I put .5 to 1 mile, but it’s an average. In good weather I consider anything I can walk to in an hour or less walking distance (3½-4 miles). In the winter I don’t want to be more than half a block from some kind of shelter.
I walk just as much in winter as in summer - all you need is a good pair of boots and multiple layers. 
I drive to the gym, too, and it’s even less than a mile. But it’s a very unpleasant mile down a busy street with a narrow sidewalk that’s too close to the traffic. Or, if I walk out of the way to avoid that, then it’s more like two miles.
But also, on the way out of the gym it takes everything I’ve got left to get up the stairs from the locker room. I really wouldn’t have another couple of miles in me.
Since I started running, my walking distance threshold has gotten considerably longer. At least twice in the last couple weeks, I’ve walked to Walgreen’s near my house which is about 2.5 miles roundtrip. Not far at all really. I stopped driving there unless I’m in a hurry or will be carrying a lot.
Hey, where’s the good old “you left out”…?
Because you left out “depends”. In good weather (10C-35C), with decent sidewalks… over 1.5 miles; my idea of “a nice walk” is about 3h walking. Last winter in Scotland? The convenience store in the next building, and I went cursing all the way! In South Miami, with no sidewalks? I walked about 50 yards to the uni and maybe half a mile to the supermarket, but at low-traffic hours.
its 1 kilometer to my moms house. I walk that without much thought. It takes about 2-3 minutes tops. I generally dont get one song play on my MP3 player. I walk very fast.
The supermarket is 2.6 km away and thats about as far as I want to walk.
I’m fat and lazy and dont exercise much so these trips are sporadic.
I had a job a few years ago where I walked 10 km a day with stops every few feet and I could complete that circuit in about 3 hours(with a good deal of screwing around). The biggest delay was waiting to cross streets/waiting on traffic, and if I started early morning I could finish even faster.
I walk around 40 minutes to work and the same back every day (I’m 55 and not particularly fit). If it’s cold or raining I don suitable gear. If I’m carrying extra stuff or I’ll need to shop I put on a backpack. I get my exercise and my commute done in the same time package and when I get home my time is my own, and there are no gym fees or transport fares or car costs.
I would simply never choose to live where that wasn’t possible.
This.
I live 35 minutes’ walk from the city centre and about 40 from the train station (I walk fast - about 3.5-4mph). When the weather’s good and I don’t have a lot of stuff to carry then I choose to walk it. So for me up to 3 miles. But I do know that’s unusual.
Nah, its reasonable. Walking probably doesnt make you skinny, and endurance for a walk seems to have more to do with personality than size.
I would say 1 - 1.5 miles, in most circumstances. If it’s a lazy day and I’m not in a hurry, 3-4 miles is reasonable.
It was May 2005. Don’t remember the name of the stadium.
You must walk very very fast, cos 1k in 3 minutes is 20k/h (12.5 miles per hour). In my book, that’s running!
Put it this way - if I were buying a house, and the seller said that it was “walking distance” from a train station, and it turned out to be 1 mile from the station, I’d be a bit pissed off. I can and often do walk that kind of distance, but to me the phrase implies a 5 or 10 minute walk, which equates to somewhere between a quarter of a mile and half a mile. I don’t want to spend 40 minutes every day walking to and from the station. So for me, “walking distance” would be a maximum of about half a mile, or 800m.
Yipes. That’s a 4:50 minutes per mile pace. The men’s mile walking record is around 5:35.
Yeah, this. I can walk much longer distances, but I don’t want to, especially not carrying things.
Right now, I have extensor tendinitis in my right foot, and it’s not going to heal if I walk around on it a lot, so a couple blocks is my current limit before I head for my car.
I regularly walk 4 miles to my office and 5 to my dentist, but that is for the exercise and I don’t consider it “walking distance”. A mile, give or take, is the distance I usually wouldn’t consider not walking (unless the weather’s lousy). Even when I take the train to my office, it is still a half mile to the station and then a half mile to my office. And I always come home that way, so I get a couple miles doing it.
I’d have to agree with this. Walking can make you skinny, but it takes A LOT of walking. I would suggest that people who do walk a decent amount regularly are in better shape than those who don’t walk at all, but walking two miles a day isn’t going to get you in marathoner shape or anything. On the other hand, most people can go for a good walk regardless of the shape they’re in; it’s an excellent exercise for almost everyone.
The majority of people were underweight, within BMI or close to it.
Not seeing why its hard to reconcile.
Edit: Also this poll didnt ask how often people are doing the walking distance in question.
Otara
Good point. Now I NEED to know. I do walk VERY fast, faster than my sister runs.
I used google distance(with google maps) to lay out the course I walk and it is indeed 0.65 miles.
Maybe I better time it? But in my old job my boss used to get annoyed because I was seemingly done so fast. He drove around watching me a few times though.
Now I am inspired. I am going to go walk it and film the walk. Its kinda dark and I am curious how well my android phone will record. I think I’ll post the video if it looks ok.
I’m back. I was wrong, wrong wrong. It took me 9.5 minutes there and 10 back.
The video didnt turn out. It was all black with the occasional wiggly street light.