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I've heard the legends of having to drive to literally everywhere (e.g. drive thru banks), but I have no clue how far apart things are.

I live in suburban London where you can get to a big supermarket in 10 minutes of walking, a train station in 20 minutes and convenience stores are everywhere. You can get anywhere with bus and train in a few hours.

Can someone help a clueless British lemmyposter know how far things are in the US?

EDIT

Here are my walking distances:

  • To the nearest convenience store: 250m
  • To the nearest chain supermarket: 350m
  • To the bus stop: 310m
  • To the nearest park: 400m
  • To the nearest big supermarket: 1.3km
  • To the nearest library: 1.2km
  • To the nearest train station: 1km

Straight-line distance to Big Ben: 16km

(page 5) 42 comments
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[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

about 20 minutes to the grocery store, 5 to the convenience store, about 10 to the bus stop 20 to the park. West coast.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Wow. I thought I lived in a pretty walkable part of Atlanta. I really only use my car for the grocery or a 'big' shopping trip.

  • Convenience store 2 km
  • Chain supermarket 1.5 km
  • Bus stop 1.3 km
  • Park 300m
  • Big supermarket 2.5 km
  • Library 2.7 km
  • Train (subway) station 1.3 km
  • Downtown Atlanta 13 km
[–] dch82 1 points 2 months ago

And I don't even live anywhere the centre: I live in one of the only London boroughs without an Underground station, that borders ~~no man's land~~ the outside of London

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I have never lived in a big city, always living in the suburbs where everything is a drive away. But nothing was too far away to drive to so when I talk about where something is today, even if it's 10 miles away, I'm like "it's just around the corner".

Grocery Store: 4.4 Miles Pharmacy: 4.9 Miles Doctors: 6.4 Miles Library: 2.4 miles

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

I live in a planned community where everything is supposed to be accessible by walking or biking. There are greenway paths all over the place. I generally drive because I can't carry a weeks worth of food on my bike and most destinations don't have a safe place to lock your bike up. An unattended bike seems to be considered a free bike.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Corner store with basics: 5 min Supermarket: 15 min Restaurants: 5 min Park: 3 min Bus stop: 5 min Library: 15 min Local rail: 20 min Regional/National rail: 40 min

All walking distances. I live in a neighborhood that was designed before cars existed so it’s more like Europe in terms of distances/amenities. Except our transit infrastructure is shit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Here are my best guesses from living life:

From house to local stores: City-Couple blocks Suburbs-3 to 10 mins Rural-10 to 45 mins

Metropolitan centers are surrounded by Suburbs which is surrounded by rural. That's sort of stat quo. The distance between Metropolitan centers (not including the retarded NYC and LA type areas) is usually a minimum 1hr from closest centers but in most states they're like 3 hrs apart.

Time it takes to go up or down the east coast is 12 to 17 hrs for most that's not the time to get from northern most tip of main to southern most tip of Florida cuz who the fuck actually does that.

Traveling an hour to do something special is common but traveling an hr for something common or necessity is designated for the extreme mountain ranges like Adirondack, Appalachian, Rocky? (Idk never been just assuming) type of areas.

Anything taking longer than an hr is getting into road trip status and anything over 3 hr is find somewhere to stay and come home tomorrow status. There are exceptions bit depending on how long event is you are adding 6hr round trip time to it.

Caveats:

Rush hour is dependent on area. For example in Buffalo a 45 min trip no traffic is taking you around 50min-1hr in rush hour. Whereas in Frederick, MD (D.C. suburb) a 15 min drive no traffic was taking at leasy 1hr in rush hour. All the same it's every single weekday from 6am to 9am and 3pm to 6pm in every Metropolitan area.

State to neighboring state trips are usually 3 to 6 hr. Usual work commute for everyone not commuting to a city (do honestly most of the US) 5 to 30 mins.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

It's a two-hour round trip walk to the nearest convenience store, and its also through rough terrain and lawns that people don't cut

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

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

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

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

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

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

1 mi = 1.609344 km

1 km = 0.6213712 mi

Example:

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

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Same figures for me:

  • Convenience store: 2.7km
  • Supermarket: 2.5km
  • Bus stop: 4.2km (this may be incorrect I think there was a closer one that didn't show on the map)
  • Park: 6.2km
  • Big Supermarket: 3.5km
  • Library: 6km
  • Train station: 7.9km
  • Hart Plaza(nowhere really analogous to big Ben around me): 46km
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I live in a major city

  • To the nearest convenience store: 500m
  • To the nearest chain supermarket: 2.7km
  • To the bus stop: 400m
  • To the nearest park: 1.4km
  • To the nearest big supermarket: 2.7km (same one as above)
  • To the nearest library: 3km
  • To the nearest train station (light rail): 5.6km
[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Phoenix suburbs

We don't really have public transportation at all

Nearest convenience store 1.5 miles

Nearest chain grocery store 4.2 miles

Nearest big grocery store (Costco)2.8 miles

Nearest library 1.9 miles

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

Straight line to big Ben 5285 miles

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

For me things were not in meters or feet but hours driven. From my home town the nearest stoplight was 1.5 hours away by car. This is also the closest chain restaurant (like McDonald's or simular). We had a school bus, but other than that no public transit. The next town over (15 minutes) has a supermarket.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I live in a small shithole town in Pennsylvania about an hour drive outside a major city and 15 minutes outside of a smaller city.

The liquor store a dollar store and a few tiny shops are within ~4k Big Macs(top to bottom length) away, but everywhere else needs a car. There is nothing in town other than a few small shops, everything else was closed long before my time.

It's about a 15 minute drive to get to the next town over since all the stores are there. There is no other non car transportation infrastructure near by other than county buses that you shouldn't use unarmed.

The nearest landmark of any cultural significance (outside of going into the city) is the empty field in Somerset county a few hours away.

Basically if I want something other than whiskey or bread, it's a 15 minute drive. Still better than when I was still living with my parents because they were even further out from civilization.

Getting to the next closest state is about a 3 hours trip and I'm close to the border.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago

250 m to the nearest mini market

400 to the nearest mini mall

1k to the railroad station

400 to the park

150 to the (unreliable) bus stop

[–] [email protected] -1 points 2 months ago (8 children)
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