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
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.
Rural areas accont for most land in europe as well. East of the mississippi the us is overall similear density to europe - less dense but not by much.