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.

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.

Middle West mixed city surrounded by suburbs area. The closest corner/convenience store is about a kilometer, full grocery was 3 kilometers but another opened about as far as the corner store. A sporting goods store, some clothes shops, a couple restaurants, movie theater, and fast food places within a 15 minute walk. If I moved into a house in a burb most of that wouldn’t be possible to be that close though because they basically zone the whole mile blocks for residential and school only instead of mixed commercial and residential.

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.

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

• 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

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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