this post was submitted on 24 Sep 2024
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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

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month 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 1 month ago

Where my friend lives, in a typical American suburb:

  • To the nearest convenience store: 1.5km
  • To the nearest chain supermarket: 1.5km
  • To the bus stop: >1km
  • To the nearest park: 400m
  • To the nearest big supermarket: 1.5km (they're all the same thing lol)
  • To the nearest library: 1.4km
  • To the nearest train station: 1.7km

(These feel like clues to Jet Lag: the Game - Hide and Seek...)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

Many Americans still live in what I'd call "15 minute cities" if we consider it as driving instead of walking.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

According to wikipedia, the contiguous 48 states of the US (which occupy the middleish part of North America) are 8,080,464.3 km2, compared to Europe’s 10,180,000 km2, so that should give you an idea. My country is nearly as big as your entire continent, thus things are very spread out. Also our entire modern culture was designed around cars, suburbs and racism, so towns are flat, expansive and nothing is close to anything useful unless you have a car—woe to those without (myself included).

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

In my home town getting to most basic necessities took 20min driving. Mind you that was the capital city of my state

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Nashville TN suburbs and here are my walking distances:

To the nearest convenience store: 6km
To the nearest chain supermarket: 11km
To the bus stop: 6km 
To the nearest park: 4.1km
To the nearest big supermarket: 12km
To the nearest library: 13km
To the nearest train station: 25km
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

But what's your straight line distance to the Parthenon?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Nice try stalker! (Jk)

Straight line distance to the Parthenon: 9101.70 km

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Here are my walking distances in Seattle:

  • Convenience store: 150m
  • Chain supermarket: 30m
  • Big supermarket: 1.6km
  • Bus stop: 10m
  • Park: 100m
  • Library: 150m
  • Train station: 2km

Straight-line distance to Space Needle: 4.3km

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month 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 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month 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] 3 points 1 month ago

Let's give it a shot. I live in the suburbs of Lincoln, Nebraska, which is an average-sized college town in the US (about 300k residents):

  • Nearest convenience store: 1.1 miles/1.7km (we often do walk there, takes about 20 minutes)
  • Nearest chain supermarket/big supermarket (they are often one in the same here): Target @ 1.5 miles/2.4km
  • Bus stop: 1.3 miles/2.1km
  • Nearest park: 0.6 miles/965m
  • Nearest public library: 3.5 miles/5.6km
  • Nearest train station: 9.1 miles/14.6km (we don't really use trains much at all in the US, though)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month 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] 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Just for fun, I decided to check my distances against yours

Here are my walking distances:

  • To the nearest convenience store: 1.13km
  • To the nearest chain supermarket: 2.74km
  • To the bus stop: 33.8km
  • To the nearest park: 2.41km
  • To the nearest *big* supermarket: 17.7km
  • To the nearest library: 2.41km
  • To the nearest train station: 24.14km
  • Straight-line distance to Nashville’s “The Batman Building” (closest approximation to a large unique cityscape building): 67.76km
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

- To the bus stop: 33.8km

Is that a typo, or can you just randomly stand at the side of the road and flag down a bus so you don’t need as many formal bus stops?

Because that’s wild.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Not a typo. There are no buses unless you go to one of the neighboring cities. I live too far from anywhere that has buses. You either have to walk, or… you can drive! Like everybody else in the US without access to any sort of public transportation remotely close to their home…

Edit: Here’s my nearest walking directions to a large supermarket

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

I live in a small suburb right outside of a major us city.

To the nearest convenience store: .6 km To the nearest chain supermarket: .9 km To the bus stop: .3km To the nearest park: 1.0km To the nearest big supermarket: .9km To the nearest library: 1.2km To the nearest train station: .6km Straight-line distance to big Ben: 5708 km

You certainly got me on big Ben distance.

But this is why the question is kind of silly. America is a huge, diverse place. When I lived in NYC, I was probably closer to everything than you. Where I grew up in an almost rural area, the closest thing was over 5km away. And this isn't even all that bad because I had a friend who grew up in an unincorporated area where she had to drive 30min just to get her mail.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Where I grew up in rural texas: these are current times as I still go there regularly to visit.

Convenience store: 10 km down a major highway

Market: 20 km

The nearest Walmart : 58 km <-- this used to be the only option until they built ... The nearest chain grocery: 21 km

Train: 60 km (Amtrak)

Park: 8km. Down a road with a 60 mph (96 km/h) speed limit. But definitely walkable.

Bus stop: ??? There is no public transportation in the town of under 2000 people. Google maps won't even give me a suggestion so...I have no idea. Does a greyhound count?

Library: 21 km

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

Username checks out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month 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] 3 points 1 month ago
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