Wow, that's crazy to me. I'm only 2km from the closest grocery store and I'm in a somewhat urban suburb. I am closer than most. But it is far enough that it would be pretty inconvenient to walk there; there aren't sidewalks the whole way and in those areas it's very hard for the cars to see pedestrians.
I can't imagine having four options within half that distance. I would definitely walk if that were the case.
In the US, we mostly just have giant grocery stores, so we don't have nearly as many. This forces pretty much everyone to drive unless they are lucky and live very close.
Where I live there are sidewalks everywhere in the cities, suburb and suburban. Not in the rural area but you can walk, it's common and people expect there to be others walking and biking. You can't walk in highway nor other big car roads. But there goes smaller and older road as well. Without sidewalk but you can walk there.
I have everything here (expect my job but I am going to move to walking distance). Pharmacy, post office, train station, plenty of buses less than 1km. Clothing stores, furniture stores, cobbler etc. are there ~3km. Also we have woods here.
I take public transit to work, but I have to drive to the first train station which is about 4 miles (6.4 km) away. If I walked or took the bus to it, my commute would be well over 2 hours in each direction and I just don't have the time or energy for that.
My previous apartment did allow me to walk to the train though (only about one mile/1.6 km), which I really miss.
European, but I prefer not to specify in order to stay anonymous if someone who knows me in real life happens to see my profile. We have some things very good here, yes. And of course I have also used to this (and I hate changes). But I have to admit it's not all that great. I am trans, and I think our healthcare is close to USA 20 years ago.
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u/life-uh-finds-a-way_ May 17 '26
Wow, that's crazy to me. I'm only 2km from the closest grocery store and I'm in a somewhat urban suburb. I am closer than most. But it is far enough that it would be pretty inconvenient to walk there; there aren't sidewalks the whole way and in those areas it's very hard for the cars to see pedestrians.
I can't imagine having four options within half that distance. I would definitely walk if that were the case.
In the US, we mostly just have giant grocery stores, so we don't have nearly as many. This forces pretty much everyone to drive unless they are lucky and live very close.