Maybe half a mile. Farther than that and I take the bus. Or maybe even shorter than that!
Gone are the days 30 years ago, when I found it a pleasant three-mile walk to the Albuquerque airport to meet my then-girlfriend whenever she flew in. (We took a cab from there.)
When I lived in NYC I always walked when it was 30 minutes or less unless the weather was really bad. I grew up in the country, far from anything, but I always loved to walk and run. Now I’ll walk if I have the time. I’m looking forward to walking a lot more than I do now when I retire in a few years.
I walk to the bank instead of driving all the time, which is .9 miles away, so 1.8 round trip. The Dunkin Donjuts is 1.25 miles away, and I walk 4 miles all the time for exercise. All those are easily walkable. I’ve gone lots further, like from 88th Street to the East Village in New York, but they are more expeditions than things I’d do normally.
2Km (mile and a quarter) if weather and ground conditions are good (including decent walk paths).
When traveling in a walkable strange city I will stretch those distances considerably.
I just looked up my neighborhood at walkscore.com. They gave it a 0.
Interesting. I entered our address in that app, and got these ratings:
Walk score 74
Very Walkable. Most errands can be accomplished on foot.
Transit Score 50
Good Transit. Many nearby public transportation options.
Bike Score 97
Biker’s Paradise. Flat as a pancake, excellent bike lanes.
I love that site. Several of the Realtor sites autolink the info.
Our new place when we finally get it has a 61 walk, 50 Bike. Actually our bike score is lower than it should be. We have a bike trail nearby and paths along the bay.
Our old place was a 12 walk and 34 bike. Pretty bad.
Cool site. I got a 35 for my house. It says 46 minutes walking to downtown, but our town doesn’t really have a downtown, so I have no clue if it is accurate.
It’s interesting how having driving as an option affects the answers here. I noted that many responses were weather-dependent: if the weather is bad, you drive. If, like me, you have no car and cannot drive any longer, weather is not as much of a factor: necessity is. My options are usually walk or take 2-3 buses with a wait between each. The weather has to be pretty awful for me not to walk the 3+ miles each way to my dentist’s office or the 1.5 miles each way to my GP’s.
If driving were noemphasized textt an option, how would that affect your answer?
For me it’s not so much the distance but what condition I’ll be in when I get there. I walk 4-7 miles almost daily unless it’s very, very cold or very, very wet. But if I were to go to a business, I wouldn’t be willing to walk very far depending on the weather. This past July I would walk about 2 miles at lunch and arrive home drenched in sweat because it’s hot and humid here in Arkansas. I’m not willing to walk that same distance and show up drenched in sweat to pick up a few things from the grocery store.
And another thing to consider is how safe I feel crossing a busy highway. The answer is that I don’t feel very safe at all. So even if Walgreens is close enough for me to walk to I’m getting in my car because I don’t feel it’s safe to take the ankle express.
The apartment I moved out of earlier this year had all kinds of stuff within pretty easy walking distance. I could make it to the downtown pedestrian mall in 15-20 minutes. And the big cluster of places catering to the University of Virginia was about 25-30 minutes away, which I also considered very doable. The latter I might have decided was appropriate to drive to if not for the fact that hunting for parking annoys me to no end, plus my enduring inability to park parallel means I kind of have to hold out for a stretch of two or more spaces in a row.
It would be low on my list. If I had to walk more than a mile regularly I would do so but would not always enjoy it. My evaluation of the ease of the walk, whether or not I actually did end up walking, would depend on the other factors mentioned like the weather and walkability.
I guess it’s possible it could extend my range from 1/3 a mile to 1 1/3 mile but only under extremely optimal conditions. To take 3 random walks I’ve experienced that were 1 1/3 miles:
We used to walk that distance when we were living on a farm in upstate NY to a convenience store and if I still lived out in the country I wouldn’t even think of walking because there aren’t any sidewalks, there are hills, and it’s out in the country so it feels like a long distance even if it isn’t.
Currently the nearest supermarket to me in Florida is also 1 1/3 miles, and I only walk once or twice a year. If I didn’t have a car I would walk most of the time but wouldn’t like it, not only due to the weather, but because you have to cross a major street, and walk down that major street next to a lot of businesses that have heavy car traffic going in and out.
I walked from my hotel 1 1/3 miles to, and through, the City of London and that was fine, because there was little car and foot traffic and the sidewalks were broad so you could see your route ahead of you. If I had that exact path to work every day I’d probably walk it, but not so if I had to walk through a more touristy and/or tightly-built area where you had to watch for side road traffic, foot traffic, and road traffic.
For me the big problem with major streets in the traffic noise. Typical here (also SoFL) is 3 lanes each way, plus a bidirectional left turn lane in the middle, posted speed limit 45 and most cars going 55 to 60. With lots of cars except in the wee hours when I’m asleep.
The constant roar of the traffic is totally unsat. I’ll cross a big street at a light, then walk into the (thankfully gridded) neighborhood a block or two then walk down the quiet residential streets. I really don’t like walking more than a hundred yards along a major street, and less is better.
Despite that whine my address gets a walk score of 81, a transit score of 31, and a bike score of 80. There’s a bus stop within almost rock-throwing distance of my front door, but the bus service is very low-frequency.
That high walk score & bike score was a LOT of what led us to this address. The traffic noise was an unwelcome surprise we’d underestimated. The fact so many Floridiots like to take the mufflers off their motorcycles, pick-up trucks, and sports cars to attract extra attention to themselves doesn’t help. “I’m a selfish jerk; look at Meeee!” seems to be the motto for half my fellow citizens.
I’m with you. The scenery on busy streets is also less pleasant. I also don’t like crossing major intersections. I always wait for the Walk signal, but many motorists are in a rush and don’t pay attention. I’ve had near misses. One guy was convinced I was walking against the signal (I wasn’t.) and deliberately stopped just short of hitting me–twice–while screaming at me. A pedestrian who walked with a pronounced limp told me her knees had been shattered when she was hit while crossing with the Walk signal. The driver had been distracted.
Those blinking crosswalk signals are the scariest. You’d be surprised how many drivers ignore them.
I’ll walk farther to avoid those situations.
Back in the The Time Before COVID, and while I was still working a wonderful 100-year-old historic building near downtown, in nice weather I would regularly walk a mile to the downtown area, walk around, maybe shop a bit, and walk back on my lunch hour. So, usually two miles each time, three times a week. It was lovely. Over a year ago, my office moved into temporary space in one of the worst parts of town while our building is being retrofitted. Our security team told us very clearly not to walk anywhere except up and down the front of the building, because that’s where the security cameras had the best view.
Six months later, we are all working from home. I live more than five miles from town so now I walk the dog a couple of times a day in my five-acre pasture.
My house got a “3”
No wonder we never walk anywhere.
Most of my neighborhood doesn’t have sidewalks. Traffic is light and people walk along the side of the road.
My job is only 3 1/2 miles away. It would be a easy bike ride.
But, the main road to my neighborhood is 6 lanes with a 40 mph speed limit. Drivers routinely come through doing 50mph. People have been hit walking along the shoulder. It’s just too dangerous for me to bike to work.
I do occasionally walk down to the Exxon. Walking on the grass and avoiding the shoulder. It’s only two blocks down the main road.
In my neighborhood in DC, about a mile. In the before times, there wasn’t anything I needed that I couldn’t get within that one mile circle.
Sounds right to me.
Recently I walked 1.7 km (just over 20 minutes according to Google, and this is 1.05 miles), and it was long enough to be annoying, but I wasn’t breathing hard, sweating, or anything else. Annoying due to boredom (can’t read while walking… well, I can, but it would take longer and I run the risk of running into people, phone poles and getting hit by cars).
I’ve walked 5 km from work to home (3 miles) but only because the bus system was not working properly that day and the weather was nice. Google says this takes an hour, but it took me less time, so I guess I was force marching? (I thought that was 3 miles per hour anyway.)