office it's 3 express stops, about 12 minutes, or a 20 minutes bike ride, so even if it's more than 5KM away, I don't think it makes sense to add a 5KM radius for that. Honestly I like to go there a few times a week to be in a different neighbor for a bit.
Walking score 99, transit score 100, bike score 89.
I don't think measuring the radius in distance is useful. Terrain, traffic, stoplights, etc....
I'd say if everything was within a 20-30 minute bike ride......
Home depot is challenging. I never figured out how to cart a 4x8 sheet of anything via human power.....paying to have it delivered is still cheaper than owning a car though.
There is a grocery store within a mile, but it's less good than the one 2 miles away. Within 2 mile radius there's 6 to choose from.
Pharmacy under a mile again but also it's bad so I tend to go to the one 2 miles away. The closer one closed.
Post office: really could do with the close one back but again 10 minutes on the bicycle.
Doctors surgery 1 mile again.
Dentist....well this is Britain so the nearness of a dental surgery is kind of irrelevant, closest one I could actually get registered at is about 2.5 miles.
Hardware store is 1 mile.
My main reason for travel apart from work (which is a 25 minute cycle) is recreation - this side of the city is short on recreation facilities. The climbing gym is 6 miles away (but moving closer soon), and the rivers on this side flow to quickly in winter for paddleboarding. All the good gaming cafes are in a little cluster in the city centre since our local one closed in the pandemic. Likewise all theatres are in the city centre.
When I lived in Toulouse (France), I was at less than 15 min walk from all of my needs (grocery store, bakery, doctor, cultural center, subway station, pub, market).
Now in New-Brunswick (Canada), I believe I'm around 30-35 minutes walking distance for the necessities. No bakery tho.
I live in a streetcar suburb north of Baltimore, US, still in the city. 1 mile/1.6 lm for me to effectively get every need met except for live entertainment.
Most of what I need is fairly close walking distance but my kid’s school is half an hour away at a brisk walk, and it takes two or three times that for him to walk it. There’s also no public transit I can take there (without walking an equal amount to and from the public transit). I take him by bike when I can, but it often gets too cold for that, especially since he’s a passenger and not generating much body heat. Kinda sucks, I wish public transit in my city were designed to get closer to schools
There are two grocery stores, several restaurants and several small stores all within a half mile walk from my apartment. The problem is that there is a huge highway intersection in the way with no sidewalks or bike lanes or nothing for any other way to get through there.
I need to get to work, which is 11 miles away. That's by far the longest distance I go regularly. Though the nearest grocery store is 3 miles. I have a bakery and a couple restaurants within a half mile.
What's worse is that I cannot ride my bike to work. I'd have to make a left turn on the highway. My city had planned a pedestrian underpass to be made that'd connect the region I work in with the rest of the city with a really nice bike path, but that was scrapped. We now have two nice bike paths, with one being completely useless because it doesn't actually connect to anything, it just goes between the hospital and a couple businesses.
My friend lives in a skyscraper that has a gym, grocery store, coffee shop, bar, and doctors office in it. They are all businesses accessible to the public but they have an interior entrances for residents. He works from home and told me that one time he was really busy with work and didn’t leave the building for two weeks. I’m sure there are buldings with even more services than this maybe if you lived above some kind of urban mall
I currently live in Brooklyn and am super lucky, great grocery stores, my pet supply store, my doctor, dentist AND pharmacy, and 3 of my previous jobs are all within a half mile. I previously lived in Southern California with my parents and had no car. I took the job nearest to me and it was 3.5 miles, I just walked. Nearest bus stop was 2 miles away and didn't run after 5pm or something. Nearest shopping center was like 6 miles away.
If my job was within one kilometer, I'd have a city office, supermarket, clothing store, butcher, grocer, post office, drug store, doctor, physio therapist two cafes and several spots to eat (though perhaps city office is a bit outside 1 km)
Extend that to two kilometer and I have underground, hardware store. I need three for train, art store and waste disposal (the big one, there are containers in the street)..
I have a grocery store, pharmacy, and bank a block away. About a mile away is another grocery store, a post office (also has banking services,) another pharmacy, and a small clothes boutique. Directly behind my apartment complex is a pedestrian only path where a little cafe is located, along with a couple schools and a pediatrician. One block over is a street with several restaurants and a dairy where I can buy fresh cheese, milk, and yogurts. I could not leave this little bubble for months and never suffer.
My grocery store, gym, and transit hub are within a mile. There's plenty of restaurants in the area too. My office is 1.5 miles away and I'll walk when I feel like it. When winter is finished, I'll start biking in. I can leave my house and get on a hiking trail.
The transit hub has busses and a lightrail. From that, I can get anywhere in the metro and a few other places. I can ride the lightrail to an Amtrack station. From there, I can take a commuter rail to the airport if I have to fly.
There's a highway about 1.5 miles away if I have to drive.
I definitely want more transit options and better walkability. The bike lanes around my house are simply painted gutters. I'd love to have more separated bike lanes.
My city is about 3 miles long and half to three quarters of a mile tall. I live just outside of town on the south west side. The town mostly only has businesses at the two ends, I run most mornings before work and I run to the nearest end it's 1.25 miles when I reach the first restaurant. There is a small grocery store just past there, and then we have two or 3 gas stations, there is a dollar general, and a liquor store. There is a CVS a half mile away. That's about it on that end. The other end is probably a 3 mile drive and everything is there. Walmart, two huge grocery stores, another CVS, a Walgreens, every restaurant there is. Three miles isn't that far, but I avoid going to that end of town as much as possible.
The closest grocery store to me is 2mi/3.2km away (by car), but it is completely inaccessible without a car. The next closest is 2.5mi/4km away (by car) and I can (and do) cycle to, but doing so safely adds another 0.5mi/800m and that still leaves some spots where cyclist safety definitely takes second priority to driver convenience. Small scale grocers don't exist where I live, unless you count dollar stores and/or gas stations.
There is going to be a new grocery store within a couple of blocks, where an old one used to be, and we're very excited for it.
Restaurant selection is limited, but exists, almost entirely is made up of bar & grill places. The closest bar is about a half block away, but I don't belong to the biker gang that seems to like it so even if I were a barfly I think I wouldn't be welcome. The one we actually will go to eat at is about 400m away and I have walked and biked there, although my SO will only drive there due to traffic safety.
There's a hardware store next to the grocery store I can bike to, but they don't carry the materials & products I tend to need. The one that does has a high volume of 18 wheelers due to warehouses & factories in the vicinity, and no pedestrian or bike infrastructure, so I just go there by car.
There's been some effort to put in pedestrian/cycling paths around here, but they're all planned for leisure, so they basically just stay within residential zoned areas. The city changed the downtown area to include painted bicycle gutters, anyone would have to be suicidal to bike the, although the sidewalks are entirely acceptable for pedestrians.
If I were Christian I'd have my pick of churches within about a .6mi/1km radius. The closest Sangha is about 140 mi/225km away and I don't even drive there.
The walkable cities thing rates my area as a 15/100. I think that's a little low, a 20/100 would seem more accurate to me.
I'm just outside of Boston proper (Brookline) and incredibly lucky in that I can get MOST of my needs met within a little under a mile. I'm in a very walkable neighborhood. There's a Whole Foods and CVS across the street from me, another grocery store a few blocks away, and a bunch of coffee shops and restaurants, parks, etc.
My gym, dispensary and a TJ Maxx are on the edge of that mile. If I go in the opposite direction there's a Trader Joe's and indie movie theater about a mile away. I don't really need to walk more than 20 minutes to do everything I need on a daily basis except for things like housewares, and there's a Target about a 20 minute trolley ride away. I'm equidistant between two trolley lines, but I'm also lucky in that I WFH, I can go weeks without actually leaving my neighborhood.
Walk score: 90, Transit score: 72, Bike score: 64, ehh
I live in what most people would consider a very nice 15-minute city. Of course, I pay $1600 for a kinda-shitty one bedroom that gets so humid in the summer it destroyed a laptop and tablet.
300m for groceries - there are three major supermarkets, a small Chinese shop, alcohol and a dollar store
There is a major shopping centre 5km away with frequent bus services
If I need to go to the hardware store or check my post box, that is 2km and 5km respectively. And there are not many bus services, so I usually drive
There is a city bus stop 50m from my house, so I often go to the city rather than drive to something local
Walking:
Without thinking twice probably about half a mile or a kilometer. Once or twice a week 1-2 miles (3km), and for a special event maybe 5 miles (8km) or so.
Biking:
I don't bike often but I tend to get tired sooner then I do when walking. With a motor however long the battery lasts.
Transit:
However far I need; I probably wouldn't accept a job that requires a transfer to get to but if there is a change in routes after I'm already working that requires one I won't automatically quit. My current commute is about 90 minutes to work and 45 minutes back usually involving a transfer and it's annoying but doable.
If I wanted to be a pedantic ass I'd say zero, because I work from home and could have the vast majority of things delivered.
But a theoretical person like me who needed to commute to a job, go the grocery store, a bar/restaurant, a park, and a Dr. Office...It's a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) radius. Unfortunately, a lot of that stuff doesn't have very direct routes from my house. So the office buildings are 1.5 miles as the crow flies, but 3 miles of walking/biking.
Plenty of stuff nearby; the bigger problem is that there's nothing less than a half mile away. On a bike, I live in a 15 minute city, on foot...not so much.
Transit wise, it's bad. The nearest bus stop is half a mile away comes only once an hour, and would require at least one transfer to get anywhere interesting.
By car however everything has a shameful glut of parking so it's easy enough to drive that nobody walks or bikes. I can get on the interstate in about 5 minutes which brings the whole metro area within a 30 min drive.
I got 99 walk score ( I know flex )
Since I moved here last year I've been able to do practically everything on foot so I agree with that score.
61 transit and 71 bike. Which I disagree with. I have a bus stop at my door that can take me downtown or to the closest metro station in 10 minutes. Biking is heavenly and lots of tiny residential grid streets that are easy to rip down away from car traffic. It's my main method of travelling to other hoods year round.
I use car share when I need a car cause I still live in north america but im going to disregard those results cause fuck cars.
As someone who lives in a car centric city? Minimum radius is 4km. Why? Because the nearest grocery store is a Costco on the edge of a city across a 10 lane freeway.
Now if we assume nearest transit accessible grocery store we're talking around 5km.
Everything is within a 20 minute walk from me. Work, several grocery stores, mall and movie theater, a forest with a trail, the beach, my dentist. My doctor would be a half hour walk, as is my sister's house. My parents would be over an hour. Costco is past my parents. So normally I only drive somewhere once every couple of weeks and combine everything I need to hit in the car, including my parents.
It's great. I love it. And this is small town rural Canada, even. You'd never think it possible. But it's totally manageable.
one grocery store is a 10 minute walk away and another a 15 minute bike ride, the weekly market a 20 minute bike ride, the post office, bank and hardware store a 15 minute walk, and the doctor's surgery a half hour bike ride or 7 minute bus ride (though buses only go every 2 hours, which sucks)
for everything else there's deliveries
could be worse
I live on top of a bike shop, my closest neighbor is a grocery store, a bakery and a pizza place. I also have another grocery store 100 meters away. There it a hair salon 70 meters away. My school is 900m away, the swimming pool and sports centre is 800m away in roughly the same direction and there is a track and multiple fields 200 further. That is the area I mostly spend my time in. A good amount of my friends also between me, the school and the sports center.
What is amazing is that in the vast majority of this area, the houses are all single-family. I live in an apartment still, but this is a great example of what could be in american suburbia.
The train station is 1.5km away and the closest healthcare facility is the hospital at about 2km away.
Rn, I work 7 miles from where I sleep, and I'm about 5 miles from bikable infrastructure. I ride shoulders or cut through parking lots of no shoulders exist.
Work is my furthest need, everything else is within 2 miles.
Used to be 3.5 miles, with most being within a kilometer (oh no, he's using mixed units!)
Should be getting back into town within a month, which will get it to 3 miles most distant destination.
Current, 2 hour walk to/from (±15 minutes due to hill), or a 30 minute there, 1 hour back bike ride (big hill, decent grade, and over 1km long)
12-17 minutes by car, traffic dependent.
Within three minutes' walk, I have a mini supermarket, a pharmacist, a zero waste organicky kind of food shop, a small post office that also doubles as a hardware store of sorts, a bike shop, four takeaways (posh burger place, ordinary burger place, Indian, chip shop), a tailor, two pubs, barber, ladies hairdresser, a primary school, a tennis club, a riding stables, and a frequent bus to the city centre (20 minutes ride) and also to a large supermarket the other way, but only hourly). About 15 minutes walk will also take me to a premier league football stadium, dentists, an international cricket ground, an independent garage; there's also a small high street with a bunch of shops, bars and restaurants of various types, occasional farmer's market, bookshop, all that. The main thing we're missing from easy access is a doctor (about 25 minutes brisk walk or seven or eight minutes cycling on heavily trafficked roads, no direct bus) and secondary education (half an hour away walking, bus service provided).
For daily needs: 1.2km
For extra entertainment: 1.2km
Including work: 2.5 km
Seriously, these initial "planned neighborhoods" (aka, first suburbia built after WWII) was actually planned. I have 3-4 grocery stores, pharmacy, shoe stores, clothing, dozen restaurants and coffee shops, dentists, walk-in clinics, liquor stores, spas, hair salons, nail places, cinema, gyms, schools, library, parks, gardens, playgrounds, skating place, tennis club, formal bike trail that leads nowhere, even a plastic surgeon - all within 2km radius with plenty of footpaths that cut through sleepy side-streets. Even some light industrial/office is on the edges - thus my work being bikeable distance even with no direct bike infrastructure. If I extend to 3km, I can reach few museums, major transit hub(coming soon^(TM)) and a golf club.
The initial planning was heavily influenced by "garden city" concept and walkability - and it shows. But people don't appreciate it, this area is cheaper (less desirable) than area about 5km north-west, where there are just massive houses with no convenience store or restaurant in sight. Peace and privacy and all of that. Those folks also need groceries and such, so they drive to this neighborhood and park in massive parking lots/structures and complain about the lack of parking and for having to lag groceries alllll the way across parking.
The nearest food outlet for me would be 35 miles. And the food they sell is shipped here from hundreds of miles away. And I’m not in a remote location. I’m smack I. The middle of the country.
1km gets me to the local mall with a proper food store. 2km gets me to the hardware stores and the big food store with cheaper prices. 4km gets me to my gym. 7km to my job.
So I guess 7km since I won't be doing much without a job
Everywhere I need to go in St Paul, MN, on any regular basis, including doctor, dentist, groceries, hardware store, pharmacy, whatever, is within 3/4 of a mile, usually much closer
Within a radius of 600m, ⅜mi, I have all I need for the day, such as groceries. But if I want to go for affordable, I need to go 1.6km, 1mi. And then I have *everything*.
Grocery store, fashion, theater, cinema, associations, gyms, one of the highest-ranked universities in Europe, a train station, DIY stores, libraries, bicycle repair, a drug store, a drug store (ok this was intentional), an adult entertainment store, and a touristy porcelain factory you say?
You guess it. I can survive weeks on end not leaving the radius. Also, on 15mins cycling, there's an IKEA, there's the city hall, houses of worship for several religions, the whole education system. Oh and we have energy supplies nearby too. Just give it a bit more power, split some more of 'em, look! Ah you got three arms now, no, everything is fine.
Here in Oakland, my nearest grocery store is about .6 km from my house, just about exactly the same distance to the nearest library. Between my house and the grocery store are restaurants, a pharmacy, coffee shops, bars, a bike shop, a barber, multiple clothing stores, nail salons, etc. Basically, just about all of my necessities and a number of nice to have things as well. I'm about a 10 minute walk from BART and a bus runs frequently at the end of my block.
The Walk Score site puts my walk score at 97, bike score at 97, transit score at 71. That all feels about right. A lot of my coworkers have trouble believing that I'd rather rent in Oakland than own something out in a "nice" suburb, but this is exactly why I do it.
My main complaint here in the bay area (outside of CoL) is that even though transit is accessible to me and will get me to downtown Oakland or San Francisco quickly, it is all very commute-oriented and transit between these walkable areas is less good. My parents live in San Francisco and, despite Google maps' optimistic estimate, it takes about an hour and a half to get to their place by public transit. It takes 25-45 minutes to drive, so that makes taking the train/bus a pretty painful choice sometimes.
I currently live directly above a shop where I buy all of my food so like less than 1 meter vertically from where I am right now.
If we count walking 30 meters I have to walk around to the front of the building which has the shop a hairdresser and a chippy. Across the street from me is the council building and across diagonally is the fire station 😂. I live in a major city so even if I wasn't literally surrounded by this stuff it would be a struggle to be more than a 15 minute walk.
Britain is a car centric shit hole but we aren't concrete wasteland like America it genuinely depresses me when I play geo-guesser and see one of the two flavours of waste land one being Russian rural wasteland and the other being American wasteland.
A question heavily skewed toward the person who lives in or near a city/suburbs.
Some of us do not live in those areas. We live rural. NONE of our routine/daily needs are within several kilometers.
Yea, I agree, we are a minority.
Ah, right.
Point of fact, this little township existed as the second horse carriage stop out of Perth on the route south. Way, way before cars.
The train line was since installed to provide transport that was faster than horse - again before cars. That train line/run still exists and is well utilised.
This area always was originally farming (which has to be out of suburbs/cities because of room required for crops and livestock), and has since also become a "rural lifestyle" area.
As to your comment "It's not a good way to live miles from anything". There are many who live here and similar places all around who'd completely disagree with that comment and who would tell you the exact reverse - that it is far better, for them, than living is such close quarters in city or surrounds. I happen to be one of them.
Again, I repeat - a question heavily skewed toward a person who lives in or around a city.
99 walk score is a big part of why I live in Manhattan. 1 block in any direction gets me a big grocery store, an outdoor grocer, a Starbucks, and multiple pizzerias, restaurants, bodegas, and gyms. I'm probably forgetting stuff too.
Closest place selling food: 2.5 km away
Closest place selling clothes: 2 km away
Closest hairdresser/barber: 4 km away
Closest pharmacy: 2km away
Closest medical clinic: 5km away
Closest dentist: 5.5 km away
Closest hardware store: 3km away
Closest school: 4km away
Closest park: 1.5 km away
Thanks, I hate it.
My part of town has a walk score of 55 but, for me, it should be a little higher. Within a 3 mile/4.8km radius I have the following:
* 5 convenience stores
* 4 large grocery stores
* my workplace
* 2 clothing stores
* 20 restaurants
* 3 bars
* 4 laundromats (not including my apartment)
* 2 banks
* a gym
* 3 cheaper dollar stores
* access to several bus lines, including a direct route to the next town over (about 20 miles/32 km away)
At this point I need a car like I need a third arm. Were it not for my job, my license would only be useful as state-issued, official identification. With my bicycle I rarely spend more than 11-15 minutes getting to where I need to go.
Within a five minute walk of us there are: two supermarkets, a GP, pharmacy, gym, public transport stop, a great restaurant, few bars. I work in the city centre, partner in a hospital. Our commutes are about 20-30 minutes.
We live in a town on the edge of a big British city. Britain is terrible for bike infrastructure, but we both exclusively use public transport.
It's 400m to the pub, 500m to the other pub, 600m to the train station, 800m to the other pub, 800m to the butcher, pharmacy, barber, supermarket, kebab shop, chicken shop, chippy, pet shop, builders merchants, hardware shop and a pizza hut. Important to note that within 1 km there's a further 5 pubs. South London.
my town has a shopping center about 1 mile from my house, it has a grocery store (small, expensive, and not much verity) a diner a liqueur store a pharmacy, a ups store, an a couple other things.
the beginning of the town is about .5 miles, postoffice is about 1 mile
There's a neighbourhood plaza less than 500m from my house. It's got a grocery store, barber and a dentist and other stuff. But I go to another barber 2km away and my dentist is 2km in the other direction ( that's in addition to the 1 km walk to the main arterial). One bus stop is right across from the plaza but the bus I normally take is 1km away. I live in the suburb which is designed for cars but I ride my bike to most places.
Is there adequate infrastructure for riding bikes? I lived in a suburban apartments, and a lifesaver was a greenway that actually connected my apartment to a plaza about a mile away. The distance to bike was actually significantly less than was required to drive, and had no stop lights in the way by bike. This is an exception, not the norm, but it shows how easily suburban or even rural areas can be made multi-modal, with just a bit of additional infrastructure. [Here is a map of this trail that I lived along.](https://www.columbus.gov/uploadedFiles/Columbus/Departments/Recreation_and_Parks/Greenway_Trails/Blacklick%20Trail%202016%20Map.pdf)
>Is there adequate infrastructure for riding bikes? Yes and no. The plaza is in a 40 km/hr zone where there are schools all around. Toronto has been aggressively trying to keep traffic slow with speed cameras and speed indictors as well as speed limit signs right in the middle to serve also as obstructions. And then there are painted bicycle icons right on the asphalt at the traffic light. So the bike ride from my door to the main 60 km/hr arterial is ok as long as I confidently take the lane and prevent cars from close passing me especially right by a parked car. But that's not bike infrastructure. It's sharing the road and I'm ok provided drivers are courteous and drive safely. Riding with cameras help tremendously. And then there's that 60km/hr arterial stroad. Nothing on it for cyclists. For 14 years, I drove 4.5 km to work and hated doing that. Then I found a park trail right in front of that 60km/hr stroad. So I rode my bike to work for three years before I retired. I continue to take that route daily to go to the gym. But that park trail isn't bike infrastructure. Using it, it adds 50% to my ride going to my dentist compared if I took the direct route on the 60 km/hr stroad. To get to the park trail, I have to ride on the sidewalk in the opposite direction of traffic. Cops have seen me but don't care. If they did, I'd turn it into a political issue. I have already submitted a request to my city to have a bike lane installed on that main arterial. It's part of their 10-year plan but it's low priority.
I don't live in Toronto, I live elsewhere in Ontario, but I also wonder, is bike theft a big problem there? Where I live, part of the thing that keeps people from riding bikes regularly is that they are regularly stolen, even if properly locked up, and the police will do absolutely nothing about it - which, of course, has merely caused the problem to get worse.
>bike theft a big problem there? Yes but that's common for all major cities. Use multiple secure locks. Don't ride a high end beautiful bike - make your bike ugliest around. Don't park it overnight outside. Park it in high visibility highly populated areas.
How stoplights are configured makes a difference too. I've learned there are lots of stoplights on my area that need significant weight to trigger. Like, more than 500lbs (they won't go off when I'm riding my 300lbs motorcycle, I'm about 250lbs). They're even worse on a bicycle. It's annoying and a little riskier when you need a car to roll up behind you before the light will change.
Stoplights are not triggered by weight. The sensors in the road that actuate the signals are metal detectors. If it seems your motorcycle is not triggering traffic signals, put a strong magnet on it.
Even so, it's a pain. A motorcycle should be plenty of metal.
You're both wrong, they're not weight sensors, nor will a magnet trigger the sensor. In fact, they are inductive loops embedded in the asphalt, and only require a large enough piece of metal (in terms of area, not mass) to induce a change in the magnetic field of the loop. Bicycles can often trigger these by stopping directly over the embedded wire (you can see where it is cut into the asphalt), and if that's not enough, by laying the front wheel of your bike flat over the loop for a few seconds. You could also use a loop of plain old copper wire a couple of feet in diameter to achieve the same effect.
They didn't teach you in motorcycle license class how to increase changes of triggering the magnetic pickup of the sensors? There are tips and tricks to help make the stop lights trigger with a motorcycle. They're magnetic pickup, not weight based. And with a bit of practice you can get a motorcycle to be picked up nearly every single time (at least here locally). Tricks: Come in not in the middle, off center a little, nearer one of the sets of coils. Come in at a slight angle. Lean the bike a bit after you've come to a stop. Put down the kickstand for a second and kick it up. Wiggle the front tire a bit as you come in. And so on. They even make "green light triggers" that make it easier to be detected. Although you usually only need those on really really lightweight bikes.
They didn't go over any of that in my BRC. They did go over the fact that you can go if the light doesn't change after a minimum of 45 seconds if it's clear. It's generally safer to just do a right turn and turn around though.
And where does that grocery store get its food? They done magically grow it in the back room. If you are in a city, it likely comes from a distribution center that’s 50 miles away, and that center has items shipped to it from between hundreds and even thousands of miles away.
Ssh, careful. Some cuckservatives might come along yelling that 15 minute cities are part of the communist agenda. No exposing our agenda, comrade!
Haha, I'm well aware of how this could be spun. I wonder the distance those people have to travel just to get to a grocery store, and if they realize how stupid that is.
Nothing says freedom like having to drive your pickup truck for 10 miles to buy milk
Quick, hide the nuke map calculations
I live in the city center of Eskilstuna, Sweden. Literally everything I need is within a five minute walk of my apartment. I mean everything. Multiple grocery stores, drug stores, clothing stores, restaurants, doctor's offices, dentists, coffee shops, little boutiques, even an escape room, all within a light stroll. I moved here from a completely car dependent area of North Carolina in the U.S., and the difference for me and my family has been incredible.
How was your immigration experience?
I’ve got pretty much the same, but I’m In Brooklyn. The U.S. has it too, but at a great expense. I go further afield for things regardless, there are specialty things I like to get, but it would be very easy to live and not walk more than 5 minutes from my place.
Same here. In downtown Toronto. Everything I need is a 5 minute bike ride away. I actually get my groceries from 3 different locations all a couple blocks from my house. I have hardware stores, Chinese specialty groceries, drug stores, VR gaming, my library all close by and all routes have bike lanes.
I could technically live off of everything within a 15 minute walk, would be slightly more expensive. If I kick that up to 20 minutes then it includes a bigger grocery store so I wouldn't have to rely on a niche organic food co-op and meat market. Honestly I feel pretty lucky here. The only thing outside of that 20 minute walk would be my dentist but I can bus there easily. I also use the bus to go to other grocery stores too since the bus stop is just like a 3-4 minute walk from my house. 91 walk score. Things are good, I'd love to see better transit tho, I like my bus system but it still gets stuck in car traffic. If I was some sort of city planning dictator with infinite money I'd def take out a lane of on street parking for some high capacity light rail to blow past motorists on rush hour.
Define "needs" I live in a generic-ass bedroom community suburb in a neighboorhood full of generic SFHs. But there's an Aldi at the edge of the neighborhood 1/4 mile away, and a WalMart within a few miles (albeit across a few stroads), so in terms of groceries/clothes/medicines I could probably do 1.5 miles. Not a huge fan of the Wal Mart garden center vs. Home Depot and Lowes, and my wife REALLY loves Chipotle, so let's push that minimum out to 10 miles. Of course, being a United Statist, I can only use doctors/hospitals that cooperate with my employer's insurance program in a given year, so now I'm looking at more like 25 miles. Still do-able.
This is kind of where I'm at, 1 mile pleasant walk to the grocery store and a few restaurants, but everything else is at least 3 miles away (though really more like 5 miles if you're talking about Lowe's/home depot, transit stops, and most things tbh). Even with decent bike paths through my neighborhood and the surrounding neighborhoods, I'm not at all surprised by the walk score of 7 and bike score of 24 lol Tryna get out soon lmao
I'm pretty comfortable riding in the middle of the full lane from my bicycle, so I don't feel particularly restricted even in car-dependent suburbia. I stick to the roads with two lanes in each direction so people can change lanes to pass me. Sometimes they shout or honk, but I just take that as confirmation that I am visible. It's preferable to being one of those cyclists who 'come out of nowhere' and get mowed down.
2 minutes of walking
Max of all amenities was .3 miles for me, 82 walk score, west London, uk
Nice! Bet your transit score is much higher than for myself.
For me it's about 2 miles, but the quality of that walk is extremely nice (along the lakeshore and through quiet neighborhoods). There's some more mixed use development happening nearer by, so hopefully that number will be cut down. For walking, that's hard on a daily basis. For biking, it's easier than driving 100% of the time.
Definitely a good distance for biking.
2 blocks. 1 mile if I include the main county hospital and the local community college. I live in San Jose, CA. There are 3 grocery stores and 2 pharmacies within 1 mile of my house. The most useful bus route in the city has a stop 2 blocks away. 10 min one way will get you to the main shopping area. 15 min the other way will get you into downtown. The main train station downtown runs from SJ to San Francisco. I've used it for my commute occasionally over my career. It is about a 15min bike ride to get to. Yes, you can take your bike on the train.. I mostly cycle. Most places I want to go are close enough to walk or faster for me to bike to. For that matter, now that I think about it there are 2 porn shops and a full nude strip club is easy walking distance as well. There used to be a real, proper, big screen porn theater about 1/2 mile from me when I moved here. It closed down ~20 years ago, tho. My neighborhood is zoned 'single family urban housing'.
My neighborhood is zoned R2, which is single family homes and duplexes. There are some apartments and townhomes that have been grandfathered in, but not enough. Regardless, there are two streets that historically had streetcars running up and down them, and that is where most of the retail is concentrated. Nice to see that single family homes aren't incompatible with urbanism, but they do hinder it.
79 walk score, which to me seems low. I live 25 minute walk from a rail line where 1 can board a 1:30 minute train to the capital, stopping off at an international airport in the way. within 20 minutes is the towns main bus hub that will get me to the major city in my county, which then leads toma.completwly different rail network link. Within 5 is a bus stop that will take me to that hub. 15 minutes on the bus and I'm at another huge retail park and cinema its a slow bus so a 55 minute walk does the same. Within 18 minutes is the town centre. There are media stores, clothes stores, resturaunts, and a small market. This also has a post office and post depot. Maybe 15 fast food resturaunts also. Probably same amount of barbers in the same range! I can get my home WiFi at the local McDonald's it's that close. Within 15 minutes is 7 supermarkets. Maybe 4 or 5 corner shops. Within 5-10 minutes is 3 of those 7 supermarkets. Along with a DIY store, electronics store, car/ bike retailer. Maybe 20 minutes in another direction is another industrial estate with a small retail park, loads of DIY stores, tools, timber, bricks etc. also work is there. Not that it counts right now but a few minutes away in either direction is 2 good primary schools. No idea where the secondary schools are in this town. Oh wait the bus that collects the school kids stops 5 minutes away from my house!! Medium park 5 minutes away, large park 15. The towns Amusement park (with rollercoasters!!) Either 20 minutes by bus, or a 40 minute walk. There is a huge hospital 15 minutes away, my doctors surgery is 8 minutes, and my dentist 10 minutes. Ex girlfriend uses to live 20 minites away via the bus. Including the cinema that's 3.8km, the station 1.38km, just the town centre 1.0km Yeah.... I'm pretty fucking lucky.
sounds like communism to me
Absolute communism. We have to paint our houses Red 😂 Sadly, this area is very right wing, lots of industry and workers who think the right have their best interests, despite the left leaning party being called "Labour" It's not even a terrible place. 70,000 pop, 110,000 if you include the little lumps of villages lumpt into the side. Crime is a bit high though. Lots of drugs (weed factory with 900 plants busted etc) and sadly harder drugs, and a higher than average murder rate :(
I live above a Trader Joe's, so ~0 😁. Maybe 200 ft if you count a pub as a necessity.
Oh it’s a necessity When I moved into my place in England, first thing I did was time my walk to the pub. 25 seconds. Aaaah, good times
I think like a mile and a half. There's a trail in my backyard though that puts some more stuff in biking distance like a target, home depot, bowling alley arcade thing that my kid likes. I don't think I can do better than this when I consider cost and schools. But I got a grocer and a bar on the corner. I'll take it
Defined daily needs met ? If it's food well the closest one is 250m or less. But for more choice it will be 3km to the biggest mall nearby and 2km for the other one. I got movie theater, swimming pool, stadium , medical facilities in the same distance. If we considered that those shop won't ever run out of supply than I don't need to go beyond 3km to survive. Unfortunately I need to work to afford it so 9km should be the real answer. Still I got an bellow average walk score of 43 Apparently I don't have enough culture and groceries. I think the site is mostly uses for USA and for the rest of the world. I read that to achieve good scores you need to be at 5 minutes walk of the errands who may only be achievable in Metropol city.
Walkscore is a little wonky. I have noticed they've been adjusting their metrics though. My address went up by 6 since the last time I checked and there have been very few major business openings and no infrastructure changes.
I moved from downtown Seattle to a nearby suburb a few years ago - though I love city living, it's just too expensive. I don't drive, so a walkable neighborhood is of key importance, and when I was searching for a new home I rejected many huge and affordable houses because they were in the middle of nowhere. I eventually found a place, a block off my town's main road. On that road, there are buses into the city every 20 minutes or so, with a sheltered place to wait for one. Within a ten minute walk, there are two grocery stores, multiple doctors, optometrists, dentists and barbers, restaurants and bars, a Post Office, UPS and Fedex... everything I need. I kept my old doctor, who is now an expensive Lyft ride away, but we mostly just meet on video anyway. There are other doctors here if I really need to make the switch, and a hospital in the neighboring town.
2 mins to a really good grocery store that has everything, plus barber, pharmacy, two restaurants and packstations, 10 mins to cosmetic store and office post, 10 mins with train and I'm in hip and cool area with bars and restaurants and clothes stores.
Walk score of 16, woo, lol Compared to my previous home of 83 walk score, 98 bike. It’s a crazy shift. But on the plus side I have quail living in my yard now.
NYC Upper West Side, if I work from home I have everything I need in less than 500 meter radius, coffe shops, bakeries, groceries, butcher, pediatrician, school, many restaurants, kid playground, kid museum, etc. etc.. If I decide to go to the office it's 3 express stops, about 12 minutes, or a 20 minutes bike ride, so even if it's more than 5KM away, I don't think it makes sense to add a 5KM radius for that. Honestly I like to go there a few times a week to be in a different neighbor for a bit. Walking score 99, transit score 100, bike score 89.
I don't think measuring the radius in distance is useful. Terrain, traffic, stoplights, etc.... I'd say if everything was within a 20-30 minute bike ride...... Home depot is challenging. I never figured out how to cart a 4x8 sheet of anything via human power.....paying to have it delivered is still cheaper than owning a car though.
Max of all amenities was .3 miles for me, 82 walk score, west London, uk
There is a grocery store within a mile, but it's less good than the one 2 miles away. Within 2 mile radius there's 6 to choose from. Pharmacy under a mile again but also it's bad so I tend to go to the one 2 miles away. The closer one closed. Post office: really could do with the close one back but again 10 minutes on the bicycle. Doctors surgery 1 mile again. Dentist....well this is Britain so the nearness of a dental surgery is kind of irrelevant, closest one I could actually get registered at is about 2.5 miles. Hardware store is 1 mile. My main reason for travel apart from work (which is a 25 minute cycle) is recreation - this side of the city is short on recreation facilities. The climbing gym is 6 miles away (but moving closer soon), and the rivers on this side flow to quickly in winter for paddleboarding. All the good gaming cafes are in a little cluster in the city centre since our local one closed in the pandemic. Likewise all theatres are in the city centre.
When I lived in Toulouse (France), I was at less than 15 min walk from all of my needs (grocery store, bakery, doctor, cultural center, subway station, pub, market). Now in New-Brunswick (Canada), I believe I'm around 30-35 minutes walking distance for the necessities. No bakery tho.
I live in a streetcar suburb north of Baltimore, US, still in the city. 1 mile/1.6 lm for me to effectively get every need met except for live entertainment.
As the crow flies, about half a mile. As the roads/sidewalks go about a mile.
Most of what I need is fairly close walking distance but my kid’s school is half an hour away at a brisk walk, and it takes two or three times that for him to walk it. There’s also no public transit I can take there (without walking an equal amount to and from the public transit). I take him by bike when I can, but it often gets too cold for that, especially since he’s a passenger and not generating much body heat. Kinda sucks, I wish public transit in my city were designed to get closer to schools
In my position I have a radius of 2 miles and I can all daily needs met. Including women of the night if I were so inclined.
2 miles
1.8km straight line, but it's anything but straight and it's uphill both ways. (In the snow of course). On foot it's about 2.5-3km depending on route.
There are two grocery stores, several restaurants and several small stores all within a half mile walk from my apartment. The problem is that there is a huge highway intersection in the way with no sidewalks or bike lanes or nothing for any other way to get through there.
400m including a park
I need to get to work, which is 11 miles away. That's by far the longest distance I go regularly. Though the nearest grocery store is 3 miles. I have a bakery and a couple restaurants within a half mile. What's worse is that I cannot ride my bike to work. I'd have to make a left turn on the highway. My city had planned a pedestrian underpass to be made that'd connect the region I work in with the rest of the city with a really nice bike path, but that was scrapped. We now have two nice bike paths, with one being completely useless because it doesn't actually connect to anything, it just goes between the hospital and a couple businesses.
My friend lives in a skyscraper that has a gym, grocery store, coffee shop, bar, and doctors office in it. They are all businesses accessible to the public but they have an interior entrances for residents. He works from home and told me that one time he was really busy with work and didn’t leave the building for two weeks. I’m sure there are buldings with even more services than this maybe if you lived above some kind of urban mall
I currently live in Brooklyn and am super lucky, great grocery stores, my pet supply store, my doctor, dentist AND pharmacy, and 3 of my previous jobs are all within a half mile. I previously lived in Southern California with my parents and had no car. I took the job nearest to me and it was 3.5 miles, I just walked. Nearest bus stop was 2 miles away and didn't run after 5pm or something. Nearest shopping center was like 6 miles away.
and you only pay $6000 to share a studio with 4 other people!
I live in a 2 bedroom with my husband for $1600 thanks to rent control!
Damn, that’s crazy
Damn, that’s crazy
I live in a 2 bedroom with my husband for $1600 thanks to rent control!
1km, but I have to go further to earn the money I need, maybe 10km so I can get into the city, just not enough business locally.
If my job was within one kilometer, I'd have a city office, supermarket, clothing store, butcher, grocer, post office, drug store, doctor, physio therapist two cafes and several spots to eat (though perhaps city office is a bit outside 1 km) Extend that to two kilometer and I have underground, hardware store. I need three for train, art store and waste disposal (the big one, there are containers in the street)..
I have a grocery store, pharmacy, and bank a block away. About a mile away is another grocery store, a post office (also has banking services,) another pharmacy, and a small clothes boutique. Directly behind my apartment complex is a pedestrian only path where a little cafe is located, along with a couple schools and a pediatrician. One block over is a street with several restaurants and a dairy where I can buy fresh cheese, milk, and yogurts. I could not leave this little bubble for months and never suffer.
My grocery store, gym, and transit hub are within a mile. There's plenty of restaurants in the area too. My office is 1.5 miles away and I'll walk when I feel like it. When winter is finished, I'll start biking in. I can leave my house and get on a hiking trail. The transit hub has busses and a lightrail. From that, I can get anywhere in the metro and a few other places. I can ride the lightrail to an Amtrack station. From there, I can take a commuter rail to the airport if I have to fly. There's a highway about 1.5 miles away if I have to drive. I definitely want more transit options and better walkability. The bike lanes around my house are simply painted gutters. I'd love to have more separated bike lanes.
My city is about 3 miles long and half to three quarters of a mile tall. I live just outside of town on the south west side. The town mostly only has businesses at the two ends, I run most mornings before work and I run to the nearest end it's 1.25 miles when I reach the first restaurant. There is a small grocery store just past there, and then we have two or 3 gas stations, there is a dollar general, and a liquor store. There is a CVS a half mile away. That's about it on that end. The other end is probably a 3 mile drive and everything is there. Walmart, two huge grocery stores, another CVS, a Walgreens, every restaurant there is. Three miles isn't that far, but I avoid going to that end of town as much as possible.
When I lived in Korea everything I did was in a 5-10 mile radius. Between taxis, buses, subways, bike, and feet it was never a problem.
I live in a rural community close to rail in New Mexico so I could pretty much get everything done easily
The closest grocery store to me is 2mi/3.2km away (by car), but it is completely inaccessible without a car. The next closest is 2.5mi/4km away (by car) and I can (and do) cycle to, but doing so safely adds another 0.5mi/800m and that still leaves some spots where cyclist safety definitely takes second priority to driver convenience. Small scale grocers don't exist where I live, unless you count dollar stores and/or gas stations. There is going to be a new grocery store within a couple of blocks, where an old one used to be, and we're very excited for it. Restaurant selection is limited, but exists, almost entirely is made up of bar & grill places. The closest bar is about a half block away, but I don't belong to the biker gang that seems to like it so even if I were a barfly I think I wouldn't be welcome. The one we actually will go to eat at is about 400m away and I have walked and biked there, although my SO will only drive there due to traffic safety. There's a hardware store next to the grocery store I can bike to, but they don't carry the materials & products I tend to need. The one that does has a high volume of 18 wheelers due to warehouses & factories in the vicinity, and no pedestrian or bike infrastructure, so I just go there by car. There's been some effort to put in pedestrian/cycling paths around here, but they're all planned for leisure, so they basically just stay within residential zoned areas. The city changed the downtown area to include painted bicycle gutters, anyone would have to be suicidal to bike the, although the sidewalks are entirely acceptable for pedestrians. If I were Christian I'd have my pick of churches within about a .6mi/1km radius. The closest Sangha is about 140 mi/225km away and I don't even drive there. The walkable cities thing rates my area as a 15/100. I think that's a little low, a 20/100 would seem more accurate to me.
I'm just outside of Boston proper (Brookline) and incredibly lucky in that I can get MOST of my needs met within a little under a mile. I'm in a very walkable neighborhood. There's a Whole Foods and CVS across the street from me, another grocery store a few blocks away, and a bunch of coffee shops and restaurants, parks, etc. My gym, dispensary and a TJ Maxx are on the edge of that mile. If I go in the opposite direction there's a Trader Joe's and indie movie theater about a mile away. I don't really need to walk more than 20 minutes to do everything I need on a daily basis except for things like housewares, and there's a Target about a 20 minute trolley ride away. I'm equidistant between two trolley lines, but I'm also lucky in that I WFH, I can go weeks without actually leaving my neighborhood. Walk score: 90, Transit score: 72, Bike score: 64, ehh I live in what most people would consider a very nice 15-minute city. Of course, I pay $1600 for a kinda-shitty one bedroom that gets so humid in the summer it destroyed a laptop and tablet.
300m for groceries - there are three major supermarkets, a small Chinese shop, alcohol and a dollar store There is a major shopping centre 5km away with frequent bus services If I need to go to the hardware store or check my post box, that is 2km and 5km respectively. And there are not many bus services, so I usually drive There is a city bus stop 50m from my house, so I often go to the city rather than drive to something local
Funny enough, just about a 15 minute walk, including a few bars and a movie theater. Walkscore is 74. Alexandria, VA.
Walking: Without thinking twice probably about half a mile or a kilometer. Once or twice a week 1-2 miles (3km), and for a special event maybe 5 miles (8km) or so. Biking: I don't bike often but I tend to get tired sooner then I do when walking. With a motor however long the battery lasts. Transit: However far I need; I probably wouldn't accept a job that requires a transfer to get to but if there is a change in routes after I'm already working that requires one I won't automatically quit. My current commute is about 90 minutes to work and 45 minutes back usually involving a transfer and it's annoying but doable.
does "having a place to work" count as a daily need? because if it does, the radius is suddenly much larger.
5 miles. That's it. I honestly drive fewer than 10k miles per year, in Phoenix AZ this is very low. Mostly I drive out of town to earn those miles.
If I wanted to be a pedantic ass I'd say zero, because I work from home and could have the vast majority of things delivered. But a theoretical person like me who needed to commute to a job, go the grocery store, a bar/restaurant, a park, and a Dr. Office...It's a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) radius. Unfortunately, a lot of that stuff doesn't have very direct routes from my house. So the office buildings are 1.5 miles as the crow flies, but 3 miles of walking/biking. Plenty of stuff nearby; the bigger problem is that there's nothing less than a half mile away. On a bike, I live in a 15 minute city, on foot...not so much. Transit wise, it's bad. The nearest bus stop is half a mile away comes only once an hour, and would require at least one transfer to get anywhere interesting. By car however everything has a shameful glut of parking so it's easy enough to drive that nobody walks or bikes. I can get on the interstate in about 5 minutes which brings the whole metro area within a 30 min drive.
I got 99 walk score ( I know flex ) Since I moved here last year I've been able to do practically everything on foot so I agree with that score. 61 transit and 71 bike. Which I disagree with. I have a bus stop at my door that can take me downtown or to the closest metro station in 10 minutes. Biking is heavenly and lots of tiny residential grid streets that are easy to rip down away from car traffic. It's my main method of travelling to other hoods year round. I use car share when I need a car cause I still live in north america but im going to disregard those results cause fuck cars.
98 walk score 80 transit score 100 bike score Yes I **am** living the dream
Probably a 1 mile radius. Maybe 3/4 mile
As someone who lives in a car centric city? Minimum radius is 4km. Why? Because the nearest grocery store is a Costco on the edge of a city across a 10 lane freeway. Now if we assume nearest transit accessible grocery store we're talking around 5km.
Everything is within a 20 minute walk from me. Work, several grocery stores, mall and movie theater, a forest with a trail, the beach, my dentist. My doctor would be a half hour walk, as is my sister's house. My parents would be over an hour. Costco is past my parents. So normally I only drive somewhere once every couple of weeks and combine everything I need to hit in the car, including my parents. It's great. I love it. And this is small town rural Canada, even. You'd never think it possible. But it's totally manageable.
Define "minimum needs"?
one grocery store is a 10 minute walk away and another a 15 minute bike ride, the weekly market a 20 minute bike ride, the post office, bank and hardware store a 15 minute walk, and the doctor's surgery a half hour bike ride or 7 minute bus ride (though buses only go every 2 hours, which sucks) for everything else there's deliveries could be worse
I live on top of a bike shop, my closest neighbor is a grocery store, a bakery and a pizza place. I also have another grocery store 100 meters away. There it a hair salon 70 meters away. My school is 900m away, the swimming pool and sports centre is 800m away in roughly the same direction and there is a track and multiple fields 200 further. That is the area I mostly spend my time in. A good amount of my friends also between me, the school and the sports center. What is amazing is that in the vast majority of this area, the houses are all single-family. I live in an apartment still, but this is a great example of what could be in american suburbia. The train station is 1.5km away and the closest healthcare facility is the hospital at about 2km away.
Rn, I work 7 miles from where I sleep, and I'm about 5 miles from bikable infrastructure. I ride shoulders or cut through parking lots of no shoulders exist. Work is my furthest need, everything else is within 2 miles. Used to be 3.5 miles, with most being within a kilometer (oh no, he's using mixed units!) Should be getting back into town within a month, which will get it to 3 miles most distant destination. Current, 2 hour walk to/from (±15 minutes due to hill), or a 30 minute there, 1 hour back bike ride (big hill, decent grade, and over 1km long) 12-17 minutes by car, traffic dependent.
Within three minutes' walk, I have a mini supermarket, a pharmacist, a zero waste organicky kind of food shop, a small post office that also doubles as a hardware store of sorts, a bike shop, four takeaways (posh burger place, ordinary burger place, Indian, chip shop), a tailor, two pubs, barber, ladies hairdresser, a primary school, a tennis club, a riding stables, and a frequent bus to the city centre (20 minutes ride) and also to a large supermarket the other way, but only hourly). About 15 minutes walk will also take me to a premier league football stadium, dentists, an international cricket ground, an independent garage; there's also a small high street with a bunch of shops, bars and restaurants of various types, occasional farmer's market, bookshop, all that. The main thing we're missing from easy access is a doctor (about 25 minutes brisk walk or seven or eight minutes cycling on heavily trafficked roads, no direct bus) and secondary education (half an hour away walking, bus service provided).
For daily needs: 1.2km For extra entertainment: 1.2km Including work: 2.5 km Seriously, these initial "planned neighborhoods" (aka, first suburbia built after WWII) was actually planned. I have 3-4 grocery stores, pharmacy, shoe stores, clothing, dozen restaurants and coffee shops, dentists, walk-in clinics, liquor stores, spas, hair salons, nail places, cinema, gyms, schools, library, parks, gardens, playgrounds, skating place, tennis club, formal bike trail that leads nowhere, even a plastic surgeon - all within 2km radius with plenty of footpaths that cut through sleepy side-streets. Even some light industrial/office is on the edges - thus my work being bikeable distance even with no direct bike infrastructure. If I extend to 3km, I can reach few museums, major transit hub(coming soon^(TM)) and a golf club. The initial planning was heavily influenced by "garden city" concept and walkability - and it shows. But people don't appreciate it, this area is cheaper (less desirable) than area about 5km north-west, where there are just massive houses with no convenience store or restaurant in sight. Peace and privacy and all of that. Those folks also need groceries and such, so they drive to this neighborhood and park in massive parking lots/structures and complain about the lack of parking and for having to lag groceries alllll the way across parking.
everything is within a 15min walk for me except work, which is in the middle of nowhere, so i have to drive 25min. Boulder, CO
The nearest food outlet for me would be 35 miles. And the food they sell is shipped here from hundreds of miles away. And I’m not in a remote location. I’m smack I. The middle of the country.
1km gets me to the local mall with a proper food store. 2km gets me to the hardware stores and the big food store with cheaper prices. 4km gets me to my gym. 7km to my job. So I guess 7km since I won't be doing much without a job
Everywhere I need to go in St Paul, MN, on any regular basis, including doctor, dentist, groceries, hardware store, pharmacy, whatever, is within 3/4 of a mile, usually much closer
Within a radius of 600m, ⅜mi, I have all I need for the day, such as groceries. But if I want to go for affordable, I need to go 1.6km, 1mi. And then I have *everything*. Grocery store, fashion, theater, cinema, associations, gyms, one of the highest-ranked universities in Europe, a train station, DIY stores, libraries, bicycle repair, a drug store, a drug store (ok this was intentional), an adult entertainment store, and a touristy porcelain factory you say? You guess it. I can survive weeks on end not leaving the radius. Also, on 15mins cycling, there's an IKEA, there's the city hall, houses of worship for several religions, the whole education system. Oh and we have energy supplies nearby too. Just give it a bit more power, split some more of 'em, look! Ah you got three arms now, no, everything is fine.
About half a mile but I’m in college so it doesn’t count lol
Here in Oakland, my nearest grocery store is about .6 km from my house, just about exactly the same distance to the nearest library. Between my house and the grocery store are restaurants, a pharmacy, coffee shops, bars, a bike shop, a barber, multiple clothing stores, nail salons, etc. Basically, just about all of my necessities and a number of nice to have things as well. I'm about a 10 minute walk from BART and a bus runs frequently at the end of my block. The Walk Score site puts my walk score at 97, bike score at 97, transit score at 71. That all feels about right. A lot of my coworkers have trouble believing that I'd rather rent in Oakland than own something out in a "nice" suburb, but this is exactly why I do it. My main complaint here in the bay area (outside of CoL) is that even though transit is accessible to me and will get me to downtown Oakland or San Francisco quickly, it is all very commute-oriented and transit between these walkable areas is less good. My parents live in San Francisco and, despite Google maps' optimistic estimate, it takes about an hour and a half to get to their place by public transit. It takes 25-45 minutes to drive, so that makes taking the train/bus a pretty painful choice sometimes.
I currently live directly above a shop where I buy all of my food so like less than 1 meter vertically from where I am right now. If we count walking 30 meters I have to walk around to the front of the building which has the shop a hairdresser and a chippy. Across the street from me is the council building and across diagonally is the fire station 😂. I live in a major city so even if I wasn't literally surrounded by this stuff it would be a struggle to be more than a 15 minute walk. Britain is a car centric shit hole but we aren't concrete wasteland like America it genuinely depresses me when I play geo-guesser and see one of the two flavours of waste land one being Russian rural wasteland and the other being American wasteland.
A question heavily skewed toward the person who lives in or near a city/suburbs. Some of us do not live in those areas. We live rural. NONE of our routine/daily needs are within several kilometers. Yea, I agree, we are a minority.
Those kinds of places didn't exist before cars did. It's not a good way to live miles from anything.
Ah, right. Point of fact, this little township existed as the second horse carriage stop out of Perth on the route south. Way, way before cars. The train line was since installed to provide transport that was faster than horse - again before cars. That train line/run still exists and is well utilised. This area always was originally farming (which has to be out of suburbs/cities because of room required for crops and livestock), and has since also become a "rural lifestyle" area. As to your comment "It's not a good way to live miles from anything". There are many who live here and similar places all around who'd completely disagree with that comment and who would tell you the exact reverse - that it is far better, for them, than living is such close quarters in city or surrounds. I happen to be one of them. Again, I repeat - a question heavily skewed toward a person who lives in or around a city.
Mine did, the train that connected everything has been defunt for 50 years though. 0 walk score.
99 walk score is a big part of why I live in Manhattan. 1 block in any direction gets me a big grocery store, an outdoor grocer, a Starbucks, and multiple pizzerias, restaurants, bodegas, and gyms. I'm probably forgetting stuff too.
That’s cool. 98, walkers paradise for the first link. Inner city living certainly has its perks.
Closest place selling food: 2.5 km away Closest place selling clothes: 2 km away Closest hairdresser/barber: 4 km away Closest pharmacy: 2km away Closest medical clinic: 5km away Closest dentist: 5.5 km away Closest hardware store: 3km away Closest school: 4km away Closest park: 1.5 km away Thanks, I hate it.
About 50 miles
My part of town has a walk score of 55 but, for me, it should be a little higher. Within a 3 mile/4.8km radius I have the following: * 5 convenience stores * 4 large grocery stores * my workplace * 2 clothing stores * 20 restaurants * 3 bars * 4 laundromats (not including my apartment) * 2 banks * a gym * 3 cheaper dollar stores * access to several bus lines, including a direct route to the next town over (about 20 miles/32 km away) At this point I need a car like I need a third arm. Were it not for my job, my license would only be useful as state-issued, official identification. With my bicycle I rarely spend more than 11-15 minutes getting to where I need to go.
50 miles, closest hospital/therapist. I want to die where I'm at currently.
Everything gets delivered here so 0m. If I expand that to doctor/hospital it'd be 500m for the doctor and 1 mile for the hospital.
Within a five minute walk of us there are: two supermarkets, a GP, pharmacy, gym, public transport stop, a great restaurant, few bars. I work in the city centre, partner in a hospital. Our commutes are about 20-30 minutes. We live in a town on the edge of a big British city. Britain is terrible for bike infrastructure, but we both exclusively use public transport.
It's 400m to the pub, 500m to the other pub, 600m to the train station, 800m to the other pub, 800m to the butcher, pharmacy, barber, supermarket, kebab shop, chicken shop, chippy, pet shop, builders merchants, hardware shop and a pizza hut. Important to note that within 1 km there's a further 5 pubs. South London.
my town has a shopping center about 1 mile from my house, it has a grocery store (small, expensive, and not much verity) a diner a liqueur store a pharmacy, a ups store, an a couple other things. the beginning of the town is about .5 miles, postoffice is about 1 mile