[TLDR version: If something is exactly 1/3 a mile from me, it is no problem or even a joy walking there depending on the weather and road situation, but above or below that it definitely is or isn’t a short distance.]
I still pay my rent by check and drop it into the office’s slot because I haven’t gotten around to getting a working account at my apartment’s website. I usually drive to the office, and a few months ago I wondered why I did that because it didn’t seem that far. But the fact that it was in the apartment campus is deceiving because it’s 1/3 of a mile to the office!
Which made me think that if it were 1/4 of a mile instead, I would walk there all the time. If it were extremely hot or raining, I might drive but it would feel silly.
Plus, not only is it often hot or raining heavily in Florida, there aren’t any sidewalks in the complex, and it is stressful to walk in the road even if the traffic is light and slow. Recently they put in mulch paths next to the roads, and once they got tamped down by time and feet they are slightly more comfortable to walk on than the grass. That may make the difference for walking for me in the future, because 1/3 of a mile is riiiiight at the breaking point for me.
There’s a small grocery store and a convenience store right outside the complex but I rarely walk there because it seems just slightly too far.
On the other side of the breaking point, I stayed at a hotel in London that was 1/3 a mile from a good grocery store and it felt great walking there because it had a sidewalk and the few streets you had to cross barely deserved the name. Whereas the closest Tube station was 1/4 a mile away but the most convenient one, which connected to more lines, was 1/2 a mile away. If I had to do that every day I would look forward to it but only in the morning as a refreshing way to start my day, not walking back, slightly uphill, after work.
back in my youth some 60-odd years ago i could walk 18 holes pulling a rolling cart pretty easy - now that I’m an old dinosaur (di-plod-a-cuss) a brisk 20 minute walk is easy enough using my walking-stick. Back before our big Blue Heeler passed we’d go 30 minutes easy, as he would pull me up hills (especially if he saw a cat).
I don’t know how to answer your question. It’s dependent on a zillion things. I like to walk; if the weather’s good and I have nothing else I have to be doing for the rest of the day, “I think I will walk to the Acme store” can become the ostensible purpose of a 35 mile walk. If it’s raining I don’t even like to make the dash across the lawn to get to the car. If I have some items ready for the stove but I can’t complete Recipe #3 without an extra block of sharp cheddar, a 10 minute walk is prohibitive, I’m dashing to the car and breaking speed limits.
We have a neighborhood auto shop almost exactly a mile away. When my wife and I drop off our vehicle for repair or routine maintenance we typically walk home instead of arranging a ride, unless the weather is terrible.
My auto shop is 2 miles away and, just because I am in Florida where the weather is rarely perfect, I usually walk back if it will take awhile but I don’t enjoy it. If it were just a mile away it would be no problem for something to do occasionally.
We live in the middle of nowhere. Although we walk in the woods for fun and to exercise our dogs, there isn’t a business within walking distance.
I do know a guy who lives on a road near us. He is my age (60s) and is single. He lives next door to his father, who is also single. They both enjoy walking, but they are both loners. They both walk nearly every day, the son walking south and his dad walking north. The son walks 5 miles into town, then home again. His dad walks about 4 miles, gets a water at a little store, then he heads home again.
There is a grocery store and shopping area with a few restaurants just over a 1 mile walk from home. We do that (or did that in the before times) occasionally, and sometimes with the dog if we are planning to eat outside. More often, a quick errand to that area for something will be by bicycle if it’s too nice out to drive.
Easily walkable, for me, is anything within a 15 to 20 minute walk. I’m a pretty fast walker (about 4 mph), so that means anything that’s within a mile or a bit more is “easily walkable” for me.
One of the few things I miss about living in Manhattan is walking everywhere. We wouldn’t think twice about a 30 minute walk to a restaurant. I remember conversations like “it’s 35 blocks, should we walk or take the subway?”
It’s a little complicated for me, because I mostly get around by bike, and “not too far to walk” overlaps with “far enough to bike”. That is, there are some distances at which walking is easy, but biking is even easier.
The most distant business I routinely walk to is the grocery store, 0.7 miles away. One of the schools I work at is 0.9 miles away, and that’s just over the line where I’ll usually bike there instead of walking (though I might occasionally still walk, depending on the weather). But if for some reason I’m not biking, twice that isn’t a big deal, and when walking is itself the point (like when I’m walking the dog), five miles isn’t a problem.
Actually, come to think of it, one other place I sometimes walk to is the nearest bike shop (because the reason I’m going there is that my bike is inoperable for some reason). That’s 2.0 miles away, and is a bit further than what I’d call an “easy” walk. So I guess that brackets my answer.
Walking. In Florida. Where the weather feels like Satan’s armpit on a good day… Nope, still not seeing it.
I walk 4-5 miles a day. But I do it in the early morning, and I’m deliberately not trying to meet other people during it. 7 months out of the year, I’m a sweaty mess at the end of it. In Houston, with the sidewalks (and lack thereof) and our drivers here? Not walking anywhere besides my carefully chosen routes. Or the golf course; I do walk there.
OTOH, I have walked from one end of the giant mall where I was parked, to another, versus getting back to the car and driving (and trying to conjure up parking) to the other end.
We regularly walk a bit more than a mile to restaurants, stores, ice cream shops near us. We walk much longer distances for exercise, but we have enough with 1.5 miles from us that we don’t have much need to go further.
Before I got a car I loved to walk, 5 to 10 miles didn’t bother me in the least. But at age 15 Grandma gave me money to buy a nice 10 speed. I actually preferred walking most of the time, but the clear advantage of the bike was speed. I got a job when I turned 16, working a late shift starting at 4 in the afternoon, and then realized the importance of speed, I could be much further from away from work and still get there on time with the bike.
