To Americans: How far apart is everything in the US?

It’s not necessarily how far things are, it’s that you need a car to get to places in a sensible way.

I’m a fellow Brit, but have stayed in suburban US enough to have experienced how different it is. You might have a supermarket a couple of miles away, but if you want to attempt to walk there, you’ll often be going well out of your way trying to find safe crossing points or even roads with paved sidewalks.

Train stations are mostly used for cargo in most US cities. If you don’t have a car, you’re pretty much screwed.

Some cities are different. NYC being the obvious one. You can get about there by public transport pretty easily in most places there. San Francisco is another city that is more doable without a car, but more difficult than NYC.

I stayed near Orlando not too long ago and there it’s just endless surburban housing with shops and malls dotted about mostly along the sides of main roads. You definitely need a car there.

Great question. London is amazing for being able to walk around, and has amazing transit. I honestly love your city, and may move there someday for it. This is mostly because London embraced transit in the early 20th century.

America went the other way, and embraced the car, and that pushed for the "American Dream". Suburbs became the normal, where people wanted an independent house farther away from the city. From there bred new problems, people needed to be able to drive their car there, which meant we needed more parking, which meant that things became further and further away.

You can actually blame parking for most of America's sprawl. Parking eats up a ton of space, and requires large roads to get people where they need to go and then massive parking lots for people to park their cars. Parking lots you can't even understand in your London mind. Then there are new problems - the parking lots are so massive that now you can't even walk to the building next door because it's half a mile just to walk to that place! So people get in their cars to drive across the street to park in the next place. This isn't exaggerated, that's just how it is. Take a look at this shopping center in Des Moines, a city where I grew up.

Americans designed cities for cars, not people. There is no way that areas like that were built for humans to move around in, it was built for people to drive to. Greenspace or walkways are not a thing, you are meant to park, walk for hundreds of meters to the front of the door, shop, and then get back in your car and drive across the big street to go to dinner. (To boot, most places won't let you leave your car either, if you're done shopping you need to move it).

The real problem is that this is all by design. We kill so much space in our cities so that drivers feel more comfortable. Honestly, I really appreciate London and how well they've done. Remember all of this next time your PM wants to "make it easier for drivers". No. Fuck the drivers. They're driving their huge metal car into your city, and wanting to have it take up space all so they don't have to walk or take a train/bus. They should have to pay extra for renting space from the city.

Amazing video on why parking is so freaking stupid in America: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUNXFHpUhu8

My work commute is minimum 40 minutes one way by car. Probably 2.5 hours by bus, with probably 20 minutes of walking, in Texas heat and humidity.

Walking distance is only part of this equation.

We have no sidewalks and I would need to cross a 6 lane interstate if I were to go to the "closest" anything.

In the suburbs of a middle-sized city in Ohio, USA. So midwest, but a bit older, higher-density, and more northeastern suburban layout than, say, Iowa. Built up in the 1960s-70s. Almost all single-family suburban homes on large lots.

(these are walking distances, not straight lines)

• To the nearest convenience store: 1.6 km
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 4.2 km
• To the bus stop: 1.5 km
• To the nearest park: 226 meters
• To the nearest big supermarket: 2.1 km
• To the nearest library: 2.6 km
• To the nearest train station: Hahaha! (Ok, it's actually 78 km, but it's mostly worthless as a train station)

Straight-line distance to Big Ben: 6297 km

I live in a VERY rural area. If I want to visit my neighbors, it's at the very least a 10 minute walk. To buy groceries it's about a 20 mi drive. If I want to go to a movie theater, it's a 40 mile drive. It's about a 70 mile drive to the closest city (sky scrapers and stuff)

There's no public transportation or even sidewalks. The closest town that is 5 miles away has one stoplight and a population of 700 ish. We do have a few restaurants in town though, a school and a post office.

This largely depends on where you are in the US. I have moved a lot over the years, from dense city centers, to the dirt roads of rural America. Here are my experiences:

NYC would probably be the most comparable to your experience in London, but seeing as I haven't lived there, I can instead talk about Boston. When I lived inside the subway range in Boston (Somerville specifically), my experience matches up with yours. I was ~5 minutes from a supermarket and ~15 minutes from the subway/train stop by foot. I was even closer to a couple bus stops for lines that would take me to places like a mall, nearby universities, or the next subway line over (we don't have an equivalent of the Circle line).

I currently live in Boston suburbs (Metrowest for people that know the area) and can't really walk anywhere as my street and adjacent streets don't have sidewalks. I could try to walk on the street, but with the narrowness combined with the speed at which people drive through this neighborhood, it would not be fun. If I hop in the car, I am ~5 minutes from a strip mall with a supermarket, pharmacy, liquor store, etc. and ~10 minutes from the commuter rail train station that I use to commute to the city for work. If I want to head to a large shopping hub with a mall, then it is ~20 minutes away by car. There is a skeleton of a bus system in my area, but it would require traversing ~1.5 miles on streets without sidewalks to get to the nearest stop for me.

When I lived in a rural area (rural PA), things were very different. To get to the nearest supermarket (a WalMart), it took ~30 minutes worth of driving. If I wanted to go to the mall, it was closer to 60 minutes. I am sure there are even less dense areas than that in this country.

My closest superstore an hour drive away. 60 miles. The closest grocer is 12 miles. My closest international airport is 1.5 hours away. It is also the closest regional airport. 85 miles. The closest national park is 3 hours. I live 6 miles from my closest town.

There are no passenger trains, busses, or taxis. Or uber.

Rural america is empty. And spread out. We get along fine, but public transit will never exist here. Cars are the only way.

I live in rural Oklahoma...

Here are my walking distances: * To the nearest convenience store: 4.667km * To the nearest chain supermarket: 24.140km * To the bus stop: 27.358km * To the nearest park: 321.869m * To the nearest *big* supermarket: 33.7962km * To the nearest library: 32.1869km * To the nearest train station: 70.8111km

I live in DFW, a large amalgamation of two cities and a bunch if suburban sprawl in Texas.
I live in a neighborhood that is considered extremely walkable, as I am directly across the street from a university and less than a mile from city hall.

Here are my walking distances:

• To the nearest convenience store: 1.8km
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 4.3 km (They have a monopoly though, so unless you can afford whole foods, the closest good one is like 22.5 km)
• To the bus stop: Lol, we don't have busses. A neighboring city does, so I guess 29 km?
• To the nearest park: Nearest park is 2.8km. Nearest public space is only 1.5km because I live right next to city hall.
• To the nearest big supermarket: 8.9 km to Walmart.
• To the nearest library: 1.5km, again, I live right next to city hall.
• To the nearest train station: 16km, unless you mean one for intercity travel. We don't have one of those because Amtrak is slowly being killed.

Straight-line distance to Big Ben: we don't have a Big Ben, but we killed JFK and that's 34km away.

Bonus fun fact, I commute 42km each day. This is considered far by most people here, 32km would be much more reasonable.

I live on the edge of a small town. Google numbers:

• To the nearest convenience store: 4.7km, 1hr 4min walk
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 21km, 4hr 38min walk
• To the nearest bus stop: 18km, 4hr 7min walk
• To the nearest park: 3.4km, 47 minute walk
• To the nearest library: 4.7km, 1hr 3min walk
• To the nearest train station: 20km, 4hr 31 minute walk

So first of all, the US is big and diverse, if you hop in a car and drive from New York to LA without stopping, taking the fastest route, mostly on major highways, averaging out to something like 60+mph (about 100 km/h) you're still going to be spending just about 2 days in the car.

And in between, you're going to see a little bit of everything, mountain, plains, forest, farms, huge dense urban cities, towns small enough you can barely even call them a town, suburban sprawl, massive industrial facilities, you name it you're going to see it.

Overall, if you live in an urban area, the situation may not be too bad, cities are somewhat walkable, there's public transportation that will usually get you fairly close to where you need to go, there may even be protected bike lanes, etc. although the situation will vary wildly from one city to another.

It will even vary from one part of the city to another. You can have large sections of the city where there's no real grocery stores or other places to get your basic necessities, and you're pretty much limited to whatever you can get from corner stores, bodegas, convenience stores, etc. (mostly pre-packaged and processed foods, and if you're lucky maybe a couple pieces of fresh fruit) and if you want anything more than that you're probably looking at taking a few hours out of your day to walk a significant distance to a store or take public transit that may not go exactly where you need it, may be slow, expensive, or just a pain in the ass to deal with, etc.

Getting out into the suburbs, it's again kind of a crapshoot. There are some walkable suburbs, with wonderful shopping options, there's some that are a maze of residential developments and gated communities that come off of major roads with no sidewalks or even shoulders worth speaking of and you're taking a significant gamble trying to walk anywhere from there. There may be little or no public transportation and if there is it may not be going anywhere you need to go, or be convenient to get onto

Personally, I live towards the rural end of the suburbs, about an hour or less from a major city depending on traffic.

Damn near everything I could ever want or need is within about a half hour drive, and most of I commonly need is covered within about 15 minutes.

If I don't have a car though, my options drop off significantly. I'm looking at an hour walk one way to get to a grocery store, mostly along a long winding road with little or no shoulder and few streetlights. The only things I would really feel safe to walk to are 2 pizza shops, a small hardware store, a bar, a CVS, and gas station/convenience store, those last 2 are going to be about a half hour or longer walk, and along that winding road, but it's a stretch that at least has a half decent shoulder and some lawns to walk on for most of the way.

If you have a bike, there's a decent bike trail that will get you to some more shopping options, but it's about an hour's ride one way.

If you need to catch public transit, you'd have to walk about 2 hours to catch a bus, that line basically runs straight up and down a main road between the city and a larger, urban-ish town further out in the suburbs. There's not many options to transfer to anywhere else along the way but there's a lot along that route so if you can get to that bus most of your needs will be covered, but it doesn't run super frequently and it's not going to get you anywhere in a hurry.

Getting out into rural America, you have some small towns that are functionally self-contained, with their own grocery stores and other shopping options in-town within walking distance. Your options are limited but for the most part everything you really need is right there in town.

If you don't work in town though, and often people in these areas don't, they may be involved in farming, logging, oil/natural gas, construction, etc. and may work many miles from town, you're pretty much screwed if you don't have a car, or at least can count on carpooling with a coworker.

There's other small towns where there just isn't much of anything at all, maybe they have a gas station and a liquor store, and if you need anything else you're SOL, in some cases you may be looking at an hour or more drive to get to anything else so you can forget about walking.

Regardless of where/what kind of area you find yourself in, transportation between cities is often going to be an issue. You can probably catch a Greyhound bus or maybe Amtrak or similar between most major cities, though you may have to get a little creative with figuring out your route, but if you're trying to get to the smaller towns in between you may not have much luck.

There are, of course, nearly as many exceptions and special cases to everything I said as there are individual towns and cities.

Depends where you live.

In a city? 75% of everything I need is right across the street.

In a rural town? Before I moved to the city, I had to drive 30-45 miles away to do literally anything. There were busses, but they only came around once in the morning and once more in the evening. And they didn't always go where you wanted directly, so you'd have to spend like an entire day just to get to a place.

Nearest big landmark everyone might recognize is the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. And thats 78 miles away in a straight line.

Edit: To put things in terms non-Americans may understand better - We tend to measure distances not in the unit of distance, but in the time it takes to get somewhere. Assuming there is no traffic, the Golden Gate Bridge would only be an hour away taking the freeway. But that's never gonna happen; the traffic through the Altamonte Pass alone is gonna add 1-2 hours depending on the time of day.

At my current job, I’m about 45 minutes away by car. Car is also the only option. Before I moved closer, I was actually an hour and a half away, so 90 minutes one way, or 3 hours per day worth of driving.

It’s too expensive to live in the cities themselves, so I have to live further out and just commute.

Closest wal-mart is about 30 minutes away, but there’s smaller stores closer if I dont’t need much.

I haven’t mentioned walking/biking because there’s no point in walking where I live. There’s next to no shoulder on the road, and it’s 45MPH (72KPH) roads with mostly large pickup trucks driving on it, so it’s not safe to walk.

For reference, I live in the American south, so it’s somewhat rural.

The big thing to know is that things spread out as you go from East to West.

On the East Coast, New England area, everything is pretty tightly packed. On the West Coast? Not so much.

When I was living in Eugene, Oregon, I had family visit from Sweden, so we asked them what they wanted to do.

"We want to go to Disneyland!"

OK, not saying we CAN'T, but it's 13 hours in the car assuming no traffic.

I want to add that in many places in the US it is not just the distance, but the danger and outright discouragement of walking somewhere. For example, I contemplated using a train to get to Lego Land in California from Oceanside, California. After getting off of the train I would have to walk 1.3 miles, which is only a minor inconvenience. However, after reviewing the walking route google has this qualifier: "Use caution - may involve errors or sections not suited for walking". This prompted me to review the walk using street view and I came to the conclusion that there was not a safe route.

This is just one example of something that I think should specifically be available. There are many places where walking is encouraged and convenient, but it is by no means universal.

I’ll just use the same criteria you gave as an example.

• To the nearest convenience store: 1.5mi (2.6km)
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 1.8mi (2.9km)
• To the bus stop: 0.5mi (800m)
• To the nearest park: 0.3mi (480m) - I’m lucky to have several parks in my neighborhood
• To the nearest big supermarket: 2.1mi (3.4km)
• To the nearest library: 2.2mi (3.5km)
• To the nearest train station: 5.1mi (8.2km)

Edit: I live in a mid-size city (300k) on the east coast.

Off topic, but after I moved halfway across the US, I wondered what that same distance would be driving across Europe.

I moved from the NW corner of Washington state to about the middle of Iowa, roughly 2000 miles or 3200 Km (roughly, I said)

Its looks to be the same as going from Lisbon to roughly halfway in between Berlin and Warsaw, using google maps to follow roadways.

I can't imagine all of the different cultures you would see traveling most of the way through Europe, and most of what I saw on my trip through the States was empty dead grass fields, farmland, a couple dead deer, and a ton of truckers.

Everything around me is a 30 minute drive... except the mailbox, that's just a 5 minute walk.

At this point I just want Japan to realize that not every American lives in walking distance of Los Angeles and NYC, and none of us live in walking distance of both at once.

Seriously, stop basing your marketing strategies around "Major US Cities Only!"

The nearest "Major US" City to me is like a day's drive, and I mean literally you don't stop driving for an entire day.

Let's start with infrastructure.

Buses/metro/any public transit, barriered or not, sparsely or rarely exist. Even painted bike paths/walking paths, these usually exist ONLY in dense or older urban areas. You have either 1-1.5m wide sidewalk elevated 10cm or nothing separating you on foot from car traffic.

So that 250m is often on the shoulder of car lanes.

Now let's talk property liability. You are responsible for injuries others sustain while on your property unless you have clearly posted signage expressing they were not allowed on your property. Even then and at best you'll have to disrupt 6mo of your life tied up in courts+fees. (No right to roam. You do get the "perk" of open manhunting season on trespassers)

So that shortcut through the neighborhood where your neighbor laid out gravel because they care about community? Nope, that's cyclone fence or cinder block wall. That alley between flats? Gated off.

It's not even scale that's the problem. You ALWAYS have to go around the ENTIRE block. A 250m Crow flight can easily be and most often is 1+km by foot, and only ever with a curb as your protection from traffic. You can't safely get to geographically nearby places without putting yourself in mortal danger.

Also note European road design limits traffic in residential areas where the US grid system means every road is a main road and wide enough to promote excessive speeding.

Source: anecdotal/American living in EU

I live in suburban Kansas City and these are the distances to the things you mentioned -

• Convenience store - 1.2 miles (1.9km)
• Chain supermarket - 2.8 miles (4.5km)
• Bus stop - 1.2 miles (1.9km)
• Park - .4 miles (650m)
• Big supermarket - 5.5 miles (8.8km)
• Library - 1.9 miles (3km)
• Train station - 7.4 miles (11km) (trains are not really a viable transport option here)
• Airport - 29.1 miles (46.8km)

The closest publicly accessible business to me is a fast food restaurant about a mile away.

Basically if I need anything, it's a 30 minute walk one way to get there. It just isn't really viable as a regular thing to spend an hour walking to get to/from a convenience store, or 2 hours for a grocery store. Instead, I spend 10-20 minutes in my car for those errands, and save the extra time for walking my dog (since he couldn't go into any of the places mentioned above either, so his walks would have to be in addition anyway.)

I live in the residential area within the limits of a large US city.

To the nearest convenience store: 0.9 km
To the nearest chain supermarket: 2.6 km
To the bus stop: 0.3 km
To the nearest park: 0.8 km
To the nearest big supermarket: 3.1 km
To the nearest library: 2.7 km
To the nearest train station: 2.9 km

And I'd argue that these numbers are remarkably good for people in my situation as well.

On the west coast, it can take 8 (EDITED) hours to drive from the capital of oregon to the capital of california. Likewise, it takes about 14 to 16 to get from oregon to montana. It can take 4 to 6 hours to get from the southern oregon border to the northern.

Where I live, i can walk to a little convenience store in about 10 minutes, but the nearest supermarket would be an hour walk away (10-15 minutes by car). If i were to move 10 miles in any direction, i may not have a convenience store around.

Distance isn't the only factor to consider. The infrastructure is also very important for determining if a short distance is walkable.

This YouTube channel has lots of great info on the topic https://youtube.com/notjustbikes and this video in particular demonstrations that not even all short distances are necessarily walkable in the US https://youtu.be/uxykI30fS54 @ 4:30 he begins to show a 800m walk in Houston from his hotel to a store.

Here, let me show you.

To be fair, you live in a large city. Cities here in the states also have many points of interest close by. In the suburbs, places are more spread out, same as they would be in the UK. It's all about location.

I've personally lived in places where the closest convenience store was 2.25 km, and the grocery store was nearly 18km, as well as places where a convenience store was literally a part of my building, and grocery stores were walkable distances.

The U.S. is enormous and varied. Take a look at truesizeof and compare the U.S. and Europe (don't forget to add Alaska and Hawaii - they won't be included in the contiguous states). Consider how different London is from rural Romania.

I live in a suburb in the U.S.

• To the nearest convenience store: 322m
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 2.4km
• To the bus stop: 2.6km
• To the nearest park: 5.5km
• To the nearest big supermarket: 6.1km
• To the nearest library: 7.7km
• To the nearest train station: N/A

Notes:

• The "convenience store" in my example is a gas station, technically you can buy lottery tickets, candy, cigarettes, beer, and a few things like that - but very limited inventory, it's mostly for people buying gas. It's also very unusual to have a gas station like this located basically in a suburban area, most places you would have to go much further to find one.
• no sidewalks or safe passage, you walk on a dangerous road with ditches on either side to get to the convenience store.
• the only public transit is a bus, it is used only by poor people, and it doesn't cover the west half of the city (for example I was unable to use public transit to go to school)

I have run to the park before despite being far away, but I think most people would (rightfully) think I was suicidal for doing so. A lot of the way to the park requires walking on dangerous streets where people drive fast around blind curves and where there is little to no shoulders to squeeze by if there are cars, most of the way has no sidewalks, and I have to cross busy roads where drivers are going 80+kmh.

Owning a car here is considered a part of being an adult, people without a car are seen as childish or immature, and usually suspected of being drunks who have lost their license due to DUIs or felons who cannot have a driving license and aren't allowed to leave the state. It is assumed everyone drives everywhere, alternatives are unthinkable to most people here.

I live in Jersey (New). As a background, I'm at the edge of civilization, I like to joke. If you go west of me, there's farms, what we call mountains, hiking, all that kinda stuff. To the east of me, it gets more and more urban until you get to NYC.

Here are my walking distances:

• To the nearest convenience store: half a mile
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 1 mile
• To the bus stop: half a mile
• To the nearest park: quarter mile
• To the nearest big supermarket: 1 mile (same as above)
• To the nearest library: I am 1 mile from two different libraries, pretty much smack in the middle.
• To the nearest train station: 1 mile

Adding:

• To the nearest mall: 1 mile
• To the nearest gym: quarter mile
• To the nearest hospital: 1.1 miles
• To the nearest ice cream parlor: .9 miles
• To the nearest record store: .9 miles
• To the nearest arcade: .9 miles

Straight-line distance to Big Ben: Just shy of 3500 miles. Straight-line distance to the Statue of Liberty: 30 miles

I'm in the uk too but I'm out in the northern countryside, just to get to the village newsagents is a 15-20 minute walk and it's about 12 miles to the nearest supermarket. Even in the UK there are places where you have to drive to almost everywhere.

It depends on where you live. I have multiple stores around me I walk to all the time, and it takes 20 minutes to drive through the city with no traffic.

But I've also lived where you absolutely need a car because everything is so spread out just going to the store would be 15 minutes in a car.

The US is pretty big man and things are different in different regions. England is only as big as Alabama.

In the cities you can walk to places or take much more limited public transportation.

Every one outside of the city has a car though. Drive through banks, fast food, pharmacies, and even liquor stores are a real thing.

My commute to work is ~40 minute drive and some of that is at 129 kph.

I rarely walk anywhere for anything besides pleasure. There is a restaurant within ~10 minutes walk but most roads don't even have sidewalks here and people don't always pay attention while driving

Where I grew up the closest neighbor was about 2km away, nearest town was 25k, nearest town with a decent grocery store was around 40km, and the nearest "city" was damn near 100km.

An interesting data point in this discussion is to look at the list of countries in order of population density and see just how far down the list the US is.

We have a lot of people, some big cities, some major institutions, and a huge economy, but we also have a LOT of space.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density

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

I could easily walk to a grocery store in 10 minutes; however, there’s no sidewalks, no streetlights if it was dark, and I’d have to cross a road with a speed limit of 55mph. On the way I’d pass a gun store, so maybe I could pick one up and pop off a couple rounds into the air to make a temporary crosswalk.

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

The East Coast can be as dense as Europe, because that built up quickly before cars were a rhing. People in cities can walk everywhere, and driving is slower due to traffic

The hills stayed rural and can take forever.

Midwest is the stereotypical America you have to drive everywhere. If you try to walk somewhere in a small town, everyone is going to stop to offer a ride assuming your car broke down

The "fly over" states are giant agricultural farms with nothing in between them. Walking is impossible but you can likely get on a freeway/highway quickly and drive times may be similar to the Midwest, just less options

The west Coast is also densely populated, but happened after the popularity of cars and most cities are designed for cars not pedestrians.

Houston tx, sprawling urban hell. in a swamp. I'll only give a few

My most common doctors office: 16miles, 26 km My best friend: 30 miles, 50 km Bus stop: 2.5 km Grocery store: 6 miles, 10 km

Keep in mind this is a major metropolitan city with 4 million people, fairly hefty public transport, and is surrounded by other smaller cities. From center it's like 15-17 miles to the next edge. There's a smaller city inside of Houston called Bellaire lol.

I live pretty close to work, it’s about 15 miles (24 km). Grocery store is about 6 miles (9.6 km) from me. I consider anything within 2 miles (3.2 km) to be “right next door.” It’s not uncommon for me to travel over 100 miles (161 km) in a day. I consider When I want to visit my Sister it’s a 1120 mile (1802 km) journey. That happens a couple times a year. The crazy thing is that that’s less than halfway across the continental US. I have to travel from the Atlantic ocean all the way across the international date line in the Pacific to get across the US, and that doesn’t include our territories, just our states.

What I have found is a better comparison is the US and Europe. Think of the european country’s as us states and you start to get an idea of the scale. 44 countries vs 50 states, $24.22 trillion vs $28.65 trillion GDP, 10.2 million sq km vs 9.8 million sq km. They are very similar.

This is central Florida, on the east coast. The chain supermarket is Publix, the big supermarket is Walmart. Brightline is supposed to build a train station nearby, but they haven't started yet.

To the nearest convenience store: 1.9 km
To the nearest chain supermarket: 5.7 km
To the bus stop: 3.8 km
To the nearest park: 1.1 km
To the nearest big supermarket: 12.1 km
To the nearest library: 7.3 km
To the nearest train station: 75.5 km

Straight-line distance to Big Ben: 6,967 km

I live in Atlanta, in an intown neighborhood that was once considered a "streetcar suburb" although the streetcars have been gone for decades. For a neighborhood with single-family houses, this is about as good as it gets in terms of urbanism and walkability. (Basically, to do much better you'd have to live in a high-rise in Downtown or Midtown because we don't really have medium-density neighborhoods.)

Point is, my area is not representative of Metro Atlanta as a whole. Probably 90%+ of the metro area population would report distances at least double, if not an order of magnitude larger.

Walking distances:

• To the nearest gas station ("convenience store"): 0.7 miles (1.1 km)
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 1.2 miles (1.9 km)
• To the bus stop: 0.2 miles (320 m)
• To the nearest park: 0.9 miles (1.4 km)
• To the nearest big supermarket: 1.5 miles (2.4 km)
• To the nearest library: 0.7 miles (1.1 km)
• To the nearest MARTA station ("train station"): 1.9 miles (3 km) [Amtrak would be considerably further]

Straight-line distance to Capitol Building: about 3 miles (5 km).

Rural southern Georgia: 300m to the only gas station/convenience store in town. 10km to the nearest real supermarket, medical center, pharmacy, tiny library, dentist, and a couple of restaurants. 30km to the nearest big box store (Walmart). 100km to the nearest small regional airport. 120km to train station.

Here are my walking distances:

• To the nearest convenience store (gas station): 800m
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 1600m
• To the bus stop: 640m
• To the nearest park: 213m
• To the nearest *big* supermarket: 4.3km
• To the nearest library: 2.7km
• To the nearest train station: 1.4km

Straight-line distance to Big Ben: 5890km

I live in a suburban area of Columbus, Ohio.

• To the nearest convenience store: 1.5km
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 3.7km
• To the bus stop: 450m (this bus runs once per hour)
• To the nearest park: 1km
• To the nearest library: 5.5km
• To the nearest metro train station: 195km in Cleveland, Ohio (Columbus is the largest city in America by population that has no passenger rail service)
• To the nearest intercity train station (Amtrak): 162km in Sandusky, Ohio (This comes through once per day at around 3 or 4 am)

You also mention you can get somewhere within 10 minutes of walking. A lot of Americans will refuse to walk that far. For many people in the country and the suburbs, the bulk of the outdoor walking they do is to/from their cars and to get the mail.

It's hard for Europeans to understand, but nearly all American cities are built around the concept that everyone has their own car and drives everywhere to get around. Even things that are 5 minute walks, Americans will get in the car and drive to. Mass transit (again in most cities) is coded as "for poor people who can't afford a car", so it's always difficult to use and is much slower than having your own car.

To the nearest convenience store: 2.3mi / 3.7 km

To the nearest chain supermarket: 9mi / 14km (not actually a chain store, it's a small grocery in a small rural town)

To the bus stop: lol, I don't think any of the cities near me bother with that, nor would they be useful to me

To the nearest park: 5mi / 8km (lake, about a 5 minute drive)

To the nearest big supermarket: 14mi / 22km

To the nearest library: 9mi / 14km

To the nearest train station: 51mi / 82km (and this station doesn't service any location I couldn't get to faster than driving, even across country. Because AMTRAK is shit. I know because I've done it before)

This is in central CA, not far at all from the Capitol, Sacramento. For being the 5th biggest economy in the world our capitol is pathetic

One thing that deserves special note is the US, aside from being more spread out in general, has a lot more sprawling suburbs with downtown areas.....if you live near the downtown, then everything is walkable, but maybe 20% of a towns population in any given suburb will be that close, and thats a generous estimate.

As an American who has lived in the EU, walking / biking like you can do there just plain is not possible for MOST of the US. As other have mentioned, if you live in a major city, or in the center of a suburb, then it may not be so bad.

On a similar note, this sprawl is the same reason that public transport on the EUs level isnt viable in the US....there would need to be too many stops and too many routes to get decent coverage, and when you math it out, having cars is the most economical decision for most of the country.

I can count on a 20+min drive to get most places close to me in a large city. Not that everything is that far, but traffic can be slow.

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

I can probably offer some insight, as my in-laws live in Wimbledon, some of my family live both near and far from DC/Baltimore, and I live in the Netherlands.

My London experience is on par to yours. Everything is walking distance and the things that aren't are accessible by public transit fairly easily.

The Netherlands imo is even better planned and connected than the UK. The convenience store is around the corner from my townhouse. Two large chain supermarkets are just a 3 or 7 minute walk depending on which is preferred (the 7-min one is pricier but better selection) and there are more a few more minutes walking. The bus stop is 3 min away, train is a 10 minute walk. Parks and bike lanes all around.

DC is also very walkable and similar to London. Bike lanes. Everything is accessible and public transit is pretty good. Lots of convenience stores, small grocers, and even some larger chains. A few metro lines even go far out to the suburbs. I like the building height limit, which makes the city feel more open. Rock Creek Park is massive and you feel like you're in the forest.

Once you get to the suburbs there may be a convenience store a 10-20 minute walk away, or a grocer if you're lucky, but generally this is when you'll be needing a car, as public transit becomes scant. Many Americans are walking averse; my husband and I are the odd couple that parks at the back of the lot when visiting Costco instead of spending half an hour hoping to get a spot by the doors. Most stores will be in plazas or strip malls.

My father lives out in the country. He loves having acres and acres of no one around. His house is an island. There's one 7-11 in his tiny village. He's lucky it's a 5 minute walk from his house. If I want to get groceries when visiting, the nearest store is 8 miles away (a leisurely 4 hour walk; 10 minute drive). Oftentimes there are no sidewalks; mostly long stretches of road with big shoulders. I don't think there's public transit there; I've never seen a bus. There are farms everywhere so parks need to be driven to, however, they are pretty big with lots of room for activities.

It's likely not too different from comparing London to Dartmoor. Much of it depends on where you are (population density). Some areas have great public transit and access to services, others don't.

Rural American here. We drive 30 mins to the nearest bigish city to do all of our grocery shopping every weekend.

Here are my walking distances:

• To the nearest convenience store: 1700m
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 1700m
• To the bus stop: 640m
• To the nearest park: 800m
• To the nearest big supermarket: 1.7km
• To the nearest library: 3.1km
• To the nearest train station: 35.4km

Straight-line distance to Big Ben: 7514km

Kept all the units identical to yours for ease of comparison

It kinda depends on where you live. I live in the suburbs near a few large metropolitan areas and I do have a supermarket within a 10 minute walk of me, and a bigger supermarket a 30 min walk away, but there are definitely places where you need a car to go shopping cuz theres no sidewalks or all the roads are like 45mph+ and really only designed for car transit.

I've got family who live in Texas and they say that there's lots of places that are drive thru, like banks and dry cleaners and stuff.

I had a coworker at one of my previous jobs transfer to our US branch from the UK and he said that a lot of his friends were asking him if he was gonna visit Disney World, since he was moving to "just outside of New York City" (read: Pennsylvania, lmao) He said a lot of them were shocked to realize that its like an 18 hour drive from NYC to Disney World in Florida.

Another thing about that job, there was no realistic way for me to get to it by public transit. It was a half an hour drive, but about 3 hours of combined public transit + walking and needed me to take two trains and a bus.

I moved from a UK city to a town on the edge of Dallas.

There was a crossroads with a strip mall. grocery store, dentist, food places etc, about 15 minutes away, but it was often too hot to walk. Anywhere beyond that was too far to walk.

Everything was so spaced out there. All the shops were surrounded by big parking lots. It was hard to even perceive that I was on a street with shops, at first, because everything was so far away from the road.

Now I live in a quiet street in suburb of LA. There's a main street about 10 minutes away. So within 20 minutes walk I can visit restaurants, grocery stores, etc. Even a British supplies store to get real chocolate. Bus stops, library, doctors, dentist, opthalmologist, and a hospital, too.

But if I want a big department store, I'm driving 15 to 30 minutes.

The broader LA area doesn't really have a center, just clusters of shops and malls at bigger crossroads. It seems endless. I could drive 50 miles to Newport Beach for vacation and never be outside a city.

To give some comparison, here are my distances. Important to note that I intentionally moved somewhere in my town with walkability in mind.

To the nearest convenience store: 280m
To the nearest chain supermarket: 1.7km
To the bus stop: 260m
To the nearest park: 240m
To the nearest big supermarket: 2.4km
To the nearest library: 1.2km
To the nearest train station: 85km

Access to a bus stop doesn’t really matter either as it usually is faster to walk than to wait for the bus to arrive, unless it is long distance in which I would just drive.

Library: 5 or so miles

Convenience store: 1mi

Supermarket: .75mi

Bus stop: .25mi*

Train station: 20-30mi

Park: 2mi

*This stop may be commuter times only .. the stop exists but I never see the buses. Next closest is at supermarket.

I've been more in-city and the only thing nearby by a gas station. Everything else was 1mi+... Nearest supermarket being 6-7mi.

Distances in North America tend to be measured in hours of driving at highway speeds (usually 65mph/105kmh, but sometimes extra time added going through cities). Houston, Texas for example you can get from one edge of town to the other in an hour, plus up to an extra hour in traffic. The transit options in every metro area are different. The only thing is that people in suburbia are in the middle of a maze that would take 25 minutes on foot to get out of to the nearest convenience store (corner shop). A habit of going every other day for light shopping trips on the way from work is less common and often limited to retirees and non-working parents. What's more common is doing a large cartful of shopping from every week to even once a month, and fitting it all in your monster SUV or pickup truck.

That said lifestyles can vary across the US, suburban vs rural, like New York, Boston, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles will each have their own characteristics with how far things are, how far they feel and, how developed transit is. Between cities, transit is rather disconnected without a car, you have minimal and inconvenient coach bus services and trains that might show up 3 times a week.

The US is a huge place with lots and lots of different types of communities. From my understanding, some of the older cities on the east coast may have old town walking districts that are probably more like what you’re used to.

I will give you a personal example. I live in Silicon Valley, not in San Francisco or Oakland but rather in what some might call a suburb of those cities, though my “town” has over 80k residents. I live in an area of my city that was once unincorporated and is about two miles from the old town city center. The closest grocery store is 0.7mi from me according to Google maps, and it’s a small family-owned grocer that I’m super happy to have. The larger supermarket is a mile and it’s down a large stroad.

It takes me about 45 minutes to drive to SF with no traffic. If I want to go to Los Angeles, it’s a six hour drive minimum without traffic going 80mph.

In a suburb of Boston, my distances would be very similar to OP, except the bus stop is much closer and I don’t have that nearby chain grocery.

But my brothers are all about 10h drive (my visit this summer was over 1,200 miles round trip) and my mom is 14h drive

America is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to America.

2.2 Km to nearest chemist / convenience store.

I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. My neighborhood isn't the best for walkability -- there are definitely better areas in this city in that respect.

To the nearest convenience store: 1.5km To the nearest chain supermarket: 1.9km To the bus stop: 140m To the nearest park: 480m To the nearest big supermarket: 5.8km To the nearest library: 1.9km To the nearest train station: 800m

Straight-line distance to Big Ben: 6450km

Oh boy. I used to live in Houston, TX, a city notorious for being car-dependent...

I will present three sets of numbers. First is where I first moved to in Houston, in a supposedly highly coveted, super walkable area home to mostly medical students... Second is the place I lived before I moved out (and I used to boast to people how accessible the place was, by US standards). Third is in Chicago, close to city center ("The Loop").

And FYI I only lived in places that would be considered to be within the city, so these might be as small as they can get...

• To the nearest convenience store: 900m | 750m | 170m
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 700m(used to be 4.2km) | 450m | 220m
• To the bus stop: 160m(never seen anyone there though) | 350m | 71m
• To the nearest park: 950m | 1.5km | 1.6km
• To the nearest big supermarket: 700m(used to be 4.2km) | 450m | 450m
• To the nearest library: 1.2km | 450m | 1.0km
• To the nearest train station: 7.0km | 3.8km | 2.5km

Fun story about the first location! Everything seems so walkable on paper (close to park, close to highway), until you realize that there was no fucking supermarket anywhere within walking distance... H-E-B only opened a store closeby after I moved there. However, even the super-close grocery store is across the highway and I almost never see any sane people walk there so... For parks I am only counting ones that are good enough to be tourist-worthy, otherwise the latter two locations have pretty easy access to lots of green space

And if you are asking about public transit that are not bus/train: respective distances are 1.4km | 1.0km | 280m. The last number in this series is basically how I chose where to live...

It depends what region your in.

City: depends where you live, i.e. how close to "downtown" you are. A lot of stuff is walking distance, but not everything. You could walk to school and get some basic food or a pharmacy. Probably need a car/bus for work or larger grocery trips.

Suberbs/town, you might be able to walk to convince store or to school/library, everything else is going to be a car or about a 30min walk. That being said, sometimes you're "deep" in the suberb and the nearest convince store is a 20-40 min walk.

Rual/farm: you need a a car to visit your neighbors. Nearest grocrey is a 30 min drive away.

Based on the small town where I grew up:

• convenience store: 2km
• nearest chain/big supermarket: 5km
• bus stop: what bus?
• park: 10km (but there are hiking trails within 1km)
• train (metro) station: 5km
• library: 5km
• long distance train station: 20km
• my dad’s daily commute when I was growing up: 140km (that’s 140km each way, 5 days a week. 1200km of commuting each week. He did this with a combination of car, bike, and train. It took him about 3 hours each way.)

Note that a lot of the roads don’t have sidewalks so even if you want to walk it can be kinda dangerous depending on time of day.

Based on cities I’ve lived in:

• convenience store: 300m
• chain supermarket: 800m
• bus stop: 500m
• train (metro) station: 1km
• park: 1.5km
• library: 1.5km
• big supermarket: 2.5km
• long-distance train station: 2.7km
• my current commute: 3km

The cities tend to be a lot more walkable, but you still need to take the car or train to get to things like by the bigger (and cheaper) supermarket and other stores. The train is slow and unreliable (sometimes it’s faster to walk than take the train) so cars are much more popular.

• To the nearest convenience store: 1.3km (small supermarket)
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 2.25km (Trader Joe's)
• To the bus stop: 321m (busses 30 minutes apart)
• To the nearest (public) park: 1.1km
• To the nearest big supermarket: 2.89km (Safeway)
• To the nearest library: 1.3km
• To the nearest train station: 1.8km

Straight-line distance to Golden Gate Bridge: 11.6km

It isn't just that things are too far to walk, it's that American car companies have made it part of our culture to own and drive, and it's unpatriotic to do otherwise. That causes a severe lack of public transportation and sidewalks and bike lanes. So because of all this, I have to drive a mile through my neighborhood to get to a 7-Eleven that would be a quarter mile if I walked.

I'll chime in since I'm in Canada, which is sadly just US delayed by 20 years.

I can walk to a convenience store with high prices in about 5 minutes or 360 metres and little else. It's all residential beyond there until a 25 minute walk or greater and everything is spread out. The main shopping centres you might want to walk around are an hour walk away. To reach the store I actually shop at for reasonable prices, it's a 12 minute drive or a 7400 metre walk (a miserable one with spotty sidewalks)... just for fun, it's about 45m by bus BEST CASE but realistically you will take an hour unless you hit the exact right bus at the exact moment it pulls up.

I live in New York (city):

• Convince store: several within 1-2 blocks
• Grocery store: 1 block away
• Train station: 3 blocks away
• Park: less than a block
• Library: Very short train ride (4 stops) and a bit of walking (15 minutes) (there is a closer one but that requires a bus and considering New York traffic busses aren't the best).
• Statue of Liberty: Roughly 2 hours by train

• Nearest market: 600m
• Nearest big supermarket: 5.2km
• Nearest bus stop: 5km
• Nearest park: 1km
• Nearest library: 1.6km
• Nearest train station: 26km

Having a small market so close is a massive improvement from my previous address, where the only option was a big supermarket 3.9km away.

Distances seem about the same in my small US town.
No train.
Little further to Big Ben, i think.

I live in NYC. It's one of the few large places in the US that's dense and not completely car focused.

Convenience store: 5 minute walk to several

Supermarket: several within 10 minute walk

Pharmacy: several within 10 minutes on foot

Library: I think there's two within 10-15 minutes walking

Restaurants: several within 10 minutes on foot

Subway: about 5 minute walk. There's also a bus stop there.

Very large park: 15 minutes or so

I never want to live somewhere where I need a car again. Someone I was talking to at a party the other day was like "I love having my car it's so much freedom" and I'm like aside from needing to fuel, maintain, insure, and store it I guess.

I live in a walkable neighborhood in Richmond, Virginia. I have grocery stores in walking distance but usually drive to nicer ones for big hauls. I drive to the gym. I could bike there but there’s no bike lanes and steep hills. Everything else on your list is just a few blocks away.

I used Google maps to get these values. I'm using Google's estimated walking distance and will also include Google's estimated walking time.

• Convenience store
  • Distance: 800 m
  • Time: 11 minutes
• Chain supermarket
  • Distance: 1.1 km
  • Time: 15 minutes
• Bus stop
  • Distance: 230 m
  • Time: 3 minutes
• Park:
  • Distance: 450 m
  • Time: 7 minutes
• Big supermarket (Walmart)
  • Distance: 1.7 km
  • Time: 23 minutes
• Library
  • Distance: 2.7 km
  • Time: 37 minutes
• Train station (local light rail)
  • Distance: 3.1 km
  • Time: 43 minutes

I'm in Utah somewhere south of Salt Lake City (the state capitol). The numbers aren't great, but they're far better than some places I've lived here. As a kid, I remember biking for 20+ minutes to make it to a small supermarket.

EDIT: as others have said, my paths can be quite bendy at times, but it's different than many suburbs in the US. Salt Lake City (and, by extension, most of the valley that it's in) is built on a fairly rigorous grid system. We have lots of straight roads with large blocks (in some cases, it can be 1-2 km between lights and crosswalks). We don't have too many ratfucked suburban mazes, so the walkability problem here is primarily due to sprawl and a dearth of crosswalks.

I live in the suburbs of a decently sized but not super large city in WI.

• Convenience store: 120 m
• Chain supermarket: 2.6 km
• Bus stop: 5 m
• Park: 450 m
• Big supermarket: 3.1km
• Library: 1.5 km
• Train station: 58.9 km :(

Just to give the other side. I live in a big city in the US.

• Convenience store: .2 miles, 320 meters

• Chain supermarket: .5 miles, 800 meters

• Bus stop: 300 feet, 90 meters

• Park: 0.2 miles, 320 meters

• Big supermarket: 0.4 miles, 640 meters

• Library: 0.9 miles, 1.4 kilometers

• Train Station: 0.3 miles, 480 meters

Living in a small town in central North Carolina (answering these questions in units of city blocks that are ~150 meters long or in statute miles:

To the nearest convenience store: 4 blocks

To the nearest chain supermarket: 2 miles

To the bus stop: ~35 miles (It's a distance to the nearest town with a bus service)

To the nearest park: 8 or 9 blocks

To the nearest BIG supermarket: 2.5 miles. The "nearest chain supermarket" is a Food Lion; slightly farther down the road is a Wal-Mart and a Harris Teeter about the same distance away.

To the nearest library: 3 blocks

To the nearest train station: 4 blocks.

Straight-line distance to Big Ben: ~4000 miles. juuuust out of earshot. I don't recommend walking.

I live in rural Ohio and I drive about 40 miles (65 km) round trip a day just getting to and from work, and that's pretty average for a rural area.

The nearest grocery store and back is about a 15 mile (25 km) round trip.

In the rural areas, which account for most of the land area of the US, things are far enough apart that it makes it impossible to survive without a vehicle.

It is fucked here unless you own property already in the good parts or you are upper class income and can move your ass into the good parts despite the obsene costs.

Far.

I live in a semi rural area. My closest grocery store is 10km, but it's down the interstate, meaning even if I wanted to walk it, I couldn't. Without using the interstate it's about 15km.

My closest convenience store is only 7km, but the road i live on is not safe for walking (lots of blind curves, no sidewalks)

My nearest bus stop is 60 kilometers away, in my nearest city.

Nearest library is about 4 km past the convenience store, so 11ish klicks

Nearest train station is give or take 300 kilometers. We don't really have any train service here.

Straight line distance from me to big Ben, give or take 6,500 kilometers

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)

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

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

Nearest grocery store is a little over 3 miles. Libraries about four and a half miles. Nearest passenger train is about 200 miles away. I think there's a bus stop about half a mile away but I don't know if it's a full-service one.

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.

Depends.

If you live in a very rural area it can be more than an hour by car to some of these things, 50 miles or more, other items may not exist at all like public transportation. Inter-city public transportation is all but imposable for smaller locations, difficult and lengthy the greater the distance and size differential in locations.

I used to live in a metro area. Everything was within 10 minutes walk except medical care, but walking to the subway would get you to top tier medical facilities in about 15-20 minutes. Getting to nearby “bedroom” communities was also pretty easy thanks to a commuter rail.

I now live in a suburban area that has OK bus service but it’s not very convenient to where I live at all. Everything is within a 10 minute drive, and unfortunately a car is necessary due to the lack of sidewalks in many places. It does have light rail to a major metro area, about two hour’s ride, and then you can access the metro area major transportation network to all nearby areas and further away. Probably about as good as it gets in the US.

Nearest store of any kind - 1 mile

Full serve store - same

Library - .75 mile

Bus stop - 1.2 miles

Small park - .5 miles

Large park - 3 miles

Access to light rail - 4 miles

One of my high school girlfriends had to drive 45 minutes each way to school, and home. About 36 miles. She lived in the middle of nowhere near a state park.

Take a look at a population density map of the US. A lot of the places that don't light up are agricultural. If for some reason you have never seen a real farm before and always wanted to then by all means come on by, but we call them "flyover states" for a reason. All the cool tourist destinations are in the glowy bits.

I assume you were asking for tourist reasons anyway. If you were just asking for curiosity sake, it depends where you live. I live in the rural part of Illinois and it only takes 15 - 20 minutes to get to a supermarket by car, but walking there is completely out of the question. Especially with the hills. Oh God, my feet hurt just thinking about it.

At my parents' place, it's about 9 miles (~14km) to the nearest gas station/convenience store, which has super limited hours, or roughly a 15 minute drive. It's about 14 miles (~23km) to the nearest grocery store, or about a 20 minute drive.

I live in the suburbs of a major city, so the nearest stores from me are around a mile (1.6km) away. The nearest big supermarket is like 2 miles (3.2km) away.

Depends on the state. There are places where stores are 2+ hours away by car.

In my area, it falls into 2 categories-

1. Things are 20-30 min by car and are 20-30 miles away (highway)
2. Things are 20-30 min by car and are 3-5 miles away.

This is totally based on traffic and roads- I’m in the woods outside Washington DC, so while the density is high in the cities, I’m 15 min from literally everything minimum (by car). I couldn’t walk or bike to a store, I’m 30ish min from work combination highway and local roads.

If you live in a city, you might live literally on top of stores in the same building. Shopping centers with above condos and apartments are becoming a popular replacement for shopping malls in my area, but are very very expensive (often over $1million) for a townhouse in one of these shopping “communities”.

I buy nearly everything online and have it delivered, most stuff (groceries, goods, electronics, housewares, etc) come between 0-3 days.

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

Depends heavily where you live. Rural places can be an hour drive to the closest grocery store. For me, I live about 5 minute drive from stores and my work. But I cannot feasibly walk to where I want to go, there is zero sidewalks in my area and cars go at least 35 mph on the slow neighborhood roads and 50 mph on the busier main roads (less than 3 minute drive to get to either one). Bus and train infrastructure is basically non-existent so not an option. My only option is risk my life on a bike on the shoulder of the main road (since theres no bike lanes) and hope the weather isn't bad or I have to drive a car .

Here in London, using a car is pain and suffering with single-digit average speeds due to intense traffic jams

It varies wildly depending on where you go. I think the worst-case scenario in terms of car-built cities would be someplace like Phoenix, Arizona. Visiting that city, I gained an appreciation for what it must be like to have a physical handicap that affects your mobility, because being in Phoenix without a car is comparable to having a disability. You cannot go anywhere on your own two feet in any reasonable length of time. It's the kind of place where you need to find a Walmart to buy a loaf of bread. The closest thing to a corner store is going to be a gas station.

Things around me aren't that far per se, but you have to cross a 45mph road (where people regularly drive 55-60 because it's designed like a highway) along several sections of unconnected sidewalk if you want to get there without a car. The sidewalks are 4ft wide at most and have no separation from the car lanes so you have to walk with cars whizzing by just a couple feet from you. There's also no shade.

For reference - it takes 5 minutes to drive to the nearest grocery store 1 mile away, but walking it's 31 minutes with the unpleasant conditions I mentioned. So I've never walked there. I could bike and it would take 10 minutes, but biking along cars at 50mph doesn't sound fun. I also live on a bike path, but it doesn't go to the nearest grocery store so the nearest one along the bike path would take the same amount of time as if I walked to the nearest one (25 minutes). That one is 3.5 miles (11min) by car or a 1hr walk.

I live out west. Think of how far would be intolerable to walk in 45 degree heat and then add 30 minutes standing by the road, waiting for traffic lights to change, so you can attempt to cross without a crosswalk or a sidewalk, while you roast in the added heat from car exhaust.

Nearest convenience store is 200m Chain supermarket is 200m Bus stop is 150m Library is 50m Park is 500m Train station is 800m

NYC makes everything easy

I went to College about 65 miles west of Chicago (or about 1 hour driving). One weekend some friends decided to take a road trip to Maine so one friend could confess their love to someone. They left Friday after classes ended and drove nonstop, took one hour in Maine for the friend to get shot down, and then dove back. They didn't get back until late Sunday night. That's about 1300 miles and with a few bathroom/food stops 24 hours each way.

Highly dependent on where you live. Some places are very sparse, others are pretty dense.

My refrigerator is annoyingly far from my desk chair.

Depends on the place like everyone else has said.

• To the nearest convenience store: .3 mi
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 1.1 mi
• To the bus stop: .3 mi
• To the nearest park: .5 mi
• To the nearest big supermarket: 1.1 mi
• To the nearest library: .5 mi
• To the nearest train station: 30 mi

As you might note, the busier and more dense a city is, the closer things can be yet the longer it takes to get somewhere per unit of distance. Unless you walk. Sometimes you're out in the burbs and something's 10 miles away but it'll take you less than 10 mins to get there.

it takes half an hour to walk (one-way) to the nearest store

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I used to make the drive from Atlanta, Georgia to Washington, DC every year. This means driving through Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia. That drive takes about 9.5 hours.

I've also driven from Detroit, Michigan to Atlanta, Georgia. That is about a 14 hour drive if I recall correctly.

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

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.

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

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

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...)

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I live in an exurb - a small suburb that isn't really near a major city (for various values of the word "near"). I can be in DC or Baltimore within an hour, assuming traffic isn't too bad.

• Nearest convenience store: 8 km
• Nearest chain supermarket: 14.8 km
• Bus stop: hahahahahahahaha 8.6 km driving distance - it's actually much closer in a straight line distance, but there's a river in the way, so you have to loop up and around. I should note that bus stop is pretty near the far edge of service, so if I were, say, interested in taking the bus to the nearest DC Metro station, I'm going to be riding a while.
• Park: 3.7 km - Note, it's a wetlands park with a really nice trail and canoe launch on the river, not like swing sets or something like that.
• Big supermarket - same as above. We don't really have small markets here.
• Library: 15.6 km
• Train station: 25.3 km for the nearest DC Metro station. There's a commuter rail station 24 km away that would get you to DC or Baltimore and some points in between, from which you could hop on to Amtrak.

I will note that we chose this place, knowing exactly what it meant. We even talked about the fact that we wouldn't be able to run to a restaurant to grab lunch while teleworking, unlike our previous house. There are no restaurants that deliver out here. But it's extremely quiet, right on one of the county's most popular cycling routes, no HOA, and we have great neighbors. We love it here.

But really when we're talking about the country being large, we're talking about the fact that, say, Los Angeles is almost 4,300 km from here. And I'm not in the northeast US - Portland, Maine, in the northeast US, is another 860 km northeast of me. And Portland is in the southeast part of Maine...and LA isn't the southernmost point in California...

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.

Walking?

5 minutes to cafe for toast and coffee, or the closest corner store/gas station

10-15 minutes walk to the closet big grocery store, or pharmacy, better corner store/gas station, also to roller skating and bowling, a jewelry store, like 15 churches, lawyers, medical supply, doctor offices, a hospital, a bank, fast food and small independent restaurants, lots of stuff.

20-25 to work or to the good grocery

It's certainly not London!!! But if you are inside a mid-sized city there is stuff within easy walking distance, and more within short drive (5 minutes) My husband came from the suburbs and that's a different story - house farms ringed by roads too dangerous to cross, everyone drives everywhere. He used to think of "close" as anything a 15 minute drive or less! Not anymore.

83 miles from Disney World, that's probably the closest international landmark, lol. But maybe 4 miles from the beautiful Tampa Theater, which ought to be an international landmark.

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

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

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.

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

Bank: 24 miles / 38.6km Grocery store: 4 miles / 6.4 km Work: 50 miles / 70km Parents house: 703 miles / 1131 km

I need to move closer for work, but couldn't afford it do to dumb choices for a bit there.

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

I live in a newly developed area. The nearest convenience store to me is a ~10 minute drive. Also, since people only started living here a few years ago, the city has only just started paying attention to quality of life things like shade trees, so you'd be walking a good 45 minutes there and back in direct sunlight.

I fucking hate this country 🙃

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.

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

I love in a suburb of a Midwestern state capital.

Here are my walking distances: (I'll do my best to convert distances)

• To the nearest convenience store: 3.2km
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 4km
• To the bus stop: 2.75km
• To the nearest park: 1.5km (it's a pretty decent park with a swimming/fishing pond)
• To the nearest big supermarket: 12km
• To the nearest library: 2.4km
• To the nearest train station: 10km (this isn't a commuter line, but a long distance city to city line). This is also where intracity buses are boarded.
• To State Capitol: 13 km

Of all of these, only the walk to the Capitol is shorter than the drive (by about 1.5km) due to walking paths. I've never walked it all in one go, but I have walked both halves of the trail.

Depends on location, but I don’t think I’m too bad.

• To the nearest convenience store (more than that, really; a drug store and mini grocery store): 400m
• To the nearest chain supermarket: 2km
• To the bus stop: 100m (but the bus doesn’t go many places
• To the nearest park: 600m (a small park, a much larger one 2km away)
• To the nearest *big* supermarket: 6km
• To the nearest library: 2.5km
• To the nearest train station: 2km for local rail, like 25km for rare intercity trains

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.

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).

Small town in Oregon here (all measured along the routes walked, not 'as the crow flies'):

• Convenience Store: ~150 meters, right down the road
• Supermarket: Will get back to later
• Bus Stop: The local bus company runs a loop around town so there's technically one closer to my house than the convenience store, but the busses that can take you to another town stop at the one ~400 meters away.
• Park: Three parks, which are ~400, ~500, and ~580 meters away respectively, though there's not much of anything at the 400 meter one but some sports fields.
• Big Supermarket: Will get back to later
• Library: ~500 meters (the 500 meter park is right across from it)
• Train Station: 29 kilometers by car to the nearest passenger rail station I can find. Without a car I'd need to walk ~400 m to the bus stop, take a $1 bus ride with the local company to Town B, then take another bus ran by this town's company, and then walk another ~480 meters because they don't have a stop at the station. Google Maps predicts that trip will take about 1 hour 20 minutes one-way, and it would cost $2 (or $4 round trip).

Now, I'm not entirely sure what separates a supermarket from a "big supermarket" in your mind, because to me all supermarkets are quite big by definition, so I'm going to explore three different trip options: one each to two supermarkets in or near my town, and one to the nearest Walmart, which I'm 100% sure should count as a "big supermarket", but which is a couple towns away.

• Supermarket A is close enough that walking to it is a viable option, which would be ~730 meters to the edge of the parking lot or ~875 meters to the front of the store. Alternatively, if I can plan the scheduling of my trip around it or I'm not picky about the timing I can walk ~100 meters to the nearest stop in the city bus loop, wait a while, and walk of right at the front.

• Supermarket B is 2.6 kilometers by foot, but a large part of that trip is walking along the side of a lightly-developed highway with no sidewalks, so I don't consider walking here a viable option. By bus it's the same 100 meters to the bus stop, wait, then directly to the storefront.

• The nearest Walmart is ~25 kilometers away by car, but the local bus company doesn't offer a direct route to that town so I have to take a bus to Town C, take the Town C Bus Company's bus to the east edge of Town D, then take Town D's bus to the Walmart on the western edge. Google Maps says this would take just over 2 hours one-way, and it would cost $2 ($4 round trip) because Town D's busses are all free to ride at the moment.

The only measure on here that matters to most of the US is the Big Ben, and that is only our daily commute.

The US is big.

Meter measures are for rifle shots or bike rides. Maybe runs. It's not a real measure of travel for us.