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submitted 8 months ago by ajsadauskas@aus.social to c/fuck_cars@lemmy.ml

What can you get to within a 15-minute walk of your house?

A recent YouGov survey asked Americans what they think they should be able to get to within a 15-minute walk of their house.

Of these choices, I can currently walk to all of them from my apartment, aside from a university (no biggie, I'm not currently studying, although there is a Tafe within walking distance), a hospital, and a sports arena.

How many can you get to with a 15 minute walk from your house?

#fuckcars #walkability #urbanism #UrbanPlanning @fuck_cars #walking

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[-] Vash63@lemmy.world 169 points 8 months ago

Why are bars so low? Do Americans like having to use a car when drinking?

[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 169 points 8 months ago

Apparently it's important that they can walk to a petrol station though.

[-] Aviandelight@mander.xyz 45 points 8 months ago

American here, the gas station is our version of the local corner store. Most places you have to drive to get to it but where I live there is one right at the entrance to the neighborhood and lots of adults/kids do walk there. I would sorely miss it if it was gone.

[-] Blooper@lemmy.world 32 points 8 months ago

I agree with this, but also want to point out that gas stations are a poor substitute for a corner grocer or bodega. They are simply too large and require too much land for the function they are serving. Zoning rightfully mandates that they can't be on the bottom floor of a larger building due to the dangers posed by gasoline and they require lots of space for cars to park.

Essentially, we have forfeited a lot of valuable space to dispensing gasoline and significantly diminished the best features of corner stores by making them serve both functions. I would be curious to see what would happen if gas stations were forbidden from serving anything other than gas in high density areas. I would assume there would be much fewer of them, and each one would be optimized for efficiency to take up as little space as possible. We would also likely see the reemergence of neighborhood bodegas and corner grocers to fill the gap.

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[-] Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works 32 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Probably don’t want to live near drunks, or the piss and vomit that exists after a weekend.

[-] KSPAtlas@sopuli.xyz 29 points 8 months ago

Living near one, I don't have these issues

[-] calzone_gigante@lemmy.eco.br 20 points 8 months ago

That and the noise, bars can be pretty loud

[-] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 22 points 8 months ago

Tbf we're talking about within a 15 minute walk, not inside your building. There's a bar 5 minutes away from me and I can't hear the noise there unless I'm literally standing next to it.

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[-] hex_m_hell@slrpnk.net 13 points 8 months ago

If you ever drive through rural America, you'll usually at least see one or two crosses, often on telephone poles, on rural roads. People, often teenagers, die pretty regularly in rural America because of drunk driving.

Some people like it. Some people are just numb to it. It's just insane to expect people not to when bars are the only social space in a lot of these towns, and those bars are not accessible by anything but car. There is no such thing as a taxi for most of the US (space wise, not population wise).

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[-] TimWardCam@c.im 131 points 8 months ago

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars One thing you can get within a 15 minute walk of some US homes is arrested!

(My grandma went for a walk in a Miami suburb. The locals thought that someone walking (rather than driving) was obviously suspicious so they called the cops. Because my grandma was white and female and elderly, rather than black and male and young, they stopped to talk to her rather than just shooting her. They then spent several minutes trying to get her to admit that she was walking because her car had broken down - they just couldn't get it through their heads that she was walking because she wanted to walk.)

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[-] jeffhykin@lemm.ee 92 points 8 months ago

16% said "should not" to a grocery store? What?

I feel like there should be a separate question for the "I don't want anything near me" rural choice, since those might be making the rest of the responses misleading.

[-] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 46 points 8 months ago

They are probably carbarians whose only conception of a grocery store is a supermarket surrounded by a moat of parking. I wouldn't want one of those next to me either

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[-] tetris11@lemmy.ml 14 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Some people might genuinely prefer a humongous superstore, and the parking lot culture that comes with it.

In the UK, you see tons of "corner shops", which are just overpriced grocery stores where the owner pretends to be serving the community, but is actually putting his daughter through private school.

In contrast, the Sainsbury's down the road hires actual suffering locals who you know from high school, the parking lot is full of teens blasting music and worried parents teaching their children how to drive -- i.e. there is an actual community happening there.

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[-] aeharding@lemmy.world 82 points 8 months ago

How is bar so low?? Do people want drunk drivers? Because that’s how you get drunk drivers

[-] Urist@lemmy.ml 26 points 8 months ago

Public transportation checking in here

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[-] pseudo@jlai.lu 54 points 8 months ago

Who needs a gas station within walking distance? One need a gas station within 15-minutes driving.

[-] metaballism@slrpnk.net 17 points 8 months ago

They double as 24/7 corner stores, at least here in Europe, so it makes sense.

[-] blind3rdeye@lemm.ee 13 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Sure, but "grocery store" is already on the list - so I feel that's covered.

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[-] bleistift2@feddit.de 50 points 8 months ago

I wonder what the meaning of “should not” is in this survey. A restaurant “should not” be withing 15 minutes of my home, as in “I don’t want any restaurants near me” or is it “It’s not important enough to be in the local government’s target list”?

I don’t understand the red bars the way the question is phrased now. Why wouldn’t you want a park near you?

[-] Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone 47 points 8 months ago

If they used the phrase “15 minute neighborhood” during polling then a portion of the no’s are probably from people who have had it turned into a trigger word for them by conservative talk media.

[-] Zagorath@aussie.zone 25 points 8 months ago

Yeah that's what I'm assuming the 16% who don't even want a grocery store near them is. That sets your baseline.

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[-] menemen@lemmy.world 40 points 8 months ago

Gas station above elementary school?

[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 27 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

What's the point in being able to walk to a gas station anyway?

I don't think I've ever done that in the 30 years or so that I've visited them.

But don't walk to the bar. You definitely want to drive there.

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[-] HeavyDogFeet@lemmy.world 38 points 8 months ago

Why do you need a gas station in walking distance?

[-] merc@sh.itjust.works 16 points 8 months ago

I love that.

"Ok guys, picture a future city where everything you need is in walking distance. You can walk to the grocery store instead of driving. There's a park in your neighbourhood so whenever the weather's good you can be outside with your feet in the grass in just a few minutes. If you want to go out to eat, there are restaurants a short walk away. It's a nice, safe community where your kids can even walk to school on their own. Got it? Ok, in that kind of city, what kinds of things would you need to find a short walk away?"

"A Gas Station, for my Car, so I can Drive."

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[-] Lojcs@lemm.ee 37 points 8 months ago

Do the 32 percent not know what a bus stop is?? Why would you want a bus stop farther than 15 minutes away????

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[-] owsei@lemmy.world 34 points 8 months ago

Am I the only one impressed 16% of people dont want a grocery store nearby?

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[-] kagan@wandering.shop 32 points 8 months ago

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I'm kind of sad that "cafe", "bookstore", and "library" aren't even on this list at all. 😢

I would honestly have to do a web search to find out where the nearest elementary school, day care, and gas station are, but I'd be stunned if I didn't have those within 15 minutes. As it is, I do have everything else, including a university and a sports arena, and *two* malls. (I'm in between the Barclays Center and Long Island University in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, NYC.)

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[-] Jozav@lemmy.world 28 points 8 months ago

I do not understand why you would want to walk to a gas station.

[-] Numhold@feddit.de 18 points 8 months ago

Makes you wonder how many people actually understood the question.

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[-] ezterry@lemmy.zip 26 points 8 months ago

Im confused about (from the poll)

  • bar.. if this is not walkable you are promoting drunk driving. (even if its not your thing)
  • what do you need to walk to the gas station for? or is this being used also as a corner store?
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[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 26 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Pretty bizarre results. Park and bus stop should be 100.

University, hospital, mall, theatre, arena? Those are massive, you can't have one 15 minute walk from everywhere.

Now bars are the one commercial item that's easy to have around.

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[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 22 points 8 months ago

This poll shows a population not really taking the question seriously.

Why should a gas station be more accessible on foot than a local pub?

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[-] brohee@pouet.chapril.org 21 points 8 months ago

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I wonder why they included gas stations unless it's for their use as convenience store. Buying gas as a pedestrian is a very marginal use case...

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[-] Brendanjones@fosstodon.org 21 points 8 months ago

@ajsadauskas @urlyman @fuck_cars Why on earth would anyone answer ‘should not’ to a bus stop being within 15 mins? How are they thinking you get to the bus stop, by driving?!

Also, as a Dutchie, the amount of ‘should nots’ for a bar within 15 mins is killing me. I understand it, but it points to such a lack of imagination about what a city can look like. I have at least 20 bars within 15 mins walk of home and I’m not in the city centre 😄

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[-] mayo@lemmy.world 21 points 8 months ago

Missing a gym, physio, and doctors clinic.

[-] SuddenDownpour@sh.itjust.works 17 points 8 months ago

And a library

[-] obinice@lemmy.world 18 points 8 months ago

As someone in the UK, I already live within a 15 minute walk of most of these.

Is it really that bad over there? If you're not within a quick walk to the shops, or the doctors, or school, tram and bus stops, opticians, dentists, etc, how do you and the kids get anything done?

Who would intentionally move somewhere like that? The first thing we do when looking at moving to a new place is see what services are within walking distance, to get an idea for how worth it living there would be.

If you've got to walk 30+ minutes just to get to the shops? That's an arse ache you don't want.

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[-] PonyOfWar@pawb.social 18 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Mid-sized village (around 10k inhabitants) in Germany:

  • 4 grocery stores

  • 2 pharmacies

  • Bus stop (and train station)

  • 5 or so restaurants

  • Post office

  • Bank

  • Gas station

  • Elementary school

  • 2 Kindergartens

  • 2 barber shops

  • Bar

  • Sports field (calling it an arena would be a bit much)

Alas, no university or hospital, but I think for a village it's pretty good.

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[-] Nemo@midwest.social 18 points 8 months ago

I have everything but pharmacy, post office, cinema, and university. The pharmacy is within a 15-minute bike or bus, though.

What I feel is lacking is a hardware store. I really wish I had even a small hardware store close by. There used to be one.

Also missing from the list, but I have: a bakery, a swimming pool, and a coffeeshop.

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[-] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 17 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

I would say an urgent care or doctor's office is more important to have on this list than a hospital. If you really need the Emergency Room you're probably not walking. And even in the US, if you wind up being admitted to the hospital, insurance will usually pay for the ambulance. (They ought to pay for other vehicle transport, for broken bones and stuff as well, but they suck.)

I could get to most of them, the Hospital/University/Sports (all together) would take more like 30 minutes and involve getting over or under the 405. Which means that there's times of day it would be quicker than driving....

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[-] beecycling@romancelandia.club 17 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars There's a couple of weird things missing there I would definitely include, like a doctor's office, a library and a gym.

I'm in a city in the UK and a lot of those are in 15 minutes walk from me. Some, like a hospital, university, cinema, shopping mall and sports arena and I think a bank I'd have to go into the city centre for, but that's only about 30 minutes walk, 10 minutes on the bike, or a short bus or metro ride. I'm generally pretty lucky in my location.

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[-] pjrt@urbanists.social 15 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

@ajsadauskas @fuck_cars I can walk to all except university (1hr walk, or 15min bike ride) and sports center (1+ hr walk, 18min bike ride).

I don't get the gas station though. Why so many "should"s? Why would you need to walk to a gas station?

Unless ppl are considering "gas station" to mean "convenience store", which in a lot of America that's what they are.

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[-] billwashere@lemmy.world 14 points 8 months ago

A gas station?! How often do you walk to a gas station?

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this post was submitted on 18 Feb 2024
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