I’ve heard the legends of having to drive to literally everywhere (e.g. drive thru banks), but I have no clue how far apart things are.
I live in suburban London where you can get to a big supermarket in 10 minutes of walking, a train station in 20 minutes and convenience stores are everywhere. You can get anywhere with bus and train in a few hours.
Can someone help a clueless British lemmyposter know how far things are in the US?
EDIT
Here are my walking distances:
- To the nearest convenience store: 250m
- To the nearest chain supermarket: 350m
- To the bus stop: 310m
- To the nearest park: 400m
- To the nearest big supermarket: 1.3km
- To the nearest library: 1.2km
- To the nearest train station: 1km
Straight-line distance to Big Ben: 16km
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.